Synergizing Anti Human Trafficking activities with Anti Naxal Operations
A case study -
The background:
India is a vast country with 1.2 billion population of which, 48 per cent are females. As per the Census 2011, among the population, 37 per cent are below poverty level and 72.2 per cent live in villages. Some of the villages are very interior and completely rural, without development, lacking even in roads and communication facilities. Though concerted efforts have been made by the government to address these issues, one has miles to go before the issues are completely addressed.
One of the forms of militancy and extremism in the heartland of India is militant communism/Maoism, usually referred to as 'Naxalism' in India. Naxals wage war and armed struggle against democratic institutions, claiming reformation/revolution by capturing political power through bullet. In the process, they fight against security forces and law enforcement agencies, which are the most visible symbols of the government and democracy. The security Forces (SF) of the concerned state government, supported by that of the Government of India, undertake anti-naxal operations.
The confrontation has led to a lot of bloodshed for SF. Many civilians have perished either being caught in the crossfire or being annihilated by Naxals, branding them as 'police informers'. The Naxals have become militarized and indulge not only in guerrilla war but also in open confrontation with the Security Forces. During the year 2010, a total of 132 Security Force Personnel have been killed in Naxal violence. In the efforts of the government to control Naxals and in the ensuing encounters, a total of 66 Naxals have lost their lives. The issue of Naxalism is grave and is drawing attention of all concerned.
Women in militancy?:
Among the 66 Naxals who died during the year 2010, seven were women. It is a fact that a large chunk of these rebels are women. It is also a fact that majority of them are children under the age of 18 years. Naxals are known to be enticing children including girls at a very young age for joining their fraternity as "child naxals". The Naxal leaders force themselves into the rural households and demand that the younger generation join the Naxal forte. The parents do resist but are unable to do it beyond a point due to fear and threat from Naxals.
They are compelled to compromise and give away at least one child. If they have two children, a dilemma arises as to whom to give away. Given an option, they would never like to part with even one child but in the existing ambience of threat and death, they have to necessarily part with one child. In this situation, many parents tend to think that the girl child is more dispensable. This thinking arises because of the patriarchal mindset that the boy child would grow and earn for the family, whereas, the girl would not. At the end of the day, the girl child becomes a victim and is trafficked to militancy.
Militant or child victim?:
The exploitation that these girl children are put to are too many. Firstly, they are trained for all illegal activities, including murder, homicide, arson, loot, destruction of property, etc. They are made to fight with the security forces and kill the personnel. Along with this they are subjected to abuse, sexual assault and other violations and bondage. Instances are plenty where large number of contraceptives have been seized during the raids in such domains in the interior villages where Naxals reside with these girl children, who have been trafficked by them.
Post-mortem reports of such unfortunate girls who have been killed in action in fighting the forces also were testimony to the sexual exploitation they are subjected to. Therefore, these girls are trafficked into sexual exploitation and are also trafficked into militancy/extremism/Maoism. Their vulnerability is being fully exploited.
How to address the issue?:
A question arose as to how this could be addressed and prevented. Several initiatives were undertaken as part of the anti-Naxal operations across the country. With a clear focus on preventing such children and adolescents from being lured into Naxalism, certain out-of-the-box solutions were brought in. One such landmark initiatives was to recruit (hire) such vulnerable persons into security forces.
Reaching Out:
Efforts were made to make maximum publicity and reach out to the adolescents, facilitating them to apply for jobs as security force personnel. The task was easily said than done. The initial effort failed as no applicants submitted their application forms on time. The date was extended and thereafter the officials were asked to fan out and reach the probable candidates. It has been learnt that many young men are residing in tribal hostels in the blocks. All efforts were made to reach out to them.
It was a paradigm shift from the normal pattern. Normally, advertisements are carried out and the candidates are requested to apply. No effort is made to canvas or fetch their applications. Considering the existing situation, a bottom up approach had to be carried out and the efforts in reaching out paid dividends. Hundreds of applications were received. However, it was noticed that they have no orientation or experience in contesting examinations. Therefore, an orientation camp was carried out with lot of efforts.
