Trafficking of women and children is one of the gravest organized crimes extending beyond the boundaries and jurisdictions. Our own country, India has been identified as a source, transit and destination point in the international circuit; large numbers of children are also trafficked within the country. It is the modern form of slavery which not only affects the life of a human being but also the entire society. The UNODC, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, defines Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Combating and preventing human trafficking requires a holistic approach by all stakeholders and integrated action on prevention, protection and prosecution. Keeping this philosophy into mind, a Consultation Workshop with Corporate Sector on Building Public Private Partnership to Combat Human Trafficking , supported by the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) was organized by ATSEC ,Bihar in collaboration with CII, Bihar at the Hotel Patliputra Ashoka, Patna on July 18, 2009. The dignitaries present on this occasion included Mr Vijendra Prasad Yadav, Honourable Minister, Industries , Govt of Bihar, Mr Ramdev Prasad, President, Child Labour Commission, Govt of Bihar, Mrs. Vidisha Pillai, programme coordinator, UNODC, Dr Mukhtarul Haque, the State Convenor, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Bihar, Mr Satyajit Singh , Chairman, CII, Bihar State Council and many senior bureaucrats. This workshop also saw representation from media and various other NGOs.
Mr Y K Gautam, State Convenor , ATSEC, Bihar gave the welcome speech and introduced the subject and also explained the purpose of the workshop i.e. to develop a think tank on what should be and would be the role of corporate sector on checking human trafficking. He further explained that this workshop will not merely be a one stop gap affair, but more than that it will be a continuous affair to strive to achieve the dream of developing human trafficking free Bihar.
Mr Ramdev Prasad, the chairman, Child Labour commission, Govt of Bihar, speaking on the role of state child labour commission said that corporates have two faces: one committed to the social welfare and another, deeply involved in human trafficking. They earn huge amount of money through this invidious crime. It has international dimension. Recently flood in Bihar exacerbated human trafficking in Bihar. There has been a spontaneous increase in human trafficking, in particular of the children from Saharsa, Supaul, Araria, Purnia, Madhepura, Katihar, Sitamarhi and other flood affected districts. It is not difficult to see the large number of traffickers luring away children from the flood prone villages, relief camps, bus stations, and railway stations in these districts- all in the name of providing relief from this flood. It is deeply embedded in hunger, poverty, hunger for money, deprivations, decline of moral values in society- reflected in TV, cinema, literature. Highlighting the grave position of Bihar in this organized crime of human trafficking, he stated that Bihar stands at fourth place after Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. However in order to combat it, the government of Bihar has initiated several encouraging programmes including many welfare schemes, encouragement of girl education through various programmes, implementing the right to education earnestly, migration of labour under check etc.
Ashok Kumar Gupta, IPS, ADGP, Building Construction, Govt of Bihar had led several rescue operations during his vibrant career. NGOs and ATSEC participated in capacity building programmes launched by the state government. This collaboration had brought several gainful results, he informed. Several real life problems have been faced by the NGOs in the past in terms of fund scarcity for rehabilitation programmes, imparting training and marketing the products manufactured by them. The corporate world has a big role to play here through fund mobilization, retail chains, imparting knowledge skills, prevention, SWOT analysis, police investigation, rehabilitation and training of rescued women. Corporate Social Responsibility has not found as prominence and acceptance in India as this concept has found in the western countries and the USA. He asked for generating awareness about the implications and hazards and finding out the common ways to successfully address the issues of corporate partnership with the Social sector. He endorsed the trusteeship council given by Gandhiji and found this concept very relevant here. The corporate social responsibility is not a new concept for our society; we just need to take this concept forward. In addition, we need to bring all the responsible parties on the common platform with renewed energy to combat the heinous crime of human trafficking.
A film prepared by UNODC, ONE LIFE, NO PRICE, was live cast. The data and figures which came out of the film were mind boggling. Several measures were suggested in the film to combat the menace of the child trafficking.
