Community Based Movement to Prevent Child Trafficking

BISAP has been implementing project entitled “Community Based Movement to Prevent Child Trafficking ” since January 2010 to December 2010 with the generous assistance of Childreach Internation U.K. in two Districts of Bangladesh Jessore and Satkhira.

Aim of the Project:

Reduce the incidence of child and women trafficking through Jessore, and Shatkira borders in Bangladesh.

Objectives of the project :

Activate 20 Union parishads in the border of Jessore and Shatkhira Districts to perform stronger role for prevent human trafficking through its Standing Committee, ward level watch committee, and village police.
Create community awareness regarding trafficking Issues among different stakeholders including children, mass people, marriage registrars, local media, and union parishad of Jessore and Shatkhira Districts.
Provide timely and efficient services to the children and women who need services for rescue, counselling, getting legal and social protection, family re integration and rehabilitation.

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of Bangladeshi children being trafficked into India and other countries. The speed and geographic coverage of child trafficking has intensified in Bangladesh and the Shatkira and Jessore region remains a major source and destination of trafficked children and women. A large number of Bangladeshi women work in brothels in India, mostly in Kolkata, Mumbai, and Delhi. According to newspaper reports, 165,000 Bangladeshi women were engaged in prostitution in Pakistan.

The causes of trafficking and the factors leading to the apparent increase is multiple and complicated. These factors are embedded within the socioeconomic structure of the country and require an in-depth analysis. However, the factors have been categorized into two groups. The ‘push’ factors, the first group: there are the conditions in the environment of the ‘sending’ communities or countries that ensure a supply of people for trafficking. These factors include low employment opportunities, low social status of women, economic and social vulnerability of women and children, urbanization, migration, etc. The second group refers to the set of ‘pull’ factors that support the demand for trafficking activities.

Trafficking in children consists of all acts involved in the procurement, transportation, forced movement, and/or selling and buying of children within and/or across border by fraudulent means, deception, coercion, direct and/or indirect threats, abuse of authority, for the purpose of placing a child against her/his will without his/her consent in exploitative and abusive situations such as commercial sexual abuse, forced marriage, bonded and forced labour, begging, camel jockeying and other sports, organ trade, etc. The whole process of trafficking is linked with violence, which should be stopped.

Traffickers adopt different strategies and tricks to allure and enroll young children and women (and their families) into the trafficking process. The procurement process for trafficking in women in the sex industry in Bangladesh involves the entrapment of women to be sold to brothels nationally or to neighboring countries, especially in India

The border areas of Bangladesh are only shopping spots where unscrupulous persons assembled women from different parts of the country to be trafficked to other side of the border. Review of different literature showed that some 18 transit points along the India-Bangladesh border are used for smuggling children and women out of the country.

In the south, Jessore and Shatkhira are the areas in which women and children are most susceptible to trafficking. Usually, the traffickers use different routes at different times to avoid police and other law-enforcing agencies. However, for entering India through Kolkata, the two most common routes are the Benapol borders in Jessore through which almost 50% of the trafficking take place. Although reports and studies identified 18 border routes, the traffickers use different routes at different times to avoid the police and other law enforcing

Agencies. Therefore, for entering India through Kolkata, the two most common routes are the Benapol border in Jessore from where almost 50% of the trafficking takes place. Source: Trafficking of Women and Children in Bangladesh, An Overview, ICDDR,B Special Publication No. 111, Page 33

The traffickers has strong network and has linkage with law enforcing agency as the traffickers are nationally and internationally organised groups. There is an unwritten relationship among the traffickers and law enforcing agencies. The network is made possible with the collaboration of the local police and the marriage registrars. The fake marriages arranged by the registrars allow the so-called 'husbands' to smuggle their wives for money.

There are laws to protect child trafficking, but they are rarely implemented. People are not aware, law enforcing agency is highly biased by the traffickers and no local initiatives to prevent the human trafficking is in action. This project planned to form multi sectoral watch group at grassroots level to prevent trafficking through Jessore, and Satkira border areas of Bangladesh.