Apne Aap Women Worldwide is a national anti-trafficking organization which has organized women, men and children in the red-light districts

Apne Aap Women Worldwide is a national anti-trafficking organization which has organized women, men and children in the red-light districts of Bengal, Bihar, Delhi and Maharashtra to end sex-trafficking is organising two days state conference of survivors on anti-human trafficking on 30th and & 31st March 2009 at “Bhartiya Bhasa Parishad” from 12 noon to 4 pm. The conference will be attended by at least 50 survivors and women who are in prostitution. The objective of the program to draw the state plan of action for reparation, rehabilitation, reintegration of survivors for the state of West Bengal.

We had already organised the state conference for the state of Bihar from 7th to 9th March 2009 with 35 participants and developed the state plan of action for Bihar. The another state conference will be held in Jaipur on 15th & 16th April 2009. After collating three state plan of action we are going to organise the national conference in New Delhi in the month of June 2009 where we will be developing the national plan of action for survivors of human trafficking. The national plan of action shall be submitted to the Govt of India for their necessary action.

Ruchira Gupta, Emmy-winning film maker and founder President of Apne Aap Women Worldwide believes that Prostitution is sexual exploitation, not work. Women do not choose to enter prostitution but are forced by men who exploit their inequality based on sex, caste, class and race. Nor do women want to stay in prostitution. Prostitution does not free women from poverty. In fact, prostitution is physical and mental oppression and is inherently harmful. Buyers of prostituted sex and trafficking profiteers terrorise women. The age of entry for women into prostitution is twelve or thirteen. They do not have the freedom to choose the various men who penetrate their bodies. In these circumstances, prostitution cannot be recognized as work. We further believe that in order to combat human trafficking for sexual exploitation it is essential to criminalise demand.

In this connection there is a Bill pending in the Lok Sabha to penalize the buyers of prostituted sex and punish traffickers. Apne Aap and other women’s organizations of survivors and victims of sex-trafficking have worked tirelessly to get this amendment included in the Bill. It is necessary for all of you to support this campaign to get this amendment in the Bill passed. It is also necessary to campaign for the proposed clause in the Bill that asks for relief, resettlement and rehabilitation measures for prostituted women.

We have organised a press conference on 31st March 2009 at 3 pm at the above mentioned venue. Ms Ruchira Gupta, Executive Director of Apne Aap will interact with the press and share the experience along with outcome of the conference. We request you to send youu representative to attend the press conference.

For more Information contact:

www.apneaap.org

Mahua Sur Ray (Kolkata): 09830212927

About Ms Ruchira Gupta

In a career spanning 24 years, Ruchira Gupta has worked as a journalist, activist and policy-maker on issues related to violence against women and children. She has won an Emmy for “outstanding investigative journalism,” has founded Apne Aap, a grassroots organization of over a 10,000 women and children trapped in or at risk to prostitution in India’s red-light areas and slums. Apne Aap has developed training materials and trains police in India on confronting human trafficking. She has recently been honored at the House of Lords, UK for working to end Modern Day Slavery.

She has provided policy support to develop communication strategies for nearly seven years in various capacities in UN agencies in Nepal, Thailand, Kosovo and New York including heading the UNIFEM communications team in New York. Currently, she is the President and Executive Director of Apne Aap Women Worldwide and consults with the UN in Iran.

She sits on the Steering Committee for the Planning Commission of the Government of India for the 11th Five-year Plan and on the Working group of the Ministry of Women and Children. She is on the advisory board of Asia Society, New York and Vital Voices, Washington DC and the Ricky Martin Foundation as well as on the board of Coalition against Trafficking in Women, Asia-Pacific. She has testified to the Indian Parliament on amending the Indian trafficking law. Her testimony to the UN Senate had a direct role in the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, 2000 and has been honored at the White House for her work to combat trafficking.

Her documentaries include: Land of the Missing Children, Channel 4, UK, 2005, on teenage sex-slavery in India., Saffron Warriors, Channel 4, UK, 2003 on Nazi style Hindu fundamentalism in India, Rape for Profit.  (Life in the Mumbai Brothel): News Night, BBC-1999, Kali’s smile: Radio 4, BBC documentary on role of Gods and goddesses in Indian popular culture. 1998, Shiva's wedding: Radio 4, BBC documentary on role of Gods and goddesses in Indian popular culture. 1998, The Selling of Innocents. (On sex-trafficking from Nepal to Mumbai, India): Documentary screened on CBC and HBO. Awarded the EMMY for outstanding investigative journalism by the United States Academy for Television Arts and Sciences in 1997 and used by NGOs, activists, government agencies as educational material to combat trafficking. -1997, Zero Hour. A 13 episode Indian Quiz show with Parliamentarians. BITV 1994 and The Brotherhood. The RSS, BBC, 1993.

Her published articles on trafficking include: Trafficking Responses in Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia: Needs, Capacity assessment

and Recommendations;  Literature review and analysis related to Human trafficking in USAID-assisted countries in Latin America: Literature review and analysis related to  Human trafficking in post-conflict situations in USAID-assisted countries; Assessment of the situation of women and children combatants in the Liberian post-conflict period and recommendations for successful integration;  Trafficking in the Asia and Near East region: Problem analysis and Proposed framework for response;  Kosovo plan of action to counter trafficking in persons; Manual for law-enforcement officers to confront Demand for Human trafficking.; Manual for prosecutors to confront human trafficking.