Mr Masood Hasan, Director, Department of Social welfare, termed human trafficking as the biggest organized crime in the world. The problem highlighted by him in combating this organized crime is that there is no separate law exclusively to address it. He laid emphasis on creating awareness in the society so that the vulnerable sections of the society could be careful to the traps laid by the perpetrators of this heinous crime. He urged the different stake holders to come on a common platform in this campaign against human trafficking. He elaborated on the draft prepared the ASTITVA, a programme built to fight human trafficking.
Mr Satyajit Singh, Chairman, CII, Bihar State Council, extending his full commitment to fight against human trafficking came out with some innovative ideas to identity the silent victims of it and the means to rehabilitate them. He put a pilot project before the audience present there where around 100 children would be picked from the dhabas along the highways from Hajipur to Raxaul. Working with the local NGOs, these identified children would be brought under the rehabilitation programme and would be provided with relevant education. He proposed that every industry would adopt at least 5 children and take them to the logical end. In the second half of the meeting, he elaborated further on his this concept.
Mrs. Bidisha Pillai, Programme Coordinator, UNODC, New Delhi, expressed her shock to see the deteriorating scenario and insensitivity prevalent where the fellow human beings are treated as products that are purchased, sold and marketed. Among the most heinous crimes spread in the world includes human trafficking after arms and drugs trade. Elaborating on the methodology adopted by the UNODC to combat this crime, she said that the UNODC works on 3 Ps: prevention, protection and prosecution. The agenda of the UNODC includes creating awareness and inseminating relevant information towards the nature of the crime and the very unsuspecting traps laid by the perpetrators of the crime. She informed about the strong presence of the NGO society particularly in South Asia and asked for better and stronger coordination among them to come on a common platform to fight human trafficking which is taking global form. We need to bring the NGO society, various ministries and representatives from the corporate world together to formulate a think-tank in the joint fight against human trafficking, she said. Lauding the strong presence in the workshop from the various sectors, she expressed gratitude to Mr Gautam for being an anchor in organizing this workshop. She elaborated on the various ways in which the corporate world can extend helping hand to the victims of this organized crime like adoption of the various shelter homes to rehabilitate them and providing employment linked training to match the market requirement and absorbing them into industries once the training is over.
Mr M N Mandal, National Convener, ATSEC, India highlighted the magnitude of the gravity of this organized crime and various unseen dimensions of it. In his words, several factors like poverty, the scarcity of the livelihood means etc make the developing nations among the most vulnerable to this crime. ATSEC, India, right now working in 26 states is aligned with 561 NGOs within the country and 6 more countries are about to join it, he informed the audience. It also receives help from many organizations like UNICEF, UNODC, Save the Children etc. He put some light on the relevant statistical data to highlight the gravity of the crime and the insensitivity prevalent. He informed that around 30 lakh children and women are involved in prostitution and human trafficking. More shocking was the revelation that around 40% children below 18 years of age and around 60% from SC/ST/Backward castes are deeply involved in this crime. To combat it successfully, the public partnership models evolving different stages in all the states is the need of hour today. He put light on one more unknown and insensitive aspect of it that in many cases, the parents themselves refuse to accept the rescued children in the name of social stigma and we need strict legislation to prevent this trend as there is nothing like home where these children can get the much needed emotional support. He emphasized on creating more awareness and sensitivity at the district level to ensure successful fight against human trafficking. He also asked for initiating dialogues with the judiciary to combat it.
At this point of the workshop, Mr Gautam interjected to inform the present audience about the helplines being established by the government in fight against human trafficking.
Next in the schedule was the inaugural speech by Mr Vijendra Prasad Yadav, Honourable Minister, Industries, Govt of Bihar. He brought forward the mismatch between East and West in terms of resources, economic as well as manpower, as one of the significant factors responsible for the legitimate form of migration and illegitimate human trafficking. He linked it with burgeoning population and simultaneous lack of economic opportunities. He brought another face of the corporate world forward which is involved in generation of huge money through the inhuman trade of human trafficking. He also emphasized on the problems of poor record keeping, lack of correct figures and no surveys conducted hitherto as catalyst to this burgeoning monster of human trafficking. Lack of education, employment opportunities are among the most important factors responsible for encouraging this trade in Bihar. He also emphasized on the role of civil society in awareness generation.
