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Antitrafficking Project Aasara
Bangalore network
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Gang held for prostitution, extortion
16 Jun, 2007 l 0302 hrs ISTl
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
BANGALORE: Deepu earned at least Rs 25,000 daily. While his gang of women solicited customers, his gang, all men, robbed them. They ran this racket for three years as no victim lodged a complaint. Deepu's large team of women and men from across the state and Andhra Pradesh kept his prostitution and extortion business ticking over. One of the accused, Girish, even has a Master's degree in social work. However, Deepu and his 16 associates landed in prison after the central division police laid a trap for them on Friday. Deepu accommodated these women at a house in Yelahanka, RMC Yard and his house in Vidyaranyapura. An old woman, who doubled as a helper and bouncer, took care of them. Each girl earned anything between Rs 24,000 and Rs 30,000 per month. The women would solicit a rich "customer" and get into his car. They'd then tip-off their male colleagues, who followed them in another car and rob the ‘customer'. The gang used to fool the customer by pretending to rob the woman too. After an informant alerted the police about the gang, the team led by DCP (Central) B N S Reddy and Cubbon Park police inspector Ravi Shankar planned the operation. A decoy was sent to one of their usual meeting places, a hotel in Malleswaram. There, of the eight persons, the police nabbed four persons, even as the other four sped away in a van. Ravi Shankar and his team chased them and stopped them at Sadashivanagar. Based on their information, the other nine were arrested. The police seized three cars, three two-wheelers, nine mobile phones and Rs 17,150 from them. Those arrested have been remanded to judicial custody. A case has been lodged against the accused at the Channapatna police station. The other accused are: Prakash (24), Devaraj (22), Nagaraju (27), Madhu (22), Raju (21), Anil (20), Salman (24), Zabiullah (26), Deepa (19), Deepika (19), Reshma (23), Manu (19), Bhavani (27), Ranjani (23) and Ravi (24
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India defends trafficking record
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India defends trafficking record
By Jyotsna Singh BBC News, Delhi The Indian government has defended its efforts in tackling the problem of human trafficking a day after a US report criticised its record. India was designated as a "Tier 2 watch list" country: it did not fully comply with minimum standards but was making significant efforts to do so. The government says a lot is being done to tackle the problem, although more needs to be done. It says efforts are underway to rescue and rehabilitate trafficking victims. Sanctions possibility "The world's largest democracy has the world's largest problem of human trafficking," said the US state department's specialist on trafficking issue, Mark Lagon. The department has warned India would be downgraded to a "Tier 3" category unless it improved its track record. That would mean that the US would withhold non-humanitarian, non-trade related foreign aid. Correspondents say that "Tier 3" countries are also denied access to educational and cultural exchange programmes. The state department estimates that around 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year, and that 80% of them are females used in the sex trade. The annual report places India as a "Tier two" country for the fourth year in a row. An official in India's Women and Child Development ministry, however, defended her department's efforts in tackling the problem. 'Unfair' "We are doing our bit, but more needs to be done," said Deepa Jain Singh, secretary for the Women and Children's Development Ministry. Non governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the area have supported the government's efforts. "We don't agree that nothing has changed. Legislation has come in place to deal with the issue. It is a clear indication that the pressure on the government is working," Rishi Kant, from the anti-trafficking group, Shakti Vahini, told the BBC News website. Other women's groups argued that it was unfair that India was being put on the US watch list over the issue, and not Bangladesh or Nepal. Aid agencies estimate that around 5,000 to 7,000 women and girls are trafficked to India from Nepal and around 10,000 to 20,000 women and children from Bangladesh. "Nepal, Bangladesh and India need to work together to stop such trafficking," United Nations Development Programme spokeswoman Archana Tamang told the BBC. "Women and children are not being brought into India only, there is a lot of reverse trafficking taking place as well. "It is really important for all the three nations to work together as a sub-regional group to remedy the situation," she said. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6749983.stm
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Trafficking remains India’s bane
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 Trafficking remains India’s bane
Ganesh Pandey
Posted online: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST
New Delhi, June 11Despite efforts to check trafficking in persons, India has failed to improve its ranking again this year and has been placed in Tier II watch list for the fourth consecutive year since 2004. The ranking implies that India does not comply with minimum standards laid down by the US to combat human trafficking.
