Child trafficking in India - Rubina's return

Rubina's emotional reunion with her beloved grandmother/Fjona Hill

India is the fourth most dangerous country in the world for women, right after Afghanistan, DRC and Pakistan, according to a newly released global survey by the Thompson Reuters Foundation (I wrote a blogpost about the report a couple of weeks ago).  This unexpected distinction for the world’s largest democracy is due largely to the high numbers of women and girls trafficked in the country every year.  

It is estimated that 100 million people, mostly women and girls, were involved in trafficking in India in 2009 alone, according to the report.  Across the world, some of 1.2 million children are trafficked every year into prostitution, forced labour, child marriage, begging and other slavery-like conditions.

Rubina is one of them.  She was just ten when her father took her away from their small rural village in India’s Andhra Pradesh and sold her as a domestic slave in nearby Bangalore.

Photographer Fjona Hill followed her return home, after the little girl ran away and was taken to a Government’s Girls Home. There, Oasis, an NGO working with trafficked children, gave her counselling, traced her parents and brought her home. 

Although Rubina was luckier than most trafficked children, her story is fairly typical.

She lived with her parents, two young sisters and an elder bother in Chinampalle, a small Muslim village of 500 mud huts, where people eke out a meagre living off farming and stone mining.

Her father, a stone miner, could only find work two or three days a week, while her mother worked as a coolie (carrier) and toiled in the fields.  The family often went without food, and was in debt.  Rubina frequently bunked school and her father was convinced she was mentally unstable.  

Rubina arrives at her village and looks for her family/ Fjona Hill

  

Like most trafficked victims, Rubina had no idea what awaited her in Bangalore. Her father had told her he was taking her to an Islamic school, but sold her to a lady as a domestic servant instead.

In her case, the “dalal”, as recruiters are known in India, was her father – and that is not uncommon. Many children from poor families are sold by parents and relatives, who might not grasp the full implication of their actions.   Dalals can also be friends, neighbours, people who have been trafficked themselves, as well as corrupt police officers, passport officials and taxi/rickshaw drivers.  They haunt bus stops, railway stations and streets of deprived areas looking for potential victims, and use drugs, abduction, kidnapping, persuasion and deception to catch them.

Rubina kneels at her mother's feet as she explains where she had been taken by her father. A woman from the village looks on/Fjona Hill

 Rubina managed to escape, something few achieve, and was welcomed back into her village. The village elders disciplined the father. If she had been trafficked as a sex worker instead of a domestic servant, she might have been rejected by her family or her family would have been forced to leave their village because of the stigma and shame brought onto the household.

Oasis workers have been visiting Rubina recently. “She is now doing well and going to school, and the whole village are keeping an eye on her,” says Anita Kanaiya, Oasis executive director. 

For more information on Oasis, click here and to donate to the charity, click here.

Pakistani women need support

Last week, I wrote an entry about the world’s most dangerous places for women. Pakistan came third on the basis of cultural, tribal and religious practices harmful to women, according to a global report by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

 
A few days later, I was approached by the head of a non-profit organization working for women’s rights and peace in Pakistan. She was asking for help.

Dr. Shabnam Nazli contacted me through the online women’s network PeaceXPeace, a grassroots community of women who share cross-cultural solutions to achieve peace in their families, communities and in the world.

Dr. Nazli is the chair of Hope Development Organization, founded in 1997 by a group of feminists to address and combat the “daily abuses and crimes against women in Pakistan, such as child marriage, honour killing, domestic violence, acid throwing, bride burning, dowry death, murder of pregnant women, human trafficking, sexual violence and female genital mutilation,” she says.

Despite some government’s actions, violence and discrimination against women remain rampant, as the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s TurstLaw global report testifies. “It is difficult to work for peace and equality in an environment of deep-seated traditionalism, terrorism, political instability and bad economy,” says Dr Nazli.   90% of Pakistani women experience domestic violence in their lifetimes. Women in the country earn 82% less than men and 1000 women and girls are victims of honour killings ever year, according to the global report.

HDO is doing much needed work to educate and empower women, and provide health services and skills training.  But they lack the resources needed to keep going.  “We need your encouragement and your help to continue working,” Dr Nazli pleads.

Please, visit HDO website and send messages of support,  and if you can donations.

 

Get London Reading

Two weeks ago, the London’s paper, the Evening Standard, launched an inspiring and  successful campaign to encourage and help Londoners to read.

