Be bold and face the world, say trafficking survivors

Manisha, who was rescued as part of Swaraksha, NGO Prajwala’s anti-trafficking and rehabilitation campaign, asked young women to face the world boldly and tell their story.

Prajwala has rescued 18,500 trafficking victims so far. Of them, 112 were rescued during Swaraksha that took off in January 2016. Two Indian survivors of trafficking for sex trade — Manisha and Eti Mirza — spoke at the two-day South Asia Regional Conference on Preventing Human Trafficking which started here on Saturday.

Addressing a packed audience that comprised representatives from several states, including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha, Ms. Manisha said survivors should care for their own emotional and physical health.

Sharing her story, Ms. Eti said, “An elderly person lured me with the promise of employment and sold me to a brothel where I was locked up in a dark room and asked to attend to 10 customers a day. After being rescued, I always feared I would be trafficked again,” she said.

Prajwala, founded by Sunitha Krishnan, trains trafficking survivors to be self-sufficient. Survivors who attended the conference were all self-employed with many working as carpenters and book binders. Among those trafficked are illegal labourers, and women and children for sex work.

Stakeholders join

Multi-stakeholder convergence is the way ahead to combat human trafficking, said Chetan B. Sanghi, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Women and Child Development. The Ministry has drafted a bill on trafficking which looks at this approach positively, he added.

Civil servants of Ministries, including External Affairs and Home, were present at the conference. U.S. Consul General Katherine Hadda, who also attended the conference jointly organised by Prajwala and the US Consulate, pledged support to the initiative.

Ms. Krishnan asked other the governments of other states to emulate the collaboration model of fight against trafficking so that all departments concerned can work together to achieve better results.