Trafficking In Persons (TIP) report is an assessment of steps taken by various countries to check human trafficking and is released annually by the US State Department. The report for 2007 will be released on June 12 in Washington.
Last year’s report had said India was a source, destination and transit country for men, women and children trafficked for the purpose of forced or bonded labour and commercial sexual exploitation. The report also said the Indian Government had failed to evolve a national law enforcement response to trafficking or failed to vigorously investigate or prosecute acts of trafficking in the country.
In response, the Indian Government took a number of steps to improve its position, including setting up of a special cell in the Ministry of Home Affairs, to look at the problem and device a policy framework for improving the implementation of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. The Bureau of Police Research And Development came out with a training manual on “Human Trafficking Handbook For Investigators” for use in police training in institutes. Besides, amendments in the Immoral Traffic Act are already under consideration and Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has already formulated a comprehensive scheme for prevention of trafficking and rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate victims of trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.
The US has attacked India’s record on its record of enforcement and prosecution while praising the MWCD for its efforts and recognising that the legal basis for combating trafficking is elaborate and robust Complete report on US Trafficking in Person 2007 INDIA (Tier 2 Watch List) India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. India's trafficking in persons problem is estimated to be in the millions. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) estimates that 90 percent of India's sex trafficking is internal. Women and girls are trafficked internally for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage. Children are subject to involuntary servitude as factory workers, domestic servants, beggars, and agriculture workers. Men, women, and children are held in debt bondage and face involuntary servitude working in brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories. India is also a destination for women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Bangladeshi women reportedly are trafficked through India for sexual exploitation in Pakistan. Although Indians migrate willingly to the Gulf for work as domestic servants and low-skilled laborers, some later find themselves in situations of involuntary servitude, including extended working hours, non-payment of wages, restrictions on movement by withholding of passports or confinement to the workplace, and physical or sexual abuse. Bangladeshi and Nepali men and women are trafficked through India for involuntary servitude in the Middle East. The Government of India does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking however; it is making significant efforts to do so. India is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for a fourth consecutive year for its failure to show increasing efforts to tackle India's large and multidimensional problem. India's anti-trafficking laws, policies, and programs focused largely on trafficking for sexual exploitation and the Indian government did not recognize the country's huge population of bonded laborers, which NGOs estimate to range from 20 million to 65 million laborers, as a significant problem. Overall, the lack of any significant federal government action to address bonded labor, the reported complicity of law enforcement officials in trafficking and related criminal activity, and the critical need for an effective national-level law enforcement authority impede India's ability to effectively combat its trafficking in persons problem. In September 2006, the central government responded to the need for a central anti-trafficking law enforcement effort by establishing a two-person federal "nodal cell," responsible for collecting and analyzing data of state-level law enforcement efforts, identifying problem areas and analyzing the circumstances creating these areas, monitoring action taken by state governments, and organizing meetings with state-level "nodal" anti-trafficking police officers. However, this nodal cell does not have the authority to investigate and initiate prosecutions of trafficking crimes across the country, as recommended by India's Human Rights Commission and Indian NGOs. This year, three state governments established, with substantial U.S. Government and UNODC assistance, the first state-level anti-trafficking police units in the country, which has led to an increase in rescues of sex trafficking victims and arrests of traffickers. The central government passed a law in October 2006 banning the employment of children in domestic work and the hospitality industry. In a July 2006 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Maharashtra government could proceed with its plan to seal brothels under the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA). Despite India's huge bonded labor problem, there were no substantial efforts this year to investigate, prosecute, or convict those who exploit bonded labor. Nor did the Indian government take significant measures to prosecute or punish government officials involved in trafficking-related corruption, though it arrested three government officers complicit in trafficking. The government should increase prosecutions and punishments for trafficking offenses, including bonded labor, forced child labor, deceptive recruitment of Indians trafficked abroad, and sex trafficking. Prosecution Efforts throughout India to investigate and punish trafficking crimes during the past year were uneven and largely inadequate. The government reported only 27 convictions for trafficking offenses throughout the entire country for 2006. While the government took measures to increase