While the world’s largest democracy is in the middle of a historic election with political parties leaving no stone unturned to attract as many voters as possible, a section of India’s population who have been subjected to unspeakable torture, abuse and stigma want their voice to be heard this poll season.
“We want our politicians to listen to us and take us seriously,” said Firoza Khatun of Utthan Survivor Leaders Council, a group of 20 young women survivors of trafficking from West Bengal who is engaged in collectively combating trafficking, exploitation and slavery.“As survivors of sex trafficking, we have to deal with a lot of issues such as stigma, harassment, threat and discrimination. We do not have protection from those. Therefore, we appeal to all politicians to think about us and come up with a comprehensive law and an effective system that would not just help combat human trafficking but also help survivors get proper justice and rehabilitation,” she added.
Sufia Khatun, another leader from the collective, concurred and said, “Every time during elections, political parties come up with their manifestos and make a lot of promises. We also want them to raise the issue of human trafficking and commit to ending this menace.”
Creating a comprehensive law to tackle all forms of human trafficking and ensure justice to survivors is one of the key demands put forth by Utthan leaders in their manifesto cum charter of demands. They also wanted an adequate allocation of budget for setting up of Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) across the country and creation of a robust monitoring system to check corruption and delays in justice delivery, expressing their wish to be part of those committees.
Our anti-trafficking law, the Utthan manifesto said, should not persecute those women who are in sex work and it should not force them into shelter homes and rehabilitation centres. “The law should empower them to fight brothel managers and madams who exploit them or customers who torture them,” they said, urging that one should not mix up madams and brothel managers with sex workers, and protection of sex workers should not be used by brothel managers and traffickers to block anti-trafficking legislation and policies.
Bandhan Mukti, another trafficking survivors’ collective that operates across North and South 24 Parganas of West Bengal, has also released a manifesto which they have submitted to different political leaders they could able reach out.
“Trafficking does not happen only for commercial sexual exploitation, there are many us who have been trafficked for marriage; to work as bonded labour in farms, construction sites, stone quarries, break kilns; for dancing in orchestra groups and so on,” Bandhan Mukti leaders said in their manifesto, urging all political parties to take strong action to combat human trafficking as well as violence against children and women.
Jahanara, one of the leaders of Bandhan Mukti, said, “We have even met few politicians in Delhi during a consultation on human trafficking last year. We have told them about our issues and demands. In this election time, we want them to raise our issues, and work on their assurances.”In their manifestos, both the collectives called for proper implementation of victim compensation laws and pointed out that survivors of trafficking or violence are never told about the victim compensation laws which are in place for over a decade now.
“NGOs who kept us in shelter homes did not inform us about it, neither did the police officers who rescued us, nor did the public prosecutor who called us to provide witness in the trial told us about the provisions,” Utthan leaders said, adding that we should have rules for NGOs and departments to assist all survivors of sex trafficking and labour trafficking to apply for compensations and help them receive the financial compensation.
On the issue of forced institutionalisation, the survivor leaders sought for making shelter homes open and bringing laws for NGOs running shelters so that survivors are not imprisoned in the name of protection.
The Utthan leaders also wanted stringent punishment for those who put children into prostitution and expressed dismay over the fact that ‘customers’ who sexually exploit children are not being prosecuted despite having a powerful legislation like POSCO Act that criminalises offenders who sexually exploit children. They called for making it mandatory for police officers to investigate and prosecute customers of child prostitution.
Their charter also includes demands such as helping people to migrate safely so that they don’t get trafficking; creating legal provisions to help survivors hold duty bearers accountable for dereliction of their duties; focusing on education of boys on gender and sexuality; and creating opportunities and protection services for transgenders who continue to suffer abuse and exploitation.
Apart from listing their demands, Utthan leaders have also committed themselves to break taboos and victimisation around reporting violence and pledged to support initiatives to combat trafficking and sexual exploitation across the country in partnerships with NGOs, governments and the public.
“We will continue to fight to ensure that the rights and dignity of victims are front and centre. We will protect each other and have each other’s backs,” they added.