Activists urge Centre to decriminalise sex trade
By SONAL KELLOGG
Pune, Feb. 18: Social activists working with sex workers want the government to decriminalise the trade as they feel this pushes the trade underground and prevents the sex workers from seeking health services. It also has been detrimental to the human rights of sex workers.
Explaining the complexity of the situation, social activist Meena Seshu, who has been working with sex workers for 15 years, said in a talk on "Between Vice and Victimhood" here, "Sex workers are asking for their ‘services’ to be recognised as work allowing individuals involved in the trade to demand their business rights, human rights and occupational health and safety regulations. Most of them do not want to be thought of as victims who are in need of being rescued."
This is where the situation gets caught up in the myriad complexities. This is true even of the government position. The Human Right Watch’s report on "Epidemic of Abuse: Police Harassment of HIV/AIDS Outreach Workers in India" said: "In practice, one branch of the government, the public health service, relies on the non governmental sector to provide condoms and information to persons at high risk, another branch of the government, the law enforcement establishment, abuses those who provide these services."
The problem stems from the stereotyping of sex workers, said Ms Seshu. She said, "Either sex workers are perceived as social outcasts, exploited victims or as vectors of diseases like AIDS and STD. The popular belief is that no women wants to be in this profession and that the only way to give them their rights is to ‘free’ them of their trade." But she said that after working with sex workers for years, she has learnt that they want their sex work to be recognised as work and that it should be decriminalised.
She said that this perspective helps sex workers articulate the violation of their rights as sex workers and helps them claim worker’s rights.
Government policy is also not cohesive, she said. "The Immoral Trafficking Protection Act," said Ms Seshu, "is largely used to abuse sex workers and the backlash of this is that it threatens HIV prevention efforts and forces people underground. It halts work and discourages people from accessing services. Also, it has been detrimental to the human rights of sex workers."
However, being outcasts and not being recognised is not just an Indian problem. Increasingly, this language is being seen in international discourses on sex work, specifically in the US HIV strategy and the UN policies, said Ms Seshu. She said that the US anti-trafficking lobby has institutionalised this claim by linking it to HIV funding. The Prostitution Pledge, as it is called, of the US has to be signed by all those who want to have access to US funding to fight AIDS.
The pledge is: "Prostitution and other sexual victimisation are degrading to women and children in the sex industry, trafficking of individuals into such industry and sexual violence are additional causes of and factors in the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic."
Brazil as a country refused to sign this pledge and refused $40 million of US funding for AIDS. Ms Seshu said the problem is that this makes it appear that sex work, trafficking and sexual violence are one and the same thing, which is not true. It is difficult to work with sex workers if one is going to equate sex work with sexual violence and consider it degrading, which is not how sex workers see themselves, she said.
She said, "We ask sex workers to form a collective so that they have a voice and can ask for what they want and what the government can do for them. They can get out of being marginalised and exploited if they get organised."
Â
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Activists urge Centre to decriminalise sex trade
Activists urge Centre to decriminalise sex trade
By SONAL KELLOGG
Pune, Feb. 18: Social activists working with sex workers want the government to decriminalise the trade as they feel this pushes the trade underground and prevents the sex workers from seeking health services. It also has been detrimental to the human rights of sex workers.
Explaining the complexity of the situation, social activist Meena Seshu, who has been working with sex workers for 15 years, said in a talk on "Between Vice and Victimhood" here, "Sex workers are asking for their ‘services’ to be recognised as work allowing individuals involved in the trade to demand their business rights, human rights and occupational health and safety regulations. Most of them do not want to be thought of as victims who are in need of being rescued."
This is where the situation gets caught up in the myriad complexities. This is true even of the government position. The Human Right Watch’s report on "Epidemic of Abuse: Police Harassment of HIV/AIDS Outreach Workers in India" said: "In practice, one branch of the government, the public health service, relies on the non governmental sector to provide condoms and information to persons at high risk, another branch of the government, the law enforcement establishment, abuses those who provide these services."
The problem stems from the stereotyping of sex workers, said Ms Seshu. She said, "Either sex workers are perceived as social outcasts, exploited victims or as vectors of diseases like AIDS and STD. The popular belief is that no women wants to be in this profession and that the only way to give them their rights is to ‘free’ them of their trade." But she said that after working with sex workers for years, she has learnt that they want their sex work to be recognised as work and that it should be decriminalised.
She said that this perspective helps sex workers articulate the violation of their rights as sex workers and helps them claim worker’s rights.
Government policy is also not cohesive, she said. "The Immoral Trafficking Protection Act," said Ms Seshu, "is largely used to abuse sex workers and the backlash of this is that it threatens HIV prevention efforts and forces people underground. It halts work and discourages people from accessing services. Also, it has been detrimental to the human rights of sex workers."
