US accuses NGO of 'trafficking'

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

Please read the copied news item below.

We strongly refute the charge that we are pro trafficking. This is a

defamation of us as individuals and as an organization that works

for the human rights of people in sex work. This accusation is so untrue.

We protest this colonial manner of dealing with any resistance, dumping us as

traffickers and criminals. After the girls were sent to the CWC, out of the

seventeen, thirteen proved that they were majors by submitting authentic

certificates of birth proving they were adults. Out of the four left, two were

school going girls and only two were minors. The CWC has the authority to

release the girls and did so, To accuse us of influencing the CWC is also

untrue.!!

Brothel owners are not members of SANGRAM that is totally untrue.

The MOU with Avert and I have documentation to prove the same, was

on Mutual grounds and because we refused to sign the anti prostitution clause of

USAID, not because we are traffickers! In fact there are external evaluations

done by Avert society that strongly recommend that the SANGRAM project with

women in prostitution should be made into a demonstration and training center,

as a best practice. !!

Meena Seshu

e-MAIL: " <san_meena@...>

___________________________________________

US accuses NGO of 'trafficking'

Rema Nagarajan Hindustan News

Washington, September 29, 2005

US government is getting tough on the issue of trafficking of human

beings. Indicating its seriousness on the issue, the US government-funding

agency USAID terminated funding to the NGO Sampada Grameen Mahila Sanstha

(SANGRAM) for reportedly supporting brothel owners and obstructing the rescue of

minor girls from red light areas.

SANGRAM is said to be the first NGO to be cut off from funding for

trying to thwart rescue efforts. " It is for the first time in India and perhaps

internationally, as far as I know. I want to believe this is an exception, an

anomaly. But we are reviewing other programmes and if there is any specific

information that an organisation is trying to keep people from being rescued

from any kind of trafficking we will be looking into it, " said Ambassador R

, director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking

In Persons.

In a letter dated September 9, the office of AVERT, a joint project

of USAID and the Indian government, informed SANGRAM of the termination of

funding.

The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons of the US

State Department had received reports about SANGRAM's role in " thwarting rescue

efforts " .

The US embassy in India and USAID are reviewing a bunch of grants to

examine if the grants are being used to fund work that is contrary to the US

policy on trafficking or HIV/AIDS. It is reliably learnt that funds could be cut

off to four or five more NGOs in India on similar grounds as SANGRAM.

Restore International (RI), a South India-based anti-trafficking

NGO, was part of the raid organised by the police in May this year in Gokul

Nagar red light area in Sangli, Maharashtra. Seventeen minors were reportedly

rescued during the raid. According to the RI report, SANGRAM, which has many

brothel keepers as its members, has been trying to thwart attempts to rescue

minors in prostitution.

SANGRAM in turn has termed the rescue " unlawful " and has questioned

the claim that 17 of the rescued girls were minors. However, an order of a

judicial magistrate dated May 30 this year states that of the 35 women removed

from Gokul Nagar, " 17 were reported to be minors " . The magistrate had ordered

the case for custody of these minors to be placed before the Child Welfare

Committee (CWC), the authority that deals with juveniles who need protection and

care.

Ambassador points out that with the court itself confirming

that 17 were minors, it was not only a violation of US law or UN convention but

also of Indian laws on child prostitution and trafficking.

RI Director Greg Malstead when contacted stated that they faced

significant opposition from SANGRAM against the rescue effort. He added that

while the had no wish to pick any quarrel with SANGRAM, his organisation would

" expose and counter any opposition, from whatever source, to oppose rescue,

protection and prosecution " .

Meena Saraswathi Seshu, director of SANGRAM, in turn, defends her

organisation saying that it is strongly against child prostitution

that is akin to child sexual abuse but feels that " a simplistic solution as raid

and rescue merely offered patchwork relief " . She further states, " In 1991,

before SANGRAM worked in this area, every brothel had minor girls in

prostitution. Today, police and this organisation (RI) found 35 of whom 31 are

in dispute. Why is it that organisations that work for the rights of women in

prostitution and sex work are considered pro trafficking, which is a criminal

offence or pro minors in prostitution when it is clearly child sexual abuse. "

Seshu claims that Malstead preferred to ignore the high-handness of

RI members during the raid, and instead, got his organisation in US,

Restore International to complain to SANGRAM's international supporters.

The rescued minor girls have been handed over to their parents who,

it is suspected, might have been complicit in their trafficking, as indicated

by the statement of some of the girls to RI members. With wide-spread fears that

the rescued girls might be forced back into the sex trade, the US government is

not amused. " If the US is going to play a leadership role in abolishing this

modern-day slavery in the 21st century, then we need to ensure that US funds go

to support that effort and not frustrate it, "

says Ambassador .