quarterly report april to june 2016

Anti- TraffickingHumanR E P O R T - A P R I L - J U N E 2 0 1 6

Akash Das, Programme CoordinatorAnti- Trafficking ProgrammeHuman

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Design Layout: Akash Das

An effort to curb modern Day Slavery of Displaced People

Diocese of Durgapur, CNI

Report:

April - June 2016

Rescue Mission

thOn the 11 of May, 2016, a four-member team from the Anti Human Trafficking (AHT) programme of the Diocese of Durgapur embarked on a mission to rescue 14-year-old Prokash Hasda who had been trafficked to Haryana. Prokash Hasda was a resident of Narandangi, South Dinajpur.

Prokash's mother had left him in the care of his grandfather when he was only 3-years-old. The grandfather being poor, agreed to let Prokash travel with his aunt to Haryana, she promised a better future for Prokash. But once he went there, he was pawned off to his aunt's sister who then employed him as a labourer in the fast-food joint owned by her husband, Jitendra James Singh also known as Raju Singh.

Prokash's grandfather Dawood Mardi, in the meantime had no contact with him for three months. When they finally managed to speak, Mr. Mardi realised that Prokash wasn't receiving any education; he was being employed as forced child-labour.

Upon receiving this news he immediately went off to Haryana to bring the child back home. But, upon his arrival he was told by Raju Singh and his wife that Prokash had run off with a huge sum of money that he had stolen from the Singh family. Dawood Mardi

was then hustled out of the house and sent back to his village. By this time, Mr. Mardi was completely sure that the Singh's were hiding Prokash, but there was nothing he could do. On returning to his village, he sought the help of AHT in rescuing this child.

AHT's Tulu Murmu and Akash Das were very prompt in responding to this man's tribulations. We filed an FIR (First Information Report) in the local police station it was a tough process as the police were very un-cooperative and reluctant to help and went about getting the necessary documents for the rescue. We contacted Child Line, which is a nation-wide government-funded NGO that works to rescue trafficked children and DLSA (District Legal Service Authorities) for legal help. Finally we managed to get the police to register an FIR after these two agencies helped us in convincing them.

Armed with the necessary papers, we were permitted by our Bishop, The Rt. Revd. Dr. Probal Kanto Dutta to go to Delhi in order to rescue this child, In spite of not having any particular funding for the rescue operation. A team of four people, including Tulu Murmu, Akash Das, Mrs. Nita Pyne (CDP Coordinator) and Ankita Bhattarcharjee (Communication Secy.) was formed to go on this mission. The first stop on the journey was Delhi, CNI Bhawan where the General Secretary of CNI, Mr. Alwan Masih, was very encouraging about the mission. He helped the team out with their stay in Haryana along with giving them a lot of useful ideas and tactics for the mission. We then left for Haryana early the next morning.

thDay 1: 13 May 2016

10:00 a.m.: Our first source of contact in Haryana was the local Child Line representatives whom we had contacted before leaving from Durgapur. The lady in-charge, Mrs. Rekha Sharma, was very eager to help us. She took us to the Women and Children Welfare office. The in-charge there, Mrs.

Prokash Hasda

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Megha Singhla put us in touch with the local police station in Ambala Cantt (Ambala Sadar Thana).

12:30 p.m.: The police seemed eager to help too, but it was at this point that legal procedures served as a hurdle. We had registered the FIR in West Bengal, which required that a member of the Bengal Police Force should have accompanied us. Since this was our first time we did not have any idea about such legal blocks. So, even though the Haryana police was willing to help, they could not do so officially. A member of the Haryana Police, Mrs. Bimla Devi, then convinced the cops to help the team off the record.

2:00 p.m.: The cops decided to go with the team to search for Raju Singh. Two police officers, Mr. Hooda and Mr. Nirmal Singh were assigned to help us. Mr. Mardi, who was part of the team, was very confident that once he reaches the bus-stop from where he'd boarded the bus the last that he had been in Haryana he could retrace his steps and find the Singh's. But when we reached the bus stand, Mr. Mardi could not find the location.