law enforcement against sex trafficking and forced child labor, efforts to combat bonded labor and trafficking-related corruption remained inadequate. The government prohibits some forms of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation through the ITPA. Prescribed penalties under the ITPA - ranging from seven years' to life imprisonment - are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those for other grave crimes. A parliamentary committee has completed its review of amendments to the ITPA that afford greater protections to sex trafficking victims and provide stricter penalties for their traffickers and for clients of prostitution. While the Indian government has not yet passed and enacted these amendments which were drafted in 2004, some jurisdictions reportedly have stopped using the ITPA to arrest women in prostitution. India also prohibits bonded and forced labor through the Bonded Labor Abolition Act, the Child Labor Act, and the Juvenile Justice Act. These laws are ineffectually enforced and their prescribed penalties - a maximum of three years' in prison - do not meet international standards. This year, the government did not make significant progress in investigating, prosecuting, convicting, and sentencing those exploiting bonded labor. Despite the millions of bonded laborers in India, the government reported arresting only three offenders and confirmed rescuing only 26 adult victims this year. India similarly did not report any criminal investigations or prosecutions of labor recruiters using deceptive practices and debt bondage to compel Indians into involuntary servitude abroad; the unchecked behavior of these recruiters contributes to the forced labor of some Indians working abroad. Efforts to combat forced child labor remained uneven throughout the country, varying greatly from state to state. In October 2006, the government enacted a ban on the employment of children in domestic work or in the hospitality industry, with penalties ranging from three months' to two years' imprisonment and fines - penalties that are not sufficiently stringent. As of December 2006, state governments had identified 1,672 violations of this ban, based on the 23,166 inspections they had conducted. However, the government has not yet reported criminal prosecutions or convictions produced from these administrative measures. The Ministry of Labour and Employment (MOLE) began public campaigns to raise awareness and prevent child labor, and conducted videoconferences with states to coordinate efforts. Some state and local governments also rescued children from forced labor situations. For example, in New Delhi, police rescued 234 children from embroidery factories and rice mills, although they did not report making any arrests. India did not provide any evidence of convictions for forced child labor, in spite of the hundreds of thousands of children between the ages of 5 and 14 that have been removed from workplaces. The government conducted at least 43 rescue operations that released 275 victims of commercial sex trafficking from their exploiters; however, these operations were not accompanied with vigorous prosecution of traffickers. The Government of India provided significant in-kind contributions to a two-year U.S. government-funded UNODC project in Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh states, focused on raising the awareness of police and prosecutors on the problem of trafficking, and building the capacity of these police and prosecutors to investigate and prosecute persons involved with trafficking. In contrast to previous years, the government did not arrest potential trafficking victims on solicitation charges during these raids. During the reporting period, India arrested 685 suspected sex traffickers, but there were no reported prosecutions or convictions. The government succeeded in convicting only 27 traffickers across the major trafficking hubs of Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. According to a study produced by the National Human Rights Commission a majority of traffickers surveyed claimed to rely on corrupt police officers for the protection of their trafficking activities. These officers reportedly continued to facilitate the movement of sex trafficking victims, protect brothels that exploit victims, and protect traffickers and brothel keepers from arrest or other threats of enforcement. In Jammu and Kashmir, authorities charged a deputy inspector-general of the Border Security Force, a former advocate general, a deputy superintendent of police, and two former state ministers with trafficking. In January, an official with the Central Bureau of Investigation was also arrested for complicity in trafficking. While those arrested were awaiting trial, there were no reported prosecutions or convictions of public officials for complicity in trafficking during the reporting period. Due to the intra-state nature of most of India's sex trafficking, the uneven response from state-level governments, and the lack of effective coordination among state police authorities, India should strongly consider expanding the central MHA office to coordinate law enforcement efforts to investigate and arrest traffickers who cross state and national lines. India should also significantly increase prosecutions of those arrested for trafficking, including employers who exploit forced labor, deceptive labor recruiters, and sex traffickers; and impose strict sentences on those convicted. Similarly, the government should significantly increase its efforts to investigate, prosecute, convict, and sentence public officials who participate in or facilitate severe forms of trafficking in persons. Protection India's efforts to protect victims of trafficking remained uneven and, in many cases, inadequate. Victims of bonded labor are entitled to 10,000 rupees ($225) from the central government for rehabilitation, but this program is unevenly executed across the country because state governments are responsible for implementing the program. The government does