Vihaan - Waste Management Society Yavatmal

The survivors road to justice is never smooth. Unfathomable delays, lack of resources, financial and otherwise, multiple visits to the court is a traumatic experience for most survivors of abuse and exploitation. For women already battling social stigma, a visit to the court is often revisiting the horrors of the past they want to leave behind. The pandemic came as a knockout punch. Many survivors, who had so far shown tremendous fortitude in appearing in courts, were also helpless because of the COVID-19 curbs. Interstate investigation and deposition in the trial through video conferencing have led to convictions but few and far in between. With a substantial decrease in the conviction rate of trafficking cases from 22% in 2019 to 10.6% in 2020 , the situation has become much more decadent. The primary objective of this programme is to provide legal support to 650 survivors of human trafficking and child sexual abuse to enable them secure right to justice and fair compensation in a smooth, timely and non-threatening way, protecting their basic human rights.

The programme focuses on providing educational support to 100 rural children in the age-group of 13 – 18 years to facilitate them to complete their secondary level (tenth standard) and prevent school drop-out. It also aims to render training and awareness on child protection to adolescent children enrolled between standard seventh and tenth in government schools along with the teachers to make the schools child friendly and reduce incidence of human trafficking and other forms of abuse and exploitation. The programme includes counselling and referral support to identified victims during the school awareness programme. The programme is scheduled to be launched in an active child trafficking source area in the Indo-Bangladesh border villages of Hingalganj block, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal.

Survivors of trafficking often suffer from devastating physical and mental health issues and struggle with readjustment to mainstream society because of their painful and traumatic past. Often their self-confidence is completely shattered and their outlook of the future is bleak. In addition to this, their exposure to various possibilities and opportunities available to them is greatly limited leaving them feeling disempowered, unable to access their full potential and vulnerable to re-trafficking. Skill development can, therefore, play a critical role in rehabilitation of survivors as well as prevention of trafficking at its source. Empowering survivors and other vulnerable women with employable skills and jobs or self-employment opportunities allows them to break free from the vicious cycle of exploitation.

With an in-depth understanding of the skill development sector in India and the barriers towards inclusion of survivors / those vulnerable to human trafficking that currently exist in the Shelter Home space, we developed a flagship Training Program in 2017 and have trained over 350 survivors and vulnerable till date. The program is tailor-made to cater to the specific needs of human trafficking survivors and other vulnerable women / girls in building their aptitude and abilities to become prepared for and undergo technical skill training programs.

Over the years, we have grown and have learned a lot to now confidently step into the next phase of scaling up the project across Karnataka and West Bengal, to provide this training and placement support to 150 survivors who are desperately in need to move out of the shelter home with sustainable livelihood opportunities to empower them.

India, with around 8 million people living as victims of human trafficking, is among the top ten countries with the largest estimated absolute number of people in modern slavery. Vihaan has been a vigilant partner of the state in the rescue of victims of human trafficking and other forms of abuse and exploitation. Since inception, we have rescued 4,882 victims of trafficking from destination points across India and moved them to safety. The COVID-19 crisis has further brought unprecedented challenges for millions of people around the world. Studies reported that with growing poverty thousands of people, especially children and young girls became vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, and trafficking across the globe. With the rural economy having suffered due to the shutdown of all economic activities, there has also been an increase in the repatriated victims’ re-trafficking from the source areas. To respond to this urgent need, the primary objective of this programme is to remove at least 30 victims of human trafficking and child sexual abuse from the clutches of abuse and exploitation in collaboration with law enforcement agencies and facilitate their safety and protection.

Not merely rescue, but supporting the survivors reintegration into society has always been a top priority for us, thus minimising the chances of revictimization and breaking the cycle of crime. Since inception, we have supported 3,385 survivors through our care and support program. During COVID-19, with the rural economy having suffered due to the shutdown of all economic activities, there was an increase in the repatriated victims’ re-trafficking from the source areas. Many victims suffered domestic violence, raising concerns about their safety and protection within the home, something that the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) reported as the Shadow Pandemic; that is, the increase in all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence. Therefore, an urgent need has arisen to empower survivors and prevent their revictimization. The primary objective of this programme is to provide care and support to 150 survivors of human trafficking and child sexual abuse to facilitate their physical, emotional, psychological and social well-being leading to their reintegration.

The 3-year program aims at strengthening the criminal justice system (CJS) to create a closely integrated eco-system that operates at different levels in the best interest of the survivors as well as building resilient communities to prevent trafficking at its source. The goal is to bolster the State pillars (legislative, executive and judiciary), nonstate actors (NGOs, CBOs, grassroot organisations, educational institutions and private entities) and civil society to institutionalise systems and standards of quality care for survivors. In addition to building on and strengthening the existing work, new initiatives will be taken based on our learnings in the last three years. Prevention of trafficking by working at the grassroots level in identified vulnerable communities will be an additional thematic area that will be added to the existing programmatic work. The aim is to gradually showcase a model anti-human trafficking intervention strategy which can be replicated by government agencies.

The objective of the program is to economically empower vulnerable young girls residing in shelter homes through skilling and livelihood opportunities leading to their financial independence. This model has the following phases – The Foundation Course (FC): The FC is the cornerstone of the Skill Development Program (prepared and initiated by Vihaan) and was officially launched in March 2018 by President Ram Nath Kovind. It is taught over a span of 3 months (360 hours) and includes modules such as Communicative English, Basic Information Technology, Functional Literacy (English and Mathematics), Life Skills and Behavioural Change and Sectoral Orientation. During the training program, the integral part of group counselling, support of social workers for the technical trainers and that for the survivors is a constant service provided to ensure the efficacy of the delivery of the program. The intended outcome of the FC is to increase functional literacy levels of survivors, encourage behavioural change, enable aspiration and prepare them for vocational training. Vocational Training: After the FC has been completed, vocational training is done in identified domains/sectors through industry-oriented curricula. This training is done, based on the aptitude assessment, over a period of 3 months. The value add of Vihaan through this phase is in ensuring that required counselling and social work support is provided to each trainee. This ensures efficiency of program delivery and retention of trainees throughout the program. Job Readiness and Placements: Job readiness skills are important to ensure all trainees who have successfully completed the FC and Vocational/Skills Training are employment ready. Without these, trainees will be unable to secure and retain employment once they complete the course. At least 50% candidates who complete the training will be placed in gainful employment. The above is provided along with group counselling, individual counselling and social worker support as a constant service for survivors through the coursework and for up to three months post placement. Institutionalisation of the Program The purpose of the program is to build a model that is scalable and replicable so as to make the skill development ecosystem more inclusive and sensitive to the needs of survivors and other vulnerable women. The end goal or the final phase of the program is the institutionalisation of an inclusive skill development scheme at the state level leveraging multi-stakeholder convergence meetings, exposure visits, workshops and advocacy. As part of larger Advocacy plans, this is primarily done by understanding the existing programs, identifying gaps and challenges and drafting the initial assessment report which forms the basis for strategic engagement for an all-inclusive Skill Development Program and Policy for Rehabilitation of vulnerable girls and survivors of Human Trafficking.