He remembered a church in a big ground. The cops took him to all the churches with grounds, but he did not recognise any. The other half of the team, at this point was trying to look for Raju Singh's shop. We asked the local shopkeeper's around the area, but couldn't find any satisfactory answer.

6:30 p.m. 7:30 p.m.: The cops gave up any hope of locating Raju Singh and the team was asked to return to the station. During this time the cops located and found the details of his phone number. The plan was, now, to come back the next morning and try to locate Raju Singh once more.

On the way back, we figured we might ask another paan-waala (roadside vendor) if he knew Raju Singh.

The answer was positive. Two members of the team went to the burger place and recorded a video of the owner. When the video was shown to Dawood Mardi, he identified the man as Raju Singh. The elated team immediately called the cops.

7:30 p.m. 10:00 p.m.:- A confrontation with Raju Singh and his wife Benedicta ensued during which stuck to their story that the child had run away. At first Raju Singh claimed to have no knowledge of the child's whereabouts, but when threatened with arrest on charges of abduction of a minor (according to the law, that's the crime that he'd be in for), he relented. Singh now said that the child might have run off with three other boys from a neighbouring shop. This was a lead and the police asked the team to return the next morning at 10 a.m. to talk to the shop-owner whom Raju had now blamed. We are thankful to Dr. Sadiq (Medical Superintendent) of Philadelphia Hospital for supporting us in this noble work and allowing us to stay the night at the Hospital.

thDay 2: 14 May 2016

10:00 a.m.: The owner (Vipul Singh) of the shop was too busy to turn up at the appointed time and the team was asked to return at 3 p.m.

03:00 p.m.: A young boy turned up from the shop. Vipul Singh turned out to be his uncle; he was away on business to Bihar. A phone conversation with him revealed that he has a vague idea about the boy's location, though he was trying to be very evasive about it.

3:30 p.m.: Raju Singh was given a 15-day period to look for the child and the team advised to return, accompanied by members of the Bengal Police Force, after this period of time.

Present Day: 26/05/2016

The Fruitful part of the rescue mission is that Raju Singh and His wife Benedicta Soren (Prime accused) are trying to locate Prokash. They are in touch with Anti Human Trafficking Programme regularly and asking for more time. These people few days back didn't even answer our phone calls.


Design Layout: Akash DasReport:

April - June 2016

Jitendra James Singh / Raju Singh

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Conclusion:Conclusion:

Mass awareness

The three main accused 1. Teresina Soren

2. Benedicta Soren3. Jitendra James Singh / Raju Singh

Jisinta Soren, (sister of the above accused) is a sister, Mother Teresa Ashadan Missionaries of Charity, Delhi. TeresinaTeresina Soren currently resides in Jammu & Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir

IndiaJahangir

is the northernmost state of . In the seventeenth century the Mughal emperor set his eyes on the valley of Kashmir and said that if paradise is anywhere on the earth, it is here.

But in recent decades the valley has been in news for militants activities. People have been affected immensely. The present situation is that no industrial development has taken place in the valley. Lack of jobs opportunities are forcing the Kashmiri's to migrate to metro cities.

Teresina is currently residing there and her relatives are in dark about her work. At present Kashmir is a source point of trafficking in India. It is shameful to say that these Kashmiri girls are in demand for their beauty.

BenedictaBenedicta Soren is resides in Haryana, It is well Known for its Bandhua Masdur (Forced Labour) activities in the Outskirt of Haryana. Males of different ages are trafficked here and forced to work day and night without any wages. They get food

twice a day once in the noon and once at night.

Jisinta SorenJisinta Soren; (sister of the above accused) is a sister, Mother Teresa Ashadan Missionaries of Charity, Delhi. Delhi is both a source and destination for trafficking. Many girls and boys are trafficked in the city every year.

On ConnectingNow my point is that these sisters are residing in different states of the country and broke all their relations with other family members residing in North & South Dinajpur district. These sisters did not even attend their father's Funeral. Both the sisters Teresina & Benedicta, have left their first husband and are now living with their second husbands.

