To rehabilitate victims of trafficking, the Women Development and Child Welfare Department (WD&CW), in partnership with a local NGO Vasavya Mahila Mandali (VMM), is establishing a State Rescue and Protection Home at Vemavaram village of the Kothari Tadepalli panchayat in Vijayawada rural mandal of Krishna district.
“The new facility will be co-managed and co-funded by the government in partnership with the NGO and work for the rehabilitation of the victims. The victims will be given counselling and training that will help them join the mainstream and lead a life of dignity,” said Special Commissioner, WD&CW Department, H. Arun Kumar.
The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act of 1986 (ITPA) mandates that every State set up a Home where the trafficked victims get a fresh leash of life. “After bifurcation, Andhra Pradesh did not have this facility which is crucial for mainstreaming a very significant section of people,” said Mr. Arun Kumar. He said the inmates would be taken in on referrals by courts and the police department.
Joint Director of the department M. Sailaja said rescued women brought here would have a choice between education and vocational training courses. “The idea is to provide a livelihood and make them economically independent,” she said.
G. Rashmi of the VMM said to begin with, 50 inmates would be accommodated in the Home, located “in serene surroundings that will allow the peace the victims need to calm their strained nerves.”
The department will appoint a team of staff comprising a Superintendent, a warden (residential), four aayahs/caretakers, two cooks and a clerk-cum-accountant while the VMM, besides providing accommodation and basic amenities, will deploy its 11-member staff of a project coordinator, two social workers/counsellors, a clinical psychologist, part-time doctor and psychiatrist, a nurse, a life skill trainer, a livelihood trainer and two guards.
Prajwala, a Hyderabad-based NGO working for the rehabilitation of girls forced into flesh trade, would be the knowledge partner and lend its expertise in capacity-building among the inmates.
Cause for concern
Expressing concern over the rise in the trafficking menace, Mr. Arun Kumar said unlike in the past when the problem was confined to certain community, “today it cuts across all communities. We are mainly worried about girls and women forced into flesh trade”. Pointing to the fact that girls of Andhra Pradesh had been found in the red light areas of Goa, he said the problem was more in drought-induced poverty-stricken pockets of Chittoor and Anantapur districts besides some part of Guntur district. “It is a very complex problem but we are hopeful that we will be able to address it in an effective way through this new facility.”