PROJECT PROPOSAL II

Title: Pilot Project to Combat the Trafficking of Children for Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Source Areas.

Project Area: A village in a source district

Project Period: One year

Budget: Rs. 6,77,000 (Rural) and Rs. 7,01,000 (Urban)
             (Please see Annexure for details)

Background:

Poverty stricken areas, drought prone areas, famine affected areas and those reeling under the force of natural calamities are major source areas for recruitment of women and children for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. On the one hand, these dire conditions force parents to sell their children knowingly and on the other, these circumstances make parents and their children more vulnerable to the false promises and allurements offered by recruiters and accompany them unknowingly.

Objectives of the Project:

This project aims to test the efficacy of certain approaches and methods to combat trafficking and sexual abuse of children in small pilot areas. The lessons learnt from this project could then be replicated and upscaled for a wider outreach.

Components of the Project:

A project in a source village has to tackle the vulnerability of the community as well as of the girl child. Community empowerment would comprise of awareness generation and social alertness, poverty alleviation schemes, micro credit schemes through women's' groups and self help groups and involvement of panchayati institutions. Girl child empowerment would cater to education and vocational training.

 Another aspect of prevention is the actual intervention in the cases of high risk groups. This task can be facilitated by networking with the police, local NGOs and women's groups to get information about traffickers and the trafficking chain.

The last component will be the rehabilitation and reintegration of rescued victims into society.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Awareness Generation and social alertness

In most cases, victims are given a false allurement of jobs or marriage i.e. living conditions better than those at home. It is imperative to disseminate awareness as to how such channels lead to trafficking for sexual exploitation. Awareness might encourage social alertness. Moreover, there is an urgent need to educate the community about HIV/AIDS. The knowledge of the risk and consequences of HIV/AIDS needs to be disseminated in order to curb the spread of the disease as well as to act as a deterrent to trafficking.

Target Groups

For the widest possible reach in the community, we have to contact all types of target groups who will then fan out into the community to spread the message. These primary target groups could be students in both schools as well as colleges, teachers, youth clubs, women's groups, community based organizations (CBOs), social leaders, elected representatives, successful and famous individuals from that community etc.

Modes of Awareness Generation

The modes of interaction with the above groups for awareness generation could be discussion, Peer education, rally, signature campaign, posters, booklets, wall paper, handbills, street theatre, puppetry, radio, local newspapers etc.

Poverty Alleviation Schemes

The economic factor is the major push factor in this area. Therefore, there is the need to make the people aware of the schemes for which they are eligible and to facilitate the implementation.

Micro Credit Schemes through women's Groups and self help groups

Given the number of people to be covered, it is quite possible that state schemes could fall short of resources. Here micro credit schemes could play an important role in economic self-sufficiency. A small e fund could be the building block for economic self-sufficiency.

Involving the Panchayati Raj Institutions

Panchayats are people's bodies. Hence involving them would enhance the acceptability of the project to the local population as well as facilitate coordination between various components.

GIRL CHILD EMPOWERMENT

Education

The incidence of illiteracy is very high among trafficked children. Lack of education implies lack of opportunities for higher skill formation. Hence, illiteracy compounds the vulnerability of the child. The way to tackle this factor would be education for the girl child.

This component of the project would have three aspects:

• Persuading parents to send their daughters to school

• Running NFE centers for those whose age or any other factor bars them from joining mainstream schools directly. However, the ultimate goal should be mainstreaming of these children too.

• Motivating teachers to work towards retaining their students in school, thereby lowering the number of school dropouts.

Vocational Training and Life Skill Education for the Adolescent to earn a Living

Economic vulnerability is a common factor among all these communities, which support the tradition of child CSE. Therefore, the project envisages vocational training for the adolescents. Vocational training could be carried out in the NFE centers run by NGOs. The skills in which the adolescents are to be trained could be of three kinds:

• Modernized version of any traditional skill or art in the area

• Skills for setting up a small scale Industry

• Those, which have a market in the service sector, the sector with perhaps the highest employment generation potential

The last and the most crucial phase of any kind of vocational training is the actual placement of the individual in the market. To raise the market value of traditional art forms, linkages would be required with young designers and marketing networks. Skills for small-scale Industries would require micro credit for setting up the establishment.

□ Networking:

Parallel to community empowerment and girl child empowerment, there is the need to form a network of police, local NGOs and women's groups to get information about traffickers and their chain. This network could also spot individual children at risk and come to the aid in the village.

REHABILITATION AND REINTEGRATION OF RESCUED VICTIMS

Rescue efforts in destination areas would Invariably send back victims to source areas. Therefore, their reintegration Into society is as important as prevention of potential victims. Rehabilitation comprises of two aspects-psychological and economical.

□ Psychological Rehabilitation

This would imply trauma counseling for the victim as well as family concern for the victim's family. Counseling would be required to address both.

□ Economic Rehabilitation

For economic reintegration, the victim has to be taught to be financially independent because poverty is the main push factor in these areas. The same vocational training as has been identified for the girl child can be given to the rescued victim. However, and additional entrepreneurial support would be necessary to truly reintegrate her.

□ Temporary Shelter

The victims would need a temporary shelter for the transition period before reintegration. At this stage the NGO has to provide a short stay home.

Budgetary Allocation:

The detailed break-up of the budget into various components is NGO specific. The ratio between activity expenses and infrastructure expenses will depend upon the staff and infrastructure support already available to the organization. Similarly, the break-up of the activity expenses will depend upon the creativity of the NGO. Hence, this can be worked out only by discussions with the specific NGO. However, an estimate has been annexed.

Information Needed From NGOs:

□ Project Schedule
□ Details of activities
□ Cost of individual activity
□ Staff support needed
□ Infrastructure requirement

Conclusion:

Community Development is equally Important as the girl child because the condition of the community is the push factor, Linkages with NGOs working with community development, micro credit, women's empowerment etc is crucial.