Self-help groups of prostituted women lead change to end sex-trafficking
Location
Organizing prostituted women to a)tell the truth about the harm of body invasion, b)develop economic autonomy so they cannot be forced to sell their bodies, c)address societal illness that creates prostitution by replacing domination with cooperation
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Your idea
Sector Focus
Civil society
Year the initative began (yyyy)
2002
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Positioning of your initiative on the mosaic diagram
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Cultural acceptance of enslavement
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Increase community resilience
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic
Invisibility of problem, especially of the vulnerability of our targetted population is a big barrier in our work. We work in eight communities of trafficked women and all of them come from low-castes. These communities are marginalized and stigmatized to such an extent that their oppression is invisible and demand for prostituted sex from them is normalized. Due to this traffickers get away with impunity by abusing the vulnerability of these caste groups. Additionally girls are considered of less value or from these communities are considered to be destined for prostitution so have no legal protection.
Name Your Project
Self-help groups of prostituted women lead change to end sex-trafficking
Describe Your Idea
Organizing prostituted women to a)tell the truth about the harm of body invasion, b)develop economic autonomy so they cannot be forced to sell their bodies, c)address societal illness that creates prostitution by replacing domination with cooperation
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Organizing prostituted women to a)tell the truth about the harm of body invasion, b)develop economic autonomy so they cannot be forced to sell their bodies, c)address societal illness that creates prostitution by replacing domination with cooperation
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field?
It is a women-centred solution that transforms women in the community from victim to leader. Once slavery was perpetuated by the idea that there was and always would be slavery and now sex-slavery and prostitution are also perpetuated by the same idea of inevitability. Our intervention challenges this notion through the leadership of enslaved women, some of the 18 million slaves still left in the world, a larger number than in the nineteenth century. We understand that change does not happen from the top down in nations or in women's lives. We help women organize and imagine the change that they thought could not be achieved. We support them through organizing in red-light areas into small groups: First to find their voices and then a way out through the strength they find in each other. Our groups seek not to mitigate the circumstances of sex-trafficking but end sex-trafficking. We seek complete transformation, not simply reform.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
We have a delivery model and a receiving model that makes it an equal exchange. We listen to the women and this empowers the women to speak. This discourse has enabled them to lead their own change and forced a rethinking on who they are. Our method is: a) Provision of safe space that is seperate from place of exploitation, for women to meet in easily accessible community centres in red-light areas and slums across India, b) Organize small womens' and girls cooperatives linked to localized and viable economic options, c) Enable women to have the courage to tell the truth through open mikes, conversation and a newspaper published by prostituted women called Red Light Despatch c) Empower the women by protecting their children from inter-generational prostitution through schools and legal protection.
How do you plan to grow your innovation?
We will be a platform for a coaltion of survivors, victims and potential victims of trafficking that will give voice to womens' and girls' groups against sex-trafficking and mentor new groups to be able to change their own lives and end their own exploitation. This platform will support all the groups, enable them to share experiences, raise their voices, and lead their own change. This platform will also help the groups find other economic options through finding localized and sustainable options.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them?
We partner with other women's rights groups like Equality Now, Coalition against Trafficking in Women, European Women's Lobby because we know that our struggles are international. In South Asia, we partner with Bangladesh National Women's Lawyer's Assocation and Maiti Nepal, who share our experiences. In India, we partner with grassroots women's organizations like Manavi, Asha Mahila Sansthan, Apne Aap Ekta Mahila Manch, New Savera and with other NGOs like ATSEC, West Bengal and Sanlaap. We created these partnerships through the process of our work. We found like-minded organizations who supported us in advocacy or reached out to us to share experiences.
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
We have brought back the voices of victims and survivors of sex-trafficking who say that they want a world in which it is unacceptable to buy or sell another human being and to imagine an economy in which one does not force one to sell oneself.
What are the main barriers to creating or achieving your impact?
a) Normalization of male dominance, b) Confusion between what is and what must be, c) the economic power of the trafficker to persuade and buy public opinion.
How many people have you served or plan to serve?
We serve and plan to continue to serve survivors, victims and potential victims of sex-trafficking in the red-light areas and slums of India and Nepal. We also plan to reach out to those who enforce the law so that they arrest traffickers and not victims. We also plan to reach the men in the lives of the women and girls who are trafficked into prostitution.
Directly
We directly serve more than five thousand women and girls who are trapped in prostitution and their families. We also reach out to ten thousand police officials through training on arresting the traffickers and not the victims of the crime of trafficking. We plan to serve about fifty thousand women and girls directly through our survivors coalition.
Indirectly
We indirectly impact on the more than 25,000 members of the families and the more 200,000 members of the community where the womens' and girls' groups exist. We also transform the lives of the men and boys in these communities through awarness-rasing programmes and cultural clubs. We plan to reach the population of India through the voices of our fifty-thousand strong women's and girls' groups when they demand a more equitable world and as they create more options for themselves.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation?
Increased number of women from red-light areas and slums have been approaching us to help them set up self-help groups and mentor their leadership. We have been approached by groups from Patna in Bihar, Jharkhand, Goa, West Bengal and Orissa. This is the best measure as women at the grassroots feel that our work is practical and making a change.