However, being outcasts and not being recognised is not just an Indian problem. Increasingly, this language is being seen in international discourses on sex work, specifically in the US HIV strategy and the UN policies, said Ms Seshu. She said that the US anti-trafficking lobby has institutionalised this claim by linking it to HIV funding. The Prostitution Pledge, as it is called, of the US has to be signed by all those who want to have access to US funding to fight AIDS.
The pledge is: "Prostitution and other sexual victimisation are degrading to women and children in the sex industry, trafficking of individuals into such industry and sexual violence are additional causes of and factors in the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic."
Brazil as a country refused to sign this pledge and refused $40 million of US funding for AIDS. Ms Seshu said the problem is that this makes it appear that sex work, trafficking and sexual violence are one and the same thing, which is not true. It is difficult to work with sex workers if one is going to equate sex work with sexual violence and consider it degrading, which is not how sex workers see themselves, she said.
She said, "We ask sex workers to form a collective so that they have a voice and can ask for what they want and what the government can do for them. They can get out of being marginalised and exploited if they get organised."
Â
By SONAL KELLOGG
Pune, Feb. 18: Social activists working with sex workers want the government to decriminalise the trade as they feel this pushes the trade underground and prevents the sex workers from seeking health services. It also has been detrimental to the human rights of sex workers.
Explaining the complexity of the situation, social activist Meena Seshu, who has been working with sex workers for 15 years, said in a talk on "Between Vice and Victimhood" here, "Sex workers are asking for their ‘services’ to be recognised as work allowing individuals involved in the trade to demand their business rights, human rights and occupational health and safety regulations. Most of them do not want to be thought of as victims who are in need of being rescued."
This is where the situation gets caught up in the myriad complexities. This is true even of the government position. The Human Right Watch’s report on "Epidemic of Abuse: Police Harassment of HIV/AIDS Outreach Workers in India" said: "In practice, one branch of the government, the public health service, relies on the non governmental sector to provide condoms and information to persons at high risk, another branch of the government, the law enforcement establishment, abuses those who provide these services."
The problem stems from the stereotyping of sex workers, said Ms Seshu. She said, "Either sex workers are perceived as social outcasts, exploited victims or as vectors of diseases like AIDS and STD. The popular belief is that no women wants to be in this profession and that the only way to give them their rights is to ‘free’ them of their trade." But she said that after working with sex workers for years, she has learnt that they want their sex work to be recognised as work and that it should be decriminalised.
She said that this perspective helps sex workers articulate the violation of their rights as sex workers and helps them claim worker’s rights.
Government policy is also not cohesive, she said. "The Immoral Trafficking Protection Act," said Ms Seshu, "is largely used to abuse sex workers and the backlash of this is that it threatens HIV prevention efforts and forces people underground. It halts work and discourages people from accessing services. Also, it has been detrimental to the human rights of sex workers."
However, being outcasts and not being recognised is not just an Indian problem. Increasingly, this language is being seen in international discourses on sex work, specifically in the US HIV strategy and the UN policies, said Ms Seshu. She said that the US anti-trafficking lobby has institutionalised this claim by linking it to HIV funding. The Prostitution Pledge, as it is called, of the US has to be signed by all those who want to have access to US funding to fight AIDS.
The pledge is: "Prostitution and other sexual victimisation are degrading to women and children in the sex industry, trafficking of individuals into such industry and sexual violence are additional causes of and factors in the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic."
Brazil as a country refused to sign this pledge and refused $40 million of US funding for AIDS. Ms Seshu said the problem is that this makes it appear that sex work, trafficking and sexual violence are one and the same thing, which is not true. It is difficult to work with sex workers if one is going to equate sex work with sexual violence and consider it degrading, which is not how sex workers see themselves, she said.
She said, "We ask sex workers to form a collective so that they have a voice and can ask for what they want and what the government can do for them. They can get out of being marginalised and exploited if they get organised."
Â
Thursday, February 14, 2008
58 child labourers rescued
58 child labourers rescued in Delhi raid
By SONAL KELLOGG
New Delhi, Feb. 8: Under the India Action Week against trafficking of children for forced labour, the labour department and the police conducted a raid in Delhi along with child rights NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, in which 58 bonded child labourers were rescued. This is the third such incident in less than a month.
Sub-divisional magistrate L.R. Meena said that the raid was conducted on the basis of the complaint filed by BBA. The case is registered under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 and Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. Assistant labour commissioner S.C. Yadav told that case will also be filed on the owner of the house in which these illegal manufacturing units were running.