Thereafter, these candidates took the test and a good number of them finally qualified and joined the security force as constables.
The effort was a great success, yet limited as it was not possible to provide government jobs to each and everybody and, therefore, other options had to be explored.
Market survey for jobs:
Another innovative idea struck us. An informal survey was conducted with the help of NGOs to identify the job opportunities available in the market. It was observed that there was an urgent requirement of competent, capable and trained security guards in various malls and upcoming institutions in the nearby cities and townships. The survey also brought out requirement of women security guards and women vigilante in many establishments. It was noticed that there was a preference for women for such jobs, especially where majority of customers were women. In fact, several factors added to the preference of women security guards.
NGO-SF partnership:
The partnership of committed and concerned individuals from the law enforcement agencies and NGOs, with support from the Government of India, brought about a path-breaking initiative in identifying vulnerable adolescent girls, giving them training as security guards, providing them employment and, thereby, preventing human trafficking and, by the same act, preventing entrapment/trafficking of these persons into Naxalism/militancy.
Steps undertaken:
The first part of the exercise was establishing synergy between the different stakeholders to make it a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary activity. The second part of the exercise was to identify the most vulnerable villages and the most vulnerable population who are likely to be trafficked by the Maoists. Thereafter, a process of empowerment and training for these women was commenced. Some of the key steps involved in the process are as follows:
Identifying the most vulnerable areas where such population resides.
Identifying the most vulnerable persons in this area, who are likely to be trafficked.
Networking with such persons and their families, counseling them, make aware of the exploitative ambience and the proposed plan ahead and, thereupon, taking their informed consent to move forward with their partnership.
Undertaking a market survey about the job opportunities to persons who are mostly illiterate but industrious and ready to undertake physical work. Survey revealed requirement of female security guards and female vigilante in various establishments, especially malls, business houses, showrooms, etc.
Seeking government support for the programmes.
Developing a comprehensive training curriculum with innovative methodology, getting them vetted by experts as well as a few prospective trainees and prospective employers and thereby finalizing the curriculum.
Identifying the trainers and giving them orientation/refresher training.
Commencing the training process by involving all stakeholders concerned.
Invoking the support of local political leaders, media, doctors, teachers, law enforcement officials, administrators and public at large in carrying out the programme, thereby involving the masses in the process.
Ensuring proper and effective training in a comprehensive manner.
Networking with the employment providers and enlisting their support to ensure that the trained personnel get placements on successful completion of training.
Providing employment to the trained persons with the support of corporate/business houses and other prospective employers.
Maintaining regular contact and communication with the employed persons to understand the challenges, if any, so that:- (a) effective redressal mechanisms could be taken, and (b) necessary changes could be brought into the following lap of training programme accordingly.
Documentation of the programme.
Revising the next lap of the programme according to the inputs and feed-back and moving further.
The Women Security Guards:
As part of this mission, activities were initiated in two states during May 2011. Required funds were made available from government and the activities were carefully monitored. The training for the first batch started in Jharkhand State by the NGO Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) located at Ranchi. Their volunteers with the help of local officials identified 30 young women from the most interior places. They were selected after taking their willingness into consideration. All of them were from the most vulnerable/challenging backgrounds. After the training of 3 months, the first batch of 30 trained women Security Guards graduated on 24th May 2011.
The second batch of 30 women security guards, selected and trained in the same manner graduated on 13 May 2011.
Employment to the trained personnel:
Out of the 60 women trained as security guards, 42 were offered appointment as security guards at the Kasturba Gandhi Residential School in Ranchi and Dhanbad and the State Museum in Ranchi. Four girls have been enrolled as security guards in Khelgaon, Ranchi, and private malls. The rest have been offered employment at the Kasturba Gandhi Residential School in Ranchi and Dhanbad.
Male security gards in Bihar:
Similar efforts continued in the State of Bihar. The NGO associated for the purpose was Jan Jagriti Sansthan (JJS) which worked along with ATSEC, a confederation of NGOs working at the grassroot level on human trafficking and exploitation. The process undertaken by JJS in Bihar is almost akin to what BKS did in Jharkhand, except that it was the adolescent men who were trained as security guards in Bihar.