My question is that what made these sister's go to other states? If one says for work, then currently Benedicta is not working. As for Teresina even Benedicta could not say what she does exactly. Yet they are in touch.

Secondly, what forced them to break all ties with their relatives residing in North & South Dinajpur?

Thirdly, what scared them that they did not attended their father's Funeral ?

Jisinta Soren, when Daud Mardi asked her for help she very nicely and humbly replied that she has no relationship with these two sisters and she cannot help them regarding this case. She also said that not to call her again as this may affect her job and social status.

Now after our intervention from Haryana Jisinta Soren called Daud Mardi and our Supervisor Tulu Murmu and were asking them to withdraw the charges from Benedicta, Teresina and Raju Singh. Now helping the victims were affecting her social status and job but helping the accused will not affect. Very strange, being a NUN she atleast should have the idea to judge between GOOD and BAD.

These things indicates more hidden stories of the case and makes one wonder if there more to the story and if more Prokash are connected with this family.

The intriguing part is that people, who turned their faces from Dawood Mardi to keep themselves out of trouble and to maintain their social status, are now asking Dawood Mardi on behalf of Raju Singh and Benedicta to drop the charges.

These things indicate a big trafficking racket. On connecting certain dots it is clear that this family is involved in a Trafficking racket and maintains a low profile in the society, to keep away from the law.Ankita Bhattarcharjee ( Communication Secy.)



April - June 2016

On Connecting

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We are thankful to God for blessing us with this wonderful opportunity to stand by the innocent and suffering children of His. I pray to God to help us with all the blessing and to stand for the many more Prokash in future. Akash Das

Staff capacitation

th thOn 7 and 8 of April 2016, a staff capacitating program was organized at Shanti Griha, Diocese of Durgapur.The program started with the opening prayer, led by Tulu Murmu (Supervisor) of Anti Human Trafficking Program (AHT). The program was structured in such a way that we could find the loop holes in our work and our working process. The sole purpose of the staff capacitating program was to rectify the mistakes and faults in ourselves and to work more effectively and efficiently in our respective working areas.

We started the program with casual interactions, so

that the participants would be relaxed and open up

without hesitation. We evaluated the past years

work thoroughly and then a detailed discussion on

the working area of each individual animator was

done. We tried to find out the problems each

animator faces due to the dimension of the working

area, weather, and many other factors. Then we

asked each individual's (Animators) to summarize

all the things on the chart paper and in a given

format.

The animators came up with different types of problems related to work and their personal approach to the work.

Mr. Tarun Pal, Capacity Building Coordinator, CDP of Diocese of Durgapur. It was our privilege to have him as a Resource Person at the programme. Mr. Pal came up with wonderful solutions to each and every problem of the AHT staff. We have learnt a lot from him. The staff capacitating program is fruitful because of his teachings. We hope to learn more from him in near future.

The AHT team would like to thank Rt. Revd. Dr. Probal Kanto Dutta the Bishop of Diocese of Durgapur, CNI. It is due to his guidance and leadership that the AHT programme is so successful and fruitful all along these years. We hope to grow under his blessings and guidance in the coming years. In the staff capacitating programme Sir helped us by showing the right direction and without his guidance this programme would not have been successful.

The staff capacitating program was successful and we are ready to work in full throttle. All the mistakes and faults will be rectified, all lose ends will be tied-up.

We now aim to build a healthy connection with the Panchayat Pradhans, Community Leaders, Government Officials and other High Profile people of the society for hurdle free working of Anti Human Trafficking Programme (AHT).

Let the world know the “Almighty” through our work of Kindness and humanity.



April - June 2016

Prokash’s Family

Awaiting Family

To the ReadersThank you for remembering AHT and Diocese of Durgapur, CNI in your prayers. We would love to have your valuable comments and advice, which you think would be helpful to us. Thank you once again.. Email:- [email protected]

quarterly report april to june 2016

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