B A N G L A D E S H
‘Don’t Weep for Me...and Then Forget’
by Rajashri Dasgupta
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Winnie Mandela (seated) says governments are turning a blind eye to the problem of trafficking. [photo by Rajashri Dasgupta] |
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DHAKA — "My own struggle in South Africa is nothing compared to the victims of trafficking. Listening to the painful testimonies I was constricted with pain, I could not swallow," admitted Winnie Mandela, the president of the women's league of the African National Congress party.
She was speaking in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, as part of the six-member jury who listened in hushed silence to the personal testimonies of women before the South Asia Court of Women on the Violence of Trafficking and HIV/ AIDS here on Aug.11-13.
As survivors of violence poured out their grief of being deceived and coerced into prostitution, forced marriage and labour what became clearer is the collusion and compliance of their families, communities and governments in their trauma.
"The worrying factor is that governments are turning a blind eye to the violence and violations," said Winnie Mandela. "They are colluding in the crime."
There was consensus among the jury members selected from South Asia comprising professors, lawyers and human rights activists. "The testifiers' accounts are of wonderful courage and pain, they also reflect the failure of law," said Gayatri Chakravarty, professor at Columbia University.
The U.N. protocol defines trafficking as the selling, buying and transportation of people through the use of coercion and deception.
Fresh-faced Rakhi at 19, is an HIV-positive mother of a three-year old girl conceived when she was sold for 10,000 rupees (222 U.S. dollars) to a brothel in Mumbai, India. After months of torture, she was 'rescued' and sent to a government- run home for destitute minor girls in Kolkata.
Without her consent, the authorities of the destitute home-tested Rakhi for HIV and packed her off to an NGO when her reports revealed her HIV status.
In a similar instance in Nepal, a doctor revealed to the school authorities that its employee Rita, an attendant and widow of a migrant worker, had tested HIV-positive. The school forced her to leave her job with the promise that if she did so, her children could study in the school.
In Pakistan, police repeatedly raped the frail 19-year-old Naila in the police station where they had brought her for 'safe' custody from her tormentor. Similar was the experience of Sarita of Nepal, who along with other girls were tortured and abused by the police after they were rescued from Mumbai brothels.
"Don't discriminate against us," appealed Rita. "We are not here to harm you."
"Don't weep for me and my sisters, then forget my story the moment you step out of the hall," said Rakhi in a clear voice to the more than 1,000 people who had gathered at the Court of Women.
The perpetrators of violence were sometimes senior members of the family and even women, the survivors said.
Annu of Nepal, who was married off at 16 and two years later sold to a brothel in Mumbai, found that neither her country nor her family wanted her back. "Even my mother blames me, but that did not prevent my family from using my earnings from sex work," said a bitter Annu.
Fulon from Bangladesh, who spoke behind a screen on the stage for confidentiality, broke down when she narrated how was sold by her mother-in-law to a tout in India for 1,500 rupees (34 dollars).
Through the personal testimonies and the insights of a jury, the idea behind the court is to understand the increasing and intensifying vulnerability associated with trafficking of women and children. One of the root causes is the unequal gender relations taking the form of violence, sexual abuse and discrimination in the family and immediate communities.
Also, while free-market economics has paved the way for unfettered movement of capital and labour, people from poorer countries have not been given the same freedom of movement.
"The restrictions facilitate trafficking as people turn to traffickers to facilitate migration to seek better employment opportunities," said Nandinee Bandapadhya, consultant with a sex workers' organisation in Kolkata.
According to a recent report by the non-government group ActionAid, Asian women constitute the fastest growing component of international migrant labour and outnumber men.
It is 'guesstimated' that about 1.5 million Asian women, both documented and undocumented, are in the Gulf countries and there is an average outflow of 800,000 female migrants from sending countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in a year.
Asian women migrant workers fill the shortage of work force, jobs increasingly shunned by the citizens of the receiving countries like the Gulf nations. They are crowded in lower-end jobs in the service sector such as domestic work, entertainment and sex work.
Trafficking in Asia is mainly done for forced labour, both domestic and industrial, forced marriage and prostitution. Within India, there is considerable trafficking of women and children from regions of poverty to the metropolises.
"Since trafficking tends to be conflated with migration on the one hand and prostitution on the other, it influences critically the movements of women, both internally and across borders," said Farida Akhter, Asian Women's Human Right's Council (AWHRC), organiser of the court.
"This often leads to curb in female migration, a natural corollary to the process of globalisation, by magnifying the misery of trafficked women and arguing that trafficking is result of lax law enforcement in the sending countries," said Nandinee.
While it is important to identify individual perpetrators responsible for the crime, it is even more critical, activists say, to hold accountable institutions that have generated and continue to legitimise gross violations of human rights.
In fact, organisations that wish to seek redress and compensation can use the valuable body of evidence such as in the instance of the thousands of 'comfort women', survivors of rape and slavery perpetrated by the Japanese army during World War II.
So far, 17 Courts of Women have been held in Asia and Africa on the issues of land rights, racism, rights of indigenous and refugee women, against war for peace. The last international court was held in Cuba on March 2002 against the economic blockade against that country.
Voices of resistance and defiance were dominant when hundreds of women dressed in black stood holding hands one evening, singing protest songs on the streets. Colourful posters read, "Trafficked persons are victims of national security laws," "Do not stigmatise positive people," and "Stop trading in women's bodies and children's innocence."
People thronged to the gathering, listening intently to the songs and helped light the lamps held by the protestors.
"Earlier, I was fighting to educate my children, now I am fighting against AIDS and discrimination in my country," said Rita. "I want justice and punishment for the policemen who did this to me," added Naila.
