TOTAL NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 200
MULTILATERAL
NETWORKING: SANLAAP has
networked with the following organisations to put an end to trafficking:
·
End Child prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking (ECPAT)
·
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW)
·
Action Against Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children (ATSEC)
·
National Alliance of Women’s Organisations (NAWO)
·
Maitree(A state feminist network)
·
NGO-AIDS Coalition(West Bengal)
SUCCESSFUL
EXAMPLES: It
has organised a national seminar on Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of
Children.
SOURCES
OF FUNDING: State
Social Welfare Board; Government of India; Save The Children, Denmark; EED; ICCO;
Christian Aid and European Embassies.
GEOGRAPHICAL
AREAS OF OPERATION: Murshidabad,
Nadia, Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, north and south 24 parganas and Kolkata districts
of West Bengal.
ACTIVITIES
RELATED TO TRAFFICKING AND PREVENTION OF CSE DONE BY NGO:
Sanlaap is a developmental human rights organisation that aims towards correction of gender imbalance, prevention of violence and exploitation of women and children and facilitation of the empowerment of survivors of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Sanlaap strives to prevent trafficking, second generation prostitution and the violence that is inherent in such professions.
Campaign,
Awareness, Training and Networking
The NGO conducts seminars, workshops and media campaigns to generate awareness amongst the vulnerable groups. It also distributes IED materials for awareness generation, undertakes advocacy through networking with NGOs and police officials and conducts sensitisation programmes for Government officials.
In order to prevent trafficking, the NGO undertakes gender sensitisation programmes and community mobilization programmes in the vulnerable communities.
Sanlaap has networked with Police Department /CID and Government officials who are provided necessary information and feed back by the volunteers of this organisation working in the red light areas. It has formed watchdog committees. To deter the traffickers, the organisation, with the help of police, undertakes vigorous interception operations at the vulnerable locations.
Rescue of children and those who are being forced to work in prostitution, is either undertaken directly or with the collaboration of police. The organisation runs a Short Stay Home and Observation Home (details about these homes have not been furnished by the organisation) where vocational training is imparted in embroidery, block printing, silk cotton weaving, garment designing and beauty parlour training for the rehabilitation of the inhabitants. If the addresses of the victims are known, then efforts are made to reunite them with their families.
Through its direct work in rescuing trafficked girls, Sanlaap has identified major source areas of girls trafficked into sexual exploitation. The NGO started its work from these sites. These 3 sites are:
1.
Matia: Matia
Baazaar – a red light area, with a population of over 400 women engaged in
prostitution – lies in the Barasat-Basirhat connector. Apart from being a
source area from where girls are trafficked to Mumbai, Delhi and other parts of
the country, this is a transit route for trafficked girls from Bangladesh
through the Bashirhat and Hasnabad border.
2.
Canning: This
small town in South 24 Paraganas is heavily affected by a lack of economic
activities. This has contributed to this place being not just the source of
trafficking, but also the busiest route of trafficked victims. Women and
children are trafficked from Bangladesh through the waterways in the Sunderban
delta.
3.
Kultoli: Every
second to third household in Madhusudanpur, Kultoli, has a daughter or a
daughter-in-law, trafficked into prostitution in the red light areas of Kolkata
or Mumbai.
The
Strategy Adopted by Sanlaap
Sanlaap interwove three lines of work – training, advocacy and networking, with a prevention strategy. The NGO networked with the Panchayat Leaders, people’s organisations and the police in the areas where trafficking of children was in vogue due to poverty and/or cultural practices. Such networking was operationalized through dialogues and training with those groups on gender-sensitivity, forms and patterns of trafficking and procedures by which to respond to potential cases of trafficking.
Youth groups, who acted as pressure groups, were particularly targeted for the development of advocates among them. An infrastructure of organised communities was developed who acted as watchdogs to prevent the entry of women into prostitution.
Awareness
in the communities was created through information materials that alerted the
families to issues related to trafficking and sexual exploitation as well as to
the concepts regarding violations of the human rights of women and children.
In 2000-2001, “Sanlaap” has received and provided services to over 300 children and minors who were rescued from prostitution. 40%of them were HIV- positive.
Apart
from the above-mentioned activities Sanlaap supports child protection programmes
for children of women in prostitution in 14 red light areas of Kolkata and its
outskirts. The 14 drop-in centres named “Sopan” provide a safe space for
these children, providing services to ensure that they receive education.
Sanlaap takes custody of some of these children, particularly those at risk, and
they are moved to Sneha, another NGO at Jhargram and Narendrapur (Kolkata) for
special protection.
The
organisation runs a psychological rehabilitation program for children rescued
from prostitution, providing services in mental health, occupational training
and legal aid to facilitate rescue, repatriation or restoration after release
from State custody. Sanlaap runs two shelter homes, as well as running
interventions in the State run Remand Homes in West Bengal, the focus of
which are on healing and empowerment of girls, emotionally, economically and
psychologically; repatriation and restoration; economic empowerment through
occupational training and education.
No
data related to the victims in the Shelter Homes is maintained by the NGO. They
said that maintaining data takes too much time.
Return to Perspective of NGO Page