The rescued children were trafficked from Sitamarhi and Dharbhanga districts. These are the core areas where traffickers are taking advantage of the poor condition of the parents and bringing children, said Mr Rakesh Senger, national secretary of BBA. He also said that BBA would write to the police commissioners of Sitamarhi and Dharbhanga districts to take action on this issue.
Prof. R.S. Chaurasia, chairperson of BBA, who led this raid, said that during the Indian Action Week, the BBA team was able to rescue over 500 bonded child labourers from different states within seven days. Over 130 children were rescued from Delhi alone.
Recounting his story, Mirza (name changed), a child who was rescued, said he brought to Delhi by a person whom he had often seen coming to village and would take some children with him in a bus. He didn’t realise that one day he would also be going with this man and end up in Delhi. He, along with 57 others, was rescued from Khumara Mohalla, Old North Ghonda in the New Usmanpura police station premises. He also told the activists that the trafficker gave his father Rs 700 and his father agreed to send Mirza to Delhi.
Mirza said he used to work from 10 am to 1 am in the night and was given Rs 20 per week and this money was added to the "expenses" incurred by the employer on the children.
The room in which they were working was just in the middle of cattle shed so that nobody could know that there was a manufacturing unit. In one room there were 10 people working, including adults and children. Their working area and sleeping area was the same, with no source of ventilation, the smell of cattle dung all around and filthy rooms. Most of the children hadn’t even had a bath for days, they had dry itchy skin and some were also showing the signs of bacterial infections on their tender skin.
http:\\www.asianage.com\archive\htmlfiles\India\58 child labourers rescued in Delhi raid.html
By SONAL KELLOGG
New Delhi, Feb. 8: Under the India Action Week against trafficking of children for forced labour, the labour department and the police conducted a raid in Delhi along with child rights NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, in which 58 bonded child labourers were rescued. This is the third such incident in less than a month.
Sub-divisional magistrate L.R. Meena said that the raid was conducted on the basis of the complaint filed by BBA. The case is registered under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 and Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. Assistant labour commissioner S.C. Yadav told that case will also be filed on the owner of the house in which these illegal manufacturing units were running.
The rescued children were trafficked from Sitamarhi and Dharbhanga districts. These are the core areas where traffickers are taking advantage of the poor condition of the parents and bringing children, said Mr Rakesh Senger, national secretary of BBA. He also said that BBA would write to the police commissioners of Sitamarhi and Dharbhanga districts to take action on this issue.
Prof. R.S. Chaurasia, chairperson of BBA, who led this raid, said that during the Indian Action Week, the BBA team was able to rescue over 500 bonded child labourers from different states within seven days. Over 130 children were rescued from Delhi alone.
Recounting his story, Mirza (name changed), a child who was rescued, said he brought to Delhi by a person whom he had often seen coming to village and would take some children with him in a bus. He didn’t realise that one day he would also be going with this man and end up in Delhi. He, along with 57 others, was rescued from Khumara Mohalla, Old North Ghonda in the New Usmanpura police station premises. He also told the activists that the trafficker gave his father Rs 700 and his father agreed to send Mirza to Delhi.
Mirza said he used to work from 10 am to 1 am in the night and was given Rs 20 per week and this money was added to the "expenses" incurred by the employer on the children.
The room in which they were working was just in the middle of cattle shed so that nobody could know that there was a manufacturing unit. In one room there were 10 people working, including adults and children. Their working area and sleeping area was the same, with no source of ventilation, the smell of cattle dung all around and filthy rooms. Most of the children hadn’t even had a bath for days, they had dry itchy skin and some were also showing the signs of bacterial infections on their tender skin.
http:\\www.asianage.com\archive\htmlfiles\India\58 child labourers rescued in Delhi raid.html
Women lobourers run Andhra periodical
Women labourers run Andhra periodical
By SONAL KELLOGG
New Delhi, Feb. 11: Illiterate farm labourer women of Chitoor district in Andhra Pradesh have been instrumental in coming out with a monthly newsletter, Navodayam, all on their own for the last seven-and-a-half years.
The all-women team of the magazine earlier worked in farms in rural Andhra Pradesh but now they are empowered women who question government schemes in their district, expose corrupt government officials and government project which are not working. They are the women who have successfully brought out more than 65 issues of Navodayam.
The all-women team of reporters, circulation manager, editor and illustrator report, edit, make the layout, print and circulate the magazine all by themselves. The magazine, which began on August 15, 2001, was initially published as a quarterly newsletter of the Indira Kranti Pratham, a state government of India programme for the upliftment of rural women of Andhra Pradesh.