As Jharkhand gave emphasis for women, Bihar focussed on men. These men were also selected carefully from the most backward villages and challenging environment. The idea was to empower the most vulnerable. They were recruited and trained. Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) lent support in the process. Accordingly, 28 male security muards graduated on 9th July 2011.
Employment:
At the initiative of CRPF, a meeting of all the prospective job providers were organized at Patna. This included management of hotels, industrial houses, other corporate establishments, malls, etc. A presentation was given to them about the programme, the scope of empowering the vulnerable persons and how it could impact the security scenario, development and ensure rule of law. The representatives of the business houses and corporate were too happy to offer jobs in their firms. Accordingly, all the 28 men have been offered jobs.
Replication in Orissa:
Noticing the impact that this innovative experiment has made on the vulnerable tribal population in the interiors, and taking into consideration the fact that there were large-scale reports of young women being trafficked from Rourkela and adjoining areas of Orissa, I undertook a brief survey with the help of NGO SANJEEVANI based in Orissa. The survey also revealed that trafficking is extremely high in this region not only for sexual exploitation but also for Naxalism or a combination of both.
Further, the market survey also revealed that opportunity for security guards is quite good. While discussing with certain corporates working in this area, they expressed immense pleasure to recruit such trained Security Guards as part of their mandate to promote employment. Accordingly, 30 young women from this region were identified and their training, as Security Guards, commenced during the last week of mid-August, 2011. Employment for trained persons have already been ensured.
The highlights of the programme are as follows:
This has been widely recognized as a wonderful initiative with out-of-the-box thinking and approach.
The focus is on empowering the most vulnerable persons, i.e. adolescent girls.
The mission is to prevent human trafficking, whatever be the purpose.
This is a classic example of synergy between law enforcement agencies and NGOs.
This is a unique example of synthesizing anti-Maoist (anti-Naxal) operations and anti-human trafficking activities. This is for the first time in the country and anywhere in the world that two dichotomous fields of human rights violations have been synergized.
It is an effective strategy to empower the vulnerable persons to lead a life of dignity without fear of exploitation.
It is a great step in providing vulnerable persons with sustained livelihood options.
It is an innovative programme of raising the confidence and capacity of underprivileged persons.
It is a land mark initiative in addressing the gender dimensions and gender based exploitation.
The programme has adopted a right-based approach, right from the selection of the trainees till the end with specific emphasis on protection of child rights.
The initiative of Government agencies, working along with the NGOs BKS and JJS, supported by ATSEC (a coordinating body of NGOIs working against human trafficking, especially children, in South Asia), and the partnership set up in the cause. The synergy continued beyond training. By liaison with the concerned authorities of various governmental and non-governmental agencies, all these trainee security guards, both female and male, have been provided with employment as security guards.
All these adolescents are now on their own feet. Now they are young women and men who dare to live a life of dignity, devoid of exploitation. The parents, villagers and the media who witnessed the graduation ceremony had paid encomiums to this wonderful initiative. It has made such an impact that the NGOs are flooded with request for undertaking selection and training for the next batch. Simultaneously, the demand from the Corporate Houses/Business establishments have also gone up offering placement for additional security guards, both female and male.
This is probably for the first time in the history of the world that Anti-human trafficking and anti-Naxal (Maoist) operations have been linked together. The underlying principle is prevention. It is a double purpose act, whereby vulnerable persons are prevented from being trafficked into both sexual exploitation as well as exploitation by the militants (Naxalites) into militancy. Therefore, it is a synergy focusing on prevention.
This initiative is a milestone in establishing the rule of law at those places where rule of law did not exist. The trained personnel, hailing from the most challenging interiors of the trouble-torn, Naxal-infested villages, are now empowered citizens who cannot be commandeered into any illegal act. These young persons are ambassadors of peace and nation-building in their family, in their village and in their community. They uphold rule of law and facilitate others to do the same.
(Dr PM Nair is an officer with Indian Police Service (IPS) since 1978 and is working in a senior position in Government of India. He is also working as Adjunct Professor (Anti Human Trafficking), School of Law, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. Views expressed here are that of the author and not of ibnlive.)
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