not proactively identify and rescue bonded laborers, so few victims receive this assistance. Though children trafficked for forced labor may be housed in government shelters and are entitled to 20,000 rupees ($450), the quality of many of these homes remains poor and the disbursement of rehabilitation funds is sporadic. Some states provide services to victims of bonded labor, but NGOs provide the majority of protection services to these victims. The central government reported no protection services offered to Indian victims trafficked abroad for involuntary servitude or commercial sexual exploitation, and it does not provide funding to repatriate these victims. The Government of Kerala, however, appointed nodal officers to coordinate with Indian embassies in destination countries to assist victims from Kerala state. Foreign victims are not offered legal alternatives to their removal to countries in which they may face hardship or retribution. Many victims decline to testify against their traffickers due to the length of proceedings and fear of retribution by traffickers without adequate witness protection from the government. The Government of India relied heavily on NGOs to assist sex trafficking victims, though it offered funding to these NGOs to build shelters under its Swadhar Scheme. In April 2007, however, India's parliament released a report concluding that the Ministry of Women and Child Development had failed to adequately implement the Swadhar program and another program specifically focused on services for trafficking victims across the country. Government shelters are found in all major cites, but the quality of care they offer varies widely. In Maharashtra, state authorities converted one government shelter into a home exclusively for minor victims of sex trafficking this year, and issued a policy permitting trafficking victims to access any of the 600 government homes throughout the state. The Governments of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh also operate similar homes. Though states have made some improvements to their shelter care, victims sheltered in these facilities still do not receive comprehensive protection services, such as psychological assistance from trained counselors, and many victims are not assisted with long term alternatives to remaining in the shelter. The Government of Andhra Pradesh - the state with the largest number of trafficking victims in the country - now provides 10,000 rupees to sex trafficking victims. The government should improve its protection efforts by enhancing the quality of rehabilitation services available in government run shelters, increasing protection services for bonded labor victims, and encouraging victims to assist in investigations of their traffickers. India should similarly improve its repatriation procedures to ensure that victims are not re-trafficked or further victimized. To protect Indian nationals trafficked abroad, the government should consider training overseas diplomatic officials in identifying and assisting trafficking victims caught in involuntary servitude, and should extend rehabilitation services to these victims upon their return. Prevention India's efforts to prevent trafficking in persons were limited this year. To address the issue of bride trafficking, the government instituted public awareness programs to educate parents on the laws against sex-selective abortions and infanticide, and the negative effect that gender imbalance is causing in parts of India. While the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs instituted a system requiring women under the age of 35 going to the Gulf as domestic workers to obtain authorization to leave India, the government failed to provide those traveling overseas with information on common trafficking perils or resources for assistance in destination countries. The central government did not effectively guard its long, porous borders with Bangladesh and Nepal through which trafficking victims easily enter the country. India also did not take adequate measures to prevent internal trafficking for sexual exploitation or involuntary servitude despite the prevalence of such trafficking to major cities, and increasingly in smaller cities and suburbs. The lack of effective coordination between source and destination states contributed to this problem, underscoring the necessity for a centralized law enforcement authority with intrastate jurisdic
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Land of Missing Children
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 2/19/07 Land of Missing Children An estimated 30,000 girls are trafficked into the sex industry every year.
Watch the program: Part 1 Part 2
Trafficking in human beings -- slavery -- is the third biggest criminal industry on the planet. Only the trade in guns and drugs exceed the sale of people on the global scales of illegal enterprise.According to the International Labour Organization, two million people are taken, or sold, from their homes into a life of forced labour and sexual abuse every year. The overwhelming majority are women and children. More than half of all people enslaved are turned into sex workers who endure lives of incalculable misery before, most often, dying early, diseased, deaths. In India the problem is acute.
An estimated 30,000 girls are trafficked into the sex industry every year. Some are sold by poverty-stricken parents hoping that their children will find employment as domestic servants. Others are simply snatched off the streets, drugged, raped, and sold to brothel “madams.”Many of these children come from the far east of India -- a region at the crossroads of trade routes with Nepal and Bhutan, which is now a hub of trade in young women. The story of one girl, Pratima, is rare. She was trafficked, rescued, was brought back into the embrace of her family, and is now happily married. Most women who escape the horrors of the business are shunned when they return home, their families refusing to take them in, much less help to heal their wounds.