The Get London Reading campaign was prompted by the realization that in this city full of bookshops, libraries, publishers and writers, one in three children grows up without a single book of their own and one million people cannot read. “This is a betrayal of our children because reading is an essential tool for life,” says Editor Geordie Greig.

The paper has joined forces with Volunteer Reading Help, a charity that trains ordinary adults to go into London's most deprived primary schools to provide one-on-one reading support for struggling pupils. The charity does a tremendous job, but needs more volunteers and more donations. The Evening Standard is urging its readers to be part of the solution: “Volunteer today, donate today - and change lives.”

Over the past two weeks, the Evening Standard has published shocking new figures exposing illiteracy in London:

• 1 in 4 children in London leaves primary school at 11 unable to read or write properly

• 1 in 5 leaves secondary school without being able to read or write with confidence

• One million (or one in six) working adults in the capital cannot read with confidence. Nationally, five per cent of adults in England have literacy skills either at or below the level of a seven-year-old

• 40 per cent of 11-year-olds from inner-city primary schools have a reading age of between six and nine when they start secondary school

• 1 in 5 pupils at inner London schools has special educational needs, such as dyslexia

The paper’s chief features writer, David Cohen, talked at a recent Freelance Media Group lunch at the Groucho Club about the Get London Reading campaign.

He shared some of the moving stories he uncovered while reporting on the campaign, like that of the little girl who brought to class the Argos catalogue (home and general merchandise retail) when a teacher asked his pupils to bring in a book from home.  'It's the only one we've got,” said the nine-year-old.

The paper also featured many people – some highly successful – who explained how being unable to read affected their self-esteem and life. One of them, poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who is dyslexic, talked of how dyslexic people tend to go "one of two ways", conquering their fears and flourishing, or ending up in jail. And a multi-millionaire property mogul spoke for the first time about his “darkest secret” – that he cannot read – to expose the depth of the illiteracy problem in London.

The campaign has generated huge support from politicians, writers, celebrities, businesses and the general public.

So far, they have raised £145,000 – enough to fund 290 volunteers who will read one-to-one to 870 children.

To volunteer or donate, click here 

The Sound of the Egyptian Revolution

In the early days of the Egyptian revolution this year, three young musicians from Cairo recorded a solidarity protest song and posted it on YouTube.  "Sout al Horeya" (the Sound of Freedom) attracted over one million views within days and became the unoffocial anthem of the revolution.

The song is uplifting and beautiful even for those like me who don't understand the lyrics.  But even better with the lyrics! Here is what they mean: "The sound of freedom is calling, in every street corner in our country, the sound of freedom is calling. We will re-write history, if you are one of us, join us and don't stop us from fulfilling our dream."

Amir Eid, the guitarist and writer of the song, told Amnesty International that he decided to write the song and shoot it like a campaign for Tahrir Square to show the world what was really happening there as the Egyptian media coverage was unfair.

Amnesty UK played the song's video at the Trafalgar Square demonstration in February. "I was so happy. This was Egypt that I wanted the world to see," he told AI.

The mood in post-revolution Egypt is full of hope, he said. "We can see our future ahead of us."

Afghanistan is world’s most dangerous place for women – followed by DRC, Pakistan, India and Somalia

Afghanistan, Congo and Pakistan are the world's most dangerous countries for women in 2011 due to a barrage of threats ranging from violence and rape to dismal healthcare and "honour killings", an international expert poll showed today. India and Somalia are the next worst places to be a woman.

The global report is shocking and also depressing for showing dismal lack of progress. When will things change? Most of these terrible situations, statistics and suffering are well documented – what more do we need?

The survey has been compiled by the Thomson Reuters Foundation to mark the launch of TrustLaw Women, a website aimed at providing free legal advice for women's groups around the world.

Not surprisingly Afghanistan is named as the world’s most dangerous country for women because of its high levels of violence, poor healthcare and poverty. And the war was supposed to improve the plight of Afghan women…

“Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. That aside, it is also a context that gives a woman minimal opportunity for education, health access, reproductive choice, etc. The lack of hope of the situation of women improving in the near future, as opposed to countries such as Sierra Leone and Southern Sudan, makes the situation comparatively even worse," says Dhammika Perera of International Rescue Committee.

Continuing conflict, Nato airstrikes and cultural practices also combine to make Afghanistan a very dangerous place for women. "In addition, women who do attempt to speak out or take on public roles that challenge ingrained gender stereotypes of what is acceptable for women to do or not, such as working as policewomen or news broadcasters, are often intimidated or killed," says Antonella Notari, head of Women Change Makers,  a group that supports women social entrepreneurs around the world. 