At this point, Dr Suman expressed Vote of thanks and the audience dispersed for lunch after the end of the first session.
At the beginning of the session after lunch, Mr Vyas jee, Principal Secretary, Labour, Government of Bihar made a power point presentation- National Policy on Child Labour. He elaborated on the state plan of action, elimination, release and rehabilitation of the child labour in Bihar. He informed the present audience that Bihar is the first state to get the cabinet government sanction to this plan. He held poverty, illiteracy, economic deprivation, abundance of cheap labour etc responsible for the prevalence of child labour in the state. He also termed child labour as the output of the socio-economic milieu. He put forward this point that as long as poverty persists in the state, it would be difficult to eliminate the problem of child labour from roots., still based on recommendation of the Gurupadswamy Committee, for the time being, child labour was removed from the hazardous industries(16 occupations and 65 processes have been declared hazardous). He highlighted the statistical data to show the problem of child labour in Bihar. Around 8.9% of the total child labour in the country belongs to Bihar. Lack of regular survey to find the correct estimates of child labour is one of the hindrances to tackle this problem successfully, he added.
Mr Prabhat Kumar, Save the Children, made a brief but powerful presentation to highlight the ailments related to children and the problem of human trafficking in Bihar. Bihar is the source, destination and the transit point in the trade of human trafficking. Porous border, household poverty, frequent floods, socio cultural beliefs related to child labour, lack of birth registration etc make Bihar more vulnerable to the curse of human trafficking. The bigger challenges posed to the state govt to combat it includes more proactive ness of the states, roles of the corporate world and addressing the issue of rehabilitation to the victims, he added.
Dr P M Nair, IPS, made a very positive strong and solution oriented approach to the problem of human trafficking. He emphasized on the ways the corporate worlds could be helpful in combating this crime and in rehabilitating the victims. Mr Nair has always been a strong presence in the fight against human trafficking and he has participated in several rescue operations, too. Laying down the significance of the public private partnership in this fight against human trafficking, he cited the example of a book, Best practices by NGOs on anti human trafficking, where out of 43 cases, 23 exemplify the public private partnership. He welcomed the creation of the think tank to combat this organized and laid simultaneous emphasis on the conversion of ideas into action. He cited the various facets of human trafficking in form of recruitment and trafficking for militancy as has been found in Chhattisgarh. He also cautioned the agencies involved in the rescue operations about protecting the identity of the rescued children and women to prevent unnecessary infiltration into their privacy by the media and society. He cited the example of Green Police in Kolkata to show the successful rehabilitation programme of the rescued women from the clutches of the perpetrators of this heinous crime. He also provided a very realistic idea of setting up residential schools away from the areas of habitation with the cooperation of the corporate world. He also emphasized on the other means how the corporate world could be instrumental in providing safety net to the vulnerable sections of the society to human trafficking. He also emphasized the role of corporate in providing employment oriented training to the rescued children and women and then absorbing them in works suited to the skills acquired by them.
Mr Krishnendu Datta, Principal, APEC , focusing on the garment industry, laid emphasis on Apparel Training and Design Centre which would provide short term training of 3-4 months to the children and women. This initiative would open the doors for gainful employment to them and for better livelihood. He said that with all probability, this centre would start from December, 2009 in the ground floor of Udyog Bhawan, Patna. In the initial phase, 2-3 batches comprising of 60-70 students would be started and later this centre would be shifted to the industrial area of Patna, he added.
Emphasizing on the past commitments of Tata Steel in the social service and Corporate Social Responsibility, Mrs. Pushpaji, Tata Steel, reinforced the commitment of the company to extend all the help to the NGOs to address the issue of human trafficking and rehabilitation of the victims. Similar words of commitment were extended by the representatives from other industries.
Before the end of the session for the day, discussion on the role of the stakeholders and the current market needs took place. The workshop ended on the high note with the corporate world promising all sorts of cooperation from it to combat this global fight against human trafficking. This workshop proved to be very successful as it highlighted problem of human trafficking with all sensitivity and reinforced the commitment of the corporate world in fight against it. It found the representation from various NGOs and industries.