But Pratima was keen to expose the trade. She told of how she was taken from her home in Siliguri, drugged, and forced onto a train to Calcutta. There she put to work as a prostitute, and then sold on to a brothel in Bombay (Mumbai) known as “Sheila’s.”
We tracked her route into the Red Light district of Calcutta and found the area dominated by a unionized group of madams who insisted that the girls they worked were all over 18, and all volunteers. They were even getting British aid money to run health programs among the working girls. But the sordid reality was manifestly different. Many of the girls were clearly under 18 but none dares say so, and our crew was warned to get out of the area before we were attacked.
We held out little hope of finding Sheila’s until we met up with Balkrishna Achariya, the head of the Rescue Foundation. He ran teams of agents who infiltrated the brothels, found girls who wanted to escape, and then arranged for their rescue, often at great personal risk. And yes, he knew of Shelia’s.
With his help the brothel was identified and sure enough there were under-age girls working there. We took the information to the police where the local commander seemed reluctant to take the matter seriously. “Surely,” he told us. “If there are no prostitutes then ‘decent women’ would be attacked.”
Nonetheless we forced his hand, and arranged to conduct a raid. What we found was medieval. Girls hidden in the rafters, girls in tomb-like underground hideaways. But at the moment of truth, when arrests should have been made, the rescued girls vanished into a crowd of madams gathered on the street. The raid was a farce, a disaster.
But many of the girls were later tracked down and saved from their agonies in what would better be called the “rape trade” by Balkrishna, who sadly perished in a road traffic accident a few months later. And the local police chief who botched the raid soon “retired.”--
From producer Sam Kiley
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India struggles to stop trafficking of women
PO...
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India struggles to stop trafficking of women
POSTED: 2350 GMT (0750 HKT), June 6, 2007  NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Meena discovered she had been sold by her boss while riding in an auto-rickshaw headed to New Delhi's red-light district.
The 12-year-old was working as a domestic servant in Calcutta when the homeowner told her about a good-paying job at his sister's house in India's capital. But instead, she was sold to a brothel owner and forced into prostitution for little more than a place to sleep and the occasional meal.
Her ordeal lasted four years and Meena, now 21, says it left her "a very angry person."
"The anger comes suddenly," says Meena, who asked that her full name not be used because of the stigma associated with her past.
Beneath the surface of India's rapid economic development lies a problem rooted in the persistent poverty of hundreds of millions of Indians. Rights activists say thousands of poor women and girls are forced into prostitution every year after being lured from villages to cities on false promises of jobs or marriages.
Much of the attention on human trafficking focuses on the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people -- about 80 percent of them women or girls -- who are trafficked across international borders every year, and, in many cases, forced to work as prostitutes or virtual slaves who perform menial tasks.
But those numbers don't include victims trafficked within their own countries -- a problem that has long plagued India, a country large and diverse enough that traffickers can take victims from one place to another hundreds of miles away where a different language is spoken and there's little chance of the women finding their way back home.
"This is a challenge to India's contention that it is both democratic and modern," said Ruchira Gupta, founder of the anti-trafficking group Apne Aap. "In this day and age, when democracy is supposed to exist in India ... we have so many slaves."Traffickers rarely caught
The secrecy of the underground business makes it difficult to track, and the estimates for the numbers of India's victims each year vary widely.
But this much is known: the government estimates there are 3 million sex workers in India, at least 40 percent of them children. And thousands of them are believed to have been unwittingly lured into the work by traffickers, rights activists say.
Most of the girls come from India's poorer states. A family member or friend approaches the girl's parents about a well-paying job in the city or the chance for marriage with little or no need to pay a dowry.
In some cases, parents sell the girls directly. Prices range from several hundred to several thousand dollars.
Traffickers are rarely caught. The U.S. State Department said in an annual report on human trafficking last year that India's law enforcement response to the problem was weak and prosecutions rare.
" Women are being rounded up for soliciting in a public place, but there are very few arrests of men who are running the whole trade -- the buyers, the pimps, transporters." - Ruchira Gupta, founder of Apne Aap
In Mumbai, which has the highest concentration of sex workers, only 13 traffickers were arrested in 2005, and none were convicted, according to the State Department. The situation was similar in other cities.