 

The second worse place goes to the Democratic Republic of Congo for the staggering level of sexual violence in the lawless eastern part of the country. One recent US study claimed that more than 400,000 women are raped there each year. The UN has called Congo the rape capital of the world.

Pakistan comes next on the basis of cultural, tribal and religious practices harmful to women. "These include acid attacks, child and forced marriage and punishment or retribution by stoning or other physical abuse," the poll finds.

The fourth worse place goes to India, which is more surprising for a country emerging into an economic super-power and a country not at war. India’s inclusion to the danger list is due to its high level of female infanticide and sex trafficking.

And Somalia completes the list. The country, in a state in political disintegration, suffers high levels of maternal mortality, rape, female genital mutilation and limited access to education and healthcare.

The poll asked 213 experts from five continents to rank countries on issues like overall perception of danger, access to healthcare, violence, cultural discrimination and human trafficking.

"This survey shows that 'hidden dangers' like a lack of education or terrible access to healthcare are as deadly, if not more so, than physical dangers like rape and murder which usually grab the headlines," Monique Villa, chief executive of Thomson-Reuters Foundation, says.

For more information, go to the TrustLaw website, which provides in-depth information, statistics, interviews and videos on the study. Also read the Guardian’s article by Owen Bowcott. The piece also provides links to case studies in all five countries.

 

V&A musing

I had lots of time to kill between meetings in London yesterday, so went to one of my favourite places, the Victoria and Albert museum. On my own, with no agenda, I spent delicious hours ambling through its vast labyrinth of eclectic galleries, looking at the amazing ceramics, sculptures, paintings, textiles, jewellery and more - sketching, reading, examining, marvelling, dreaming. 

And I had coffee in the stunning cafe- the V&A's original restaurant, the Morris, Gamble and Poynter Rooms. They formed the very first museum restaurant in the world and were intended as a showpiece of modern design, craftsmanship and manufacturing.

 

 I had started my day stressed out, but left the museum feeling stimulated, excited and happy.  Beauty, self-expression, colours and creativity are good for the soul, as we all know. And taking time off to wander is sometimes as productive as a hard day at the office.

Women's Views on News

 At a recent Women in Journalism seminar, I’ve met the founder of WomensViewsOnNews.org, a women’s daily online news and current affairs service.

Alison Clarke founded WVoN in 2009 because she “was fed up with the male domination of the news.” She wanted a platform where all women’s voices and experiences could be heard by all.

According to the most recent survey by the Global Media Monitoring Project (March 2010), women feature in only about a fifth of the world’s news headlines and just ten percent of all news stories.

“Literally thousands of stories about, by and for women are never told.  This sends a message that women’s experiences and opinions are just not as important or as valid as those of men. We challenge that approach and aim to redress the imbalance in women’s favour,” Clarke says.

The site provides up-to-date news on all the major national and international stories of the day, in much the same way as any newspaper or online news service, but the stories they feature are always about women.  They also run feature articles and opinion pieces from time to time, but the focus is on news. Topics covered include arts and entertainments; business/employment;  feminism;  health; politics; science/technology;  sport; violence and world.

WVoN gives women a voice in two ways – by publishing stories that the mainstream press ignores; and by acting as a central point for stories that they do publish about women.

They source their stories from a range of online global, daily newspapers, press agencies, charities, magazines (weekly and monthly), social justice organizations and assorted blogs.  And they publish exclusive features by WVoN co-editors, as well as external guest editors who have a particular expertise.

Today’s featured articles, for example, include stories on growing protest against New York cops rape acquittal (sourced from Change.org),  women noticing other women’s weight first (sourced from the Daily Express),  the pitfalls of teaching abstinence (sourced from The Guardian) and Kandahar girls risking everything for an education (sourced from The Canadian Press). There are also original pieces on women urban planners and on living dolls written by WVoN co-editors.

WVoN is a volunteer collective made up of women journalists from different parts of the world including the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland and India.

They work on a rota basis with at least one journalist allocated to post stories up onto the site six days a week (Monday to Saturday). They post on average between 15 and 20 news stories every day.

The “duty” volunteer searches the sites from an extensive list of sources, looking for stories about women (they steer clear of ones about celebrities). The volunteer then writes a short description of each news story that she (or he) has decided to post onto the site and then links it to the original source.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer, click here, and if you want to find out more, get in touch.