Magazine editor V. Mallika said they have been training literate rural women for the magazine and over 100 poor women have learnt reporting, writing, editing and layout with the newsletter in the seven-and-a-half years of its existence. The circulation manager of the magazine, Ms K. Manjula, who also doubles up as a reporter, said that the initial issue has 750 copies printed but today the newsletter has become a monthly and they print nearly 15,000 copies due to increase in demand.
At present, 12 women are working in various capacities for the magazine, which also has Ms E. Bharati who doubles up as writer and illustrator. The women who work for the magazine have encountered opposition from various men especially from the liquor lobby and those whose corruption the women have exposed in their newsletter. The magazine focus on development, self-help groups, rural credit and rural banking. It carries news and analysis of poverty eradication and other development work in the district.
The first issue of the magazine has eight pages but it now have 20 pages and when it began the newsletter covered news from 10 mandals, now it covers news from 65 mandals, which is nearly half the district.
These women have undergone basic training in journalism and have improved their language, writing and editing skills. They have learnt that it needs courage and integrity to deal with consequences of conscientious reporting and critical writing. Ms Mallika said, "These women have grown with the magazine. Six of us are now in the editorial board of the newsletter."
Two of the women in the editorial board are graduates from the Open University and the other four are pursuing their graduate studies. Some mainstream regional dailies are willing to take these reporters as stringers for their newspapers also.
All of them faced severe opposition from their families. Ms Mallika said that when her husband deserted her when she refused to leave her job she choose to keep her job despite the stand her husband took. Some of the women who faced severe opposition and were not able to withstand the pressure even quit but the twelve who have decide to remain, including Ms Mallika, Ms Bharati, Ms Manjula, the circulation manager, Ms M. Ratnamme, the former editor, Ms V. Jayanti, who is a sub-editor, and D. Chandrakala, a reporter, who are all in the editorial board, feel empowered.
Ms Mallika said, "Villagers are now scared of us as we are journalists. Also, we are not scared of interviewing the DSP and even the collector. Earlier, I was scared of even policemen."
Inspired by their success story, self-help groups under Velugu, an NGO, have started eight newsletters in eight different districts of Andhra Pradesh but they have not been as successful as Navodayam.
http:\\www.asianage.com\archive\htmlfiles\India\Women labourers run Andhra periodical.html
By SONAL KELLOGG
New Delhi, Feb. 11: Illiterate farm labourer women of Chitoor district in Andhra Pradesh have been instrumental in coming out with a monthly newsletter, Navodayam, all on their own for the last seven-and-a-half years.
The all-women team of the magazine earlier worked in farms in rural Andhra Pradesh but now they are empowered women who question government schemes in their district, expose corrupt government officials and government project which are not working. They are the women who have successfully brought out more than 65 issues of Navodayam.
The all-women team of reporters, circulation manager, editor and illustrator report, edit, make the layout, print and circulate the magazine all by themselves. The magazine, which began on August 15, 2001, was initially published as a quarterly newsletter of the Indira Kranti Pratham, a state government of India programme for the upliftment of rural women of Andhra Pradesh.
Magazine editor V. Mallika said they have been training literate rural women for the magazine and over 100 poor women have learnt reporting, writing, editing and layout with the newsletter in the seven-and-a-half years of its existence. The circulation manager of the magazine, Ms K. Manjula, who also doubles up as a reporter, said that the initial issue has 750 copies printed but today the newsletter has become a monthly and they print nearly 15,000 copies due to increase in demand.
At present, 12 women are working in various capacities for the magazine, which also has Ms E. Bharati who doubles up as writer and illustrator. The women who work for the magazine have encountered opposition from various men especially from the liquor lobby and those whose corruption the women have exposed in their newsletter. The magazine focus on development, self-help groups, rural credit and rural banking. It carries news and analysis of poverty eradication and other development work in the district.
The first issue of the magazine has eight pages but it now have 20 pages and when it began the newsletter covered news from 10 mandals, now it covers news from 65 mandals, which is nearly half the district.
These women have undergone basic training in journalism and have improved their language, writing and editing skills. They have learnt that it needs courage and integrity to deal with consequences of conscientious reporting and critical writing. Ms Mallika said, "These women have grown with the magazine. Six of us are now in the editorial board of the newsletter."
Two of the women in the editorial board are graduates from the Open University and the other four are pursuing their graduate studies. Some mainstream regional dailies are willing to take these reporters as stringers for their newspapers also.