"One of the best ways to prevent trafficking is to increase convictions of trafficking -- and this is not happening," said Gupta. "Women are being rounded up for soliciting in a public place, but there are very few arrests of men who are running the whole trade -- the buyers, the pimps, transporters."
Deepa Jain Singh, secretary for India's Ministry of Women and Child Development, said the government is "trying to do more" about the problem of sex trafficking, but he declined to specify what steps were being taken.
What becomes of the girls? There are many pitfalls. HIV infections among sex workers are widespread in a country with an estimated 5.7 million people infected with the disease.
And women who manage to escape are often rejected by their families, leaving them poor and alone in a society where family means almost everything.Rebuilding lives
Meena's childhood before being sold into prostitution was filled with long days of domestic work in the rural eastern state of Jharkhand. She received little or no pay, she said, but "I was so poor, I could not leave."
At the urging of her mother, she moved to Calcutta for what she was told would be a paid maid's position. When her boss then sent her to New Delhi, Meena never found out the price she brought on the human trafficking market.
She was rescued from the brothel by STOP, an anti-trafficking group founded in 1998. She lives in the group's shelter on the western edge of New Delhi, a large two-story white house with long hallways situated amid the farm fields that spread out from the city's edge. There are vegetable gardens, and the women who live there embroider and cook for each other.
It's run by Roma Debabrata, a 59-year-old academic who founded STOP. Two years ago, the group built the 22-room shelter where more than 40 women attempt to rebuild their lives.
Debabrata's goal is to make the girls and women in the house function "like a normal family."
"I don't expect miracles from them. They're very normal people and they're being nurtured here in very natural surroundings," she said. "We want them to go from victim to survivor to activist. It's a long journey. You're completely drained out."
The organization has built an information network, with tips called in to a hot line operated out of an unmarked office. The staffers work with local police to raid brothels and rescue endangered girls.
Some are resettled with their families or married, aided by STOP's counseling services.
But for many, moving back to their villages is not an option.
"I love to be here because I've got my mother, my father, my siblings," said Meena, referring to her house mates. "I never feel this is someone else's home. It is my own."
Copyright 200cast, rewritten, or redistributed.7 The Associated Press . All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broad
seattlepi.com
Last updated June 6, 2007
India combats trafficking of women
By KATHERINE SAYREASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NEW DELHI -- Meena discovered she had been sold by her boss while riding in an auto-rickshaw headed to New Delhi's red-light district.
The 12-year-old was working as a domestic servant in Calcutta when the homeowner told her about a good-paying job at his sister's house in India's capital. But instead, she was sold to a brothel owner and forced into prostitution for little more than a place to sleep and the occasional meal.
Her ordeal lasted four years and Meena, now 21, says it left her "a very angry person."
"The anger comes suddenly," says Meena, who asked that her full name not be used because of the stigma associated with her past.
Beneath the surface of India's rapid economic development lies a problem rooted in the persistent poverty of hundreds of millions of Indians. Rights activists say thousands of poor women and girls are forced into prostitution every year after being lured from villages to cities on false promises of jobs or marriages.
Much of the attention on human trafficking focuses on the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people - about 80 percent of them women or girls - who are trafficked across international borders every year, and, in many cases, forced to work as prostitutes or virtual slaves who perform menial tasks.
But those numbers don't include victims trafficked within their own countries - a problem that has long plagued India, a country large and diverse enough that traffickers can take victims from one place to another hundreds of miles away where a different language is spoken and there's little chance of the women finding their way back home.
"This is a challenge to India's contention that it is both democratic and modern," said Ruchira Gupta, founder of the anti-trafficking group Apne Aap. "In this day and age, when democracy is supposed to exist in India ... we have so many slaves."
The secrecy of the underground business makes it difficult to track, and the estimates for the numbers of India's victims each year vary widely.
But this much is known: the government estimates there are 3 million sex workers in India, at least 40 percent of them children. And thousands of them are believed to have been unwittingly lured into the work by traffickers, rights activists say.
Most of the girls come from India's poorer states. A family member or friend approaches the girl's parents about a well-paying job in the city or the chance for marriage with little or no need to pay a dowry.
In some cases, parents sell the girls directly. Prices range from several hundred to several thousand dollars.
Traffickers are rarely caught. The U.S. State Department said in an annual report on human trafficking last year that India's law enforcement response to the problem was weak and prosecutions rare.
