Girls on Our Streets

Op-ed Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof – NY Times – 6 May, 2009

Americans tend to think of forced prostitution as the plight of Mexican or Asian women trafficked into the United States and locked up in brothels. Such trafficking is indeed a problem, but the far greater scandal and the worst violence involves American teenage girls.

If a middle-class white girl goes missing, radio stations broadcast amber alerts, and cable TV fills the air with “missing beauty” updates. But 13-year-old black or Latina girls from poor neighborhoods vanish all the time, and the pimps are among the few people who show any interest.

These domestic girls are often runaways or those called “throwaways”. . .

. . . read complete op-ed . . .
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Councils urged to join anti-sex ads campaign

Croydon Guardian (UK) – Tues 28 April, 2009

Local councils should put pressure on newspaper publishers to stop the exploitation of vulnerable women as sex slaves, a campaign group says.

This is the strong message being sent out by a charity that looks after women trafficked into sex slavery in London’s brothels.

Eaves Housing has launched their Nothing Personal campaign calling on councillors and editors to take responsibility for the blight of sex trafficking in their boroughs. . .

. . . read complete article . . .
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Mosaic shows documentary to show reality of sex trafficking

Julianne Shapiro – Spartan Daily – Mon 2 March, 2009

Kendall Sallay, a sophomore social science major, participates in an activity representing how many times sex trafficking victims change hands during the presentation "Chained to Sex: The Reality of Sex Trafficking" in the Mosaic Cross Cultural Center on Thursday. Image: Julianne Shapiro

Sex trafficker Olga told Katerina and Anya that “everything was fine” when she sold them to a couple of men at a cafe in the Aksaray district of Istanbul. She collected her cash and left the two women there.

More than 30 people watched clips from the documentary “Sex Slaves” during the presentation “Chained to Sex: The Reality of Sex Trafficking” in the Mosaic Cross Cultural Center at the Student Union on Thursday.

Donald Thai, a sophomore computer science major, said he was surprised a woman sold the women.

“I would think men would trick the women,” he said.

. . . read complete article . . .
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Initiatives – to combat trafficking of women and children

Press Information Bureau Government of India – Wed 17 Dec, 2008

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has been implementing three pilot projects- i) to combat trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation under the sanction of tradition ii) pilot project to combat trafficking of women and children for commercial, sexual exploitation in source area and iii) pilot project to combat trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation in destination areas. Based on the favorable feedback on the implementation of the pilot projects, it was decided to convert these three projects into a comprehensive scheme in the 11th Plan.

• Prevention, which consists of formation of community vigilance groups/adolescents groups, awareness and sensitization of important functionaries like police, community leaders and preparation of IEC material, holding workshops, etc.

• Rescue, safe withdrawal of the victim from the place of exploitation.

• Rehabilitation, which includes providing safe shelter for victims with basic inputs of food, clothing, counseling medical care, legal aid, vocational training and income generation activities etc. . .

. . . read complete release . . .
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