We have been able to influence Members of Parliament to table an amendment to the Indian anti-trafficking law which will penalize buyers and profiteers that will be voted on this year.
Our women's group has been able to mentor girls' groups in the areas we work in and these groups are now protected from sex-trafficking.Actor Ashley Judd, who has visted our programme in Delhi, said in her keynote address to the United Nations General Assembly that we were part of the solution
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation?
To keep sex-trafficking profiteers from legalizing sex slavery and to keep law-enforcement from arresting victims instead of traffickers. Our work has resulted in two manuals which are being widely used by UNODC to train Indian police and prosecutors.We are nominated to the Steering Committee of the Planning Commission, Working Group of the Ministry of Women, National Human Rights Commission to help in policies affecting women and children. We have been able to bring out the link between caste and prostitution and are currently working on recommendations to reduce the same for the National Commission for Women. We have been able to influence Members of Parliament to table an amendment to the Indian anti-trafficking law which will penalize buyers and profiteers that will be voted on this year. We were asked to address the UN General Assembly thematic debate on trafficking in June this year and we spoke about the urgent need to address the demand for trafficking.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation?
Over 5,000 women and children trapped in prostitution, survivors of trafficking, victims and potential victims who are from low-caste groups like Nutts, Perans, Devadasis, Sheikhs and Ansaris and the boys and men from their families as well as the larger community of over 200,000 people that they are transforming and law-enforcement official who are being trained to have a more gender sensitive approach to address the crime of trafficking for prostitution.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
The women's groups are running as small cooperative self-help groups with small businesses that range from catering, carpentry, bag-making, jewellery export and dealership of government distributed goods like kerosene. They are localized and their market is sustainable. We hope these market linkages will sustain our self-help groups. Other initiatives are funded by UNIFEM, UNODC, Geneva Global, Oak Foundation, Cents for Relief, Asset and TEN.
If known, provide information on your finances and organization
Annual Budget: $ 589619.56
Staff strength: 61
What is the potential demand for your innovation?
The over 18 million women and children all over the world who are trapped in sex-slavery. Our model can be adopted by other cultures as it is localized and decentralized. it is cost effective and sustainable as it is led by women not segregated from their communities but living inside the communities. Our women leaders can be the trainers who can share experiences with other women and replicate the groups. This approach is also sustainable because it transforms the entire community rather than putting children, women and men into institutions. It will lead to red-light areas becoming non-red-light areas.
What are the main barriers to financial sustainability?
The fact that more foundation funds are spent on supposed protection of sex buyers from AIDS than the protection of women and children from sex buyers even though there is no evidence that increased condom distribution in brothel districts is leading to condom usage or a decrease in AIDS. In fact it has created a vested interest in the preservation of brothels for the distribution of condoms rather than protecting the women.
The Story
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story.
Twenty women in prostitution in the brothels of Mumbai wanted to tell their stoty of exploitation to protect their sisters in the hills of Nepal. With their help I made a documentary, The Selling of Innocents, for which I won an Emmy. These women wanted to change their own lives and we started Apne Aap. The innovation was designed listening to them and based on the two Gandhian principles of Antodaya ( uplift of the last wo/man) and Ahimsa ( non-violence) because we believe that change is only possible if it affects the last wo/man in this case the trafficked woman or child.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material
I have worked as a journalist, activist and policy-maker on issues related to violence against women and children and won an Emmy for “outstanding investigative journalism,” have founded Apne Aap, a grassroots organization of over 5,000 women and children trapped in or at risk of prostitution in India’s red-light areas and slums and have provided policy support to the Government of India, UN agencies in Iran, Nepal, Thailand, Kosovo and New York and USAID in Washington DC, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Phillippines. I was recently presented the Abolitionist Award at the House of Lords in the UK and have written two manuals, one for the police on 'Confronting the Demand for Human Trafficking' and another for prosecutors in collaboration with UNODC.
Emphasis of Work
Our innovation links prevention, prosecution and protection as our womens' and girls' cooperatives create more options for women along with legal protection. Traffickers cannot lure, seduce , trick force or coerce these women and girls. At the same time we provide economic and educational options. This enables women not only to resist traffickers but file complaints and appear as witnesses against the perpetrators of the crime.
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Comments
Hello Ruchira, It is really great that the cooperatives have small businesses that stretch beyond crafts and hair styling. You mention the dealing of government goods like kerosene. Do you have a relationship with the government to formalize some of these systems? Do the women keep the money they make or does it go back into supporting the cooperative? What is the name of the documentary for which you won an Emmy? Congratulations! Thank you for your response.