In Mumbai, which has the highest concentration of sex workers, only 13 traffickers were arrested in 2005, and none were convicted, according to the State Department. The situation was similar in other cities.
"One of the best ways to prevent trafficking is to increase convictions of trafficking - and this is not happening," said Gupta. "Women are being rounded up for soliciting in a public place, but there are very few arrests of men who are running the whole trade - the buyers, the pimps, transporters."
Deepa Jain Singh, secretary for India's Ministry of Women and Child Development, said the government is "trying to do more" about the problem of sex trafficking, but he declined to specify what steps were being taken.
What becomes of the girls? There are many pitfalls. HIV infections among sex workers are widespread in a country with an estimated 5.7 million people infected with the disease.
And women who manage to escape are often rejected by their families, leaving them poor and alone in a society where family means almost everything.
Meena's childhood before being sold into prostitution was filled with long days of domestic work in the rural eastern state of Jharkhand. She received little or no pay, she said, but "I was so poor, I could not leave."
At the urging of her mother, she moved to Calcutta for what she was told would be a paid maid's position. When her boss then sent her to New Delhi, Meena never found out the price she brought on the human trafficking market.
She was rescued from the brothel by STOP, an anti-trafficking group founded in 1998. She lives in the group's shelter on the western edge of New Delhi, a large two-story white house with long hallways situated amid the farm fields that spread out from the city's edge. There are vegetable gardens, and the women who live there embroider and cook for each other.
It's run by Roma Debabrata, a 59-year-old academic who founded STOP. Two years ago, the group built the 22-room shelter where more than 40 women attempt to rebuild their lives.
Debabrata's goal is to make the girls and women in the house function "like a normal family."
"I don't expect miracles from them. They're very normal people and they're being nurtured here in very natural surroundings," she said. "We want them to go from victim to survivor to activist. It's a long journey. You're completely drained out."
The organization has built an information network, with tips called in to a hot line operated out of an unmarked office. The staffers work with local police to raid brothels and rescue endangered girls.
Some are resettled with their families or married, aided by STOP's counseling services.
But for many, moving back to their villages is not an option.
"I love to be here because I've got my mother, my father, my siblings," said Meena, referring to her house mates. "I never feel this is someone else's home. It is my own."
Kadapa author listed on literary website
June 6 2007 15:05 IST
KADAPA: Popular novelist from Kadapa district Vempalli Gangadhar finds place alongside the top 10 authors list published on ‘India Net Zone’, a literary website.He was selected for his work Molakala Punnami’, which is put on the website along with works of Sunil Gangopadyaya, Maha Sweta Devi, Mulkraj Anand, Javed Akthar, Asha Purna Devi, Jabnad Das, Buddha Dev Ghosh, Dharmaveer Bharathi and KM Munshi.His work Molakala Punnami a compilation of short stories was released by Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.The main attraction of the book is its narration. The style, characterisation are interesting and the dialogues between them are engaging, the review article on the website mentioned.Gangadhar, who is working as Telugu Pandit in Peddaputha ZP High School in Vallur Mandal received recognition for his story ‘Silabandi’ at the age of 29 itself. Till now 50 essays, 30 stories and two compilations of his got published.His Nethuti Manyam story, which has the proposed uranium project in Kadapa as background, received best story prize from popular monthly magazine Vipula. ATA (American Telugu Association) selected his Mainam Bhommalu, for an award.Trafficking of girls from Thandas to flesh trade is the central plot of this story. His many essays on social issues were published in the form of book ‘Kathanam’ and it was funded by Telugu University.The compilation also has articles on Gulf War, interviews of Arundathi Roy, Seshendra Sarma. Gangadhar, who is an active participant in ‘Telugu Bhasha Udyamam’ had worked as PRO for Kadapa Police department during VC Sajjanar’s time and acted as coordinator for Souvenir for Kadapotsav - 2003.He also worked with Amrutham, Sneha Brundam and Jagruthi social organisations and is active member of Regional Network for Prevention of Immoral Trafficking. Currently doing his MPhil on ‘Faction Kathalu - Oka Pariseelana’, Gangadhar wrote ‘Pune Prayanam’, which is based on the experiences of Thanda women forced into flesh trade and it will be published shortly.
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