All of them faced severe opposition from their families. Ms Mallika said that when her husband deserted her when she refused to leave her job she choose to keep her job despite the stand her husband took. Some of the women who faced severe opposition and were not able to withstand the pressure even quit but the twelve who have decide to remain, including Ms Mallika, Ms Bharati, Ms Manjula, the circulation manager, Ms M. Ratnamme, the former editor, Ms V. Jayanti, who is a sub-editor, and D. Chandrakala, a reporter, who are all in the editorial board, feel empowered.
Ms Mallika said, "Villagers are now scared of us as we are journalists. Also, we are not scared of interviewing the DSP and even the collector. Earlier, I was scared of even policemen."
Inspired by their success story, self-help groups under Velugu, an NGO, have started eight newsletters in eight different districts of Andhra Pradesh but they have not been as successful as Navodayam.
http:\\www.asianage.com\archive\htmlfiles\India\Women labourers run Andhra periodical.html
Report on N-E girls sparks anger
Report on N-E girls sparks anger
By SONAL KELLOGG
New Delhi, Feb. 12: People of the Northeast are angry and agitated that a media report labelled north-eastern girls as "drug peddlers" and also "sex workers".
This was also reinforced by the Delhi police, which had even earlier issued guidelines to north-eastern people on "how to behave in Delhi" which also created resentment among them.
The matter caused so much of anguish that it was taken up in the Manipur Assembly by MLA O. Joy who moved a calling attention motion on the issue last week.
The MLA was angered by the appearance of a report that made sweeping slurs on north-eastern girls, expressed his extreme concern over the biased and predatory attitude towards women from the Northeast that appears to be prevailing in the national capital.
Mr Joy reportedly pointed out that only recently, there had been a case of sexual abuse and harassment of two girls from Manipur at Gandhi Vihar in Delhi by over two dozen people.
Many north-eastern groups and organisations both in Delhi and in the Northeast have taken up the matter and have asked for an apology both from the police and the media. Northeast Indians and others have posted their views on several blog sites angered by the very poor depiction of the north-eastern girls in the report, which said that now north-eastern girls are "peddling drugs" and they also "throw in sex as a bonus for a few thousand rupees more". It also depicted Africans as "drug peddlers".
The Northeast Support Centre and Helpline has, in its statement, asked for an apology to all Indians, Indian women in particular, and to African people for depicting them poorly.
Opposing the way north-eastern girls were depicted, the sixth conference of the just-concluded National Conference of Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI), expressed deep concern over the portrayal of north-eastern girls as "drug peddlers" and "prostitutes" by a media report.
The statement said, "The report has not only shocked the people of Northeast India, but also raised serious questions about media ethics. Such irresponsible reportage will not only reinforce the already existing gap between the people of the Northeast and the rest of the country, but it will also divide the country further on the lines of ethnicity, community and sex."
http:\\www.asianage.com\archive\htmlfiles\\India/Report on N-E girls sparks anger.html
By SONAL KELLOGG
New Delhi, Feb. 12: People of the Northeast are angry and agitated that a media report labelled north-eastern girls as "drug peddlers" and also "sex workers".
This was also reinforced by the Delhi police, which had even earlier issued guidelines to north-eastern people on "how to behave in Delhi" which also created resentment among them.
The matter caused so much of anguish that it was taken up in the Manipur Assembly by MLA O. Joy who moved a calling attention motion on the issue last week.
The MLA was angered by the appearance of a report that made sweeping slurs on north-eastern girls, expressed his extreme concern over the biased and predatory attitude towards women from the Northeast that appears to be prevailing in the national capital.
Mr Joy reportedly pointed out that only recently, there had been a case of sexual abuse and harassment of two girls from Manipur at Gandhi Vihar in Delhi by over two dozen people.
Many north-eastern groups and organisations both in Delhi and in the Northeast have taken up the matter and have asked for an apology both from the police and the media. Northeast Indians and others have posted their views on several blog sites angered by the very poor depiction of the north-eastern girls in the report, which said that now north-eastern girls are "peddling drugs" and they also "throw in sex as a bonus for a few thousand rupees more". It also depicted Africans as "drug peddlers".
The Northeast Support Centre and Helpline has, in its statement, asked for an apology to all Indians, Indian women in particular, and to African people for depicting them poorly.
Opposing the way north-eastern girls were depicted, the sixth conference of the just-concluded National Conference of Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI), expressed deep concern over the portrayal of north-eastern girls as "drug peddlers" and "prostitutes" by a media report.
The statement said, "The report has not only shocked the people of Northeast India, but also raised serious questions about media ethics. Such irresponsible reportage will not only reinforce the already existing gap between the people of the Northeast and the rest of the country, but it will also divide the country further on the lines of ethnicity, community and sex."
http:\\www.asianage.com\archive\htmlfiles\\India/Report on N-E girls sparks anger.html
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