Dana Frasz
Ashoka's Changemakers
The women's self-help group with the assistance of Apne Aap are building relationships with the government to get financially viable contracts so that they can run as small businesses in the local economy and also with the stamp of government backing break the stigma and discrimination that surrounds their lives. One example is the Kerosene dealership that is contracted out by the government to the private sector. Another government scheme that we applied for and have been contracted for is a girls hostel for low-caste girls to provide catch-up classes for a year to mainstream them into the formal school system. This girls' hostel is part of a government scheme called Education for All. This serves the twin purpose of protecting the daughters of the women in prostitution from being pulled into prostitution themselves and integrates the girls and the women into mainstream society besides providing employment to members of the self-help group. The self-help groups have also linked with a government bank called Nabard which has provided loans and training for making incense sticks which they market to five-star hotels. Initially the money is plowed back into the cooperatives and when the women decide that they can share in the profit, they decide how much and with what regularity.
I won the Emmy for my documentary, The Selling of Innocents, on the trafficking of women and children from Nepal to Mumbai.
Hi Ruchira, i m impressed by this innovative approach. I m sure unfortunate prostituted women wants to liberate from their unthinkable sufferings, provided someone like you give them courage, skill and opportunity to do so.
Thanks and congratulations.
Gopal
Hello Ruchira,
The participatory and 'bottom up' approach adopted by Apne Aap is truly innovative and would eventually lead to total transformation, empowerment and not just welfare of women. Building a platform and coalition of survivors and victims would further enable them to lead their own change and fight against their exploitation without any external pressure or influence. Apne Aap's achievement lies in the fact that it has provided spaces to the survivors of trafficking, helped them to find their voice, dignity and courage to stand up and tell the world that it is unacceptable to buy or sell another human being.
I am an intern for Apne Aap currently working in New Delhi.
I spent two weeks in Bihar observing the Apne Aap program there. I attended the women's self-help group meeting in the community house on the edge of the redlight district. It was an amazing and empowering experience. The community that Apne Aap is working with in Bihar is from the Nutt tribe. I observed and heard first hand from community members the absolute marginalization and stigmatization that has stymied any progress and has helped entrench the community in a damaging cycle of inter-generational prostitution.
The women showed such hope in their self-help meeting. This hope has been enabled by the prospects of education for their daughters instead of prostitution and possible other livelihood options.
The girls' hostel has also been a huge success. In a community where girls are usually unable to pursue education beyond the age of 13, I saw these girls smiling, learning, and even doing karate! This hostel is essential for helping break the cycle of inter-generational prostitution.
I was so proud of the progress Apne Aap has made in this community. The empowerment of the women to spearhead the change has met with great success. I hope that Apne Aap's work will continue to expand and help support the sheer resilience of these women.
-claire
I am proud to say that i have been a part of the Apne Aap family and my experience of working with the women has been both humbling and empowering. Ruchira's relentless pursuit to create a social movement had inspired me then and continues to even today.
It is true that women today are more vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse than ever before. That trafficking across the globe and in India is at a all time high. It is also true that the marginalised and unequal status of women is a reason for their vulnerabilites. It is here that Apne Aap's work is unique, for it not only takes up direct measures to help women out of prostitution, but also takes preventive action to stop women from being exploitated, by promoting their economic empowerment. The formation of the women's self-help group is an excellent and innovative step in this direction. I do hope that Apne Aap's work will expand and reach out to many other women marginalised elsewhere in the county.
In response to the entry above, I would like to mention that Apne Aap has been constantly working with women self help groups by providing them with viable economic options, training them on their legal rights and building their resilience to fight sex trafficking.
I have been associated with the organization for the past three years, and I must point out that we have been very successful in building market linkages at the local and international levels through export houses and government agencies. The need of the hour is to further strenghten these institutional linkages and help market the products of these women which will prove to be a great incentive for them.
Neelam Kolhi
Hi Ruchira,
It is so nice to see how the prostituted women are getting organized into self-help groups and it is even nicer to see that they are applying for the dealership of kerosene, a most necessary consumer goods used in every household. The idea of selling kerosene as an alternative livelihood option in itself is very interesting. It will not only help breaking down the stereotypical alternatives for livelihood, like sewing and stitching but will also link them directly to the society through supply of a very important daily need and thus making them more visible and important. I think it will be a significant step towards the de-stigmatization and mainstreaming of the women trapped into prostitution. I also appreciate the strategy of linking them directly to Govt. schemes and projects making the Govt. directly responsible for the rehabilitation. I really think your work will pave a significant way in mapping the alternative livelihood options which people often pose as the major obstacle to rehabilitation of prostituted women.
Tinku Khanna
In response to the entry above, I would like to mention that I have been a part of the Apne Aap family and I must say that this women centric approach really transforms women in the community from victim to leader. By protecting their children from inter-generational prostitution through schools and legal protection is the only way to empower women. Their style of operation i.e constantly working with women self help groups by providing them with viable economic options, training them on their legal rights and building their resilience to fight sex trafficking is unique.
Thanks and congratulations!
Dear Ruchira,
First of all, I want to congratulate you on your accomplishments. I do think that your work has been a very important step towards prostituted women’s empowerment. Tying up with NABARD is a very good step. It will make the Govt. institutions accountable to the women directly. It will also provide them sustainability even if there is no funding agency available today for funding them. If successful, this model can become replicable everywhere. I would suggest that the SHGs should also be involved into food distribution programs.
Sraboni