Our Vision
All vulnerable communities in India will be empowered to protect and defend themselves from being sold and bought into slavery and servitude, and the State will take responsibility to provide people with services for their protection.
Our Mission
Our mission is two fold:
(a) The State, through its Criminal Justice System and Social Welfare offices, provides appropriate and effective services for reparation, justice and rehabilitation to victims of human trafficking.
(b) Survivors of trafficking and affected communities claim their entitlements and rights to fair governance and services for their survival, development and protection.
All vulnerable communities in India will be empowered to protect and defend themselves from being sold and bought into slavery and servitude, and the State will take responsibility to provide people with services for their protection.
Our Mission
Our mission is two fold:
(a) The State, through its Criminal Justice System and Social Welfare offices, provides appropriate and effective services for reparation, justice and rehabilitation to victims of human trafficking.
(b) Survivors of trafficking and affected communities claim their entitlements and rights to fair governance and services for their survival, development and protection.
Our Goals
(a) Strengthening accountability of the criminal justice system to survivors of human trafficking: increased accountability of the police in investigation and prosecution of traffickers in source and destination areas: increased accountability of the court in protecting survivors` rights to rehabilitation.
(b) Strengthening accountability of social justice authorities (administration, panchayats, district administration and other duty bearers) in providing rehabilitation services and compensation to the survivors of human trafficking.
(c) Strengthening accountability of NGOs and lawyers to survivors of human trafficking for quality service delivery
(d) Participation of survivors in strategising and planning of Tafteesh and other anti-trafficking strategies initiatives by duty bearers
(e) Facilitate changes in anti-trafficking policies from custodial approachesto restorative approaches, where policies on rehabilitation are made in consultation with survivors.
(f) Change of media narrative around survivors of human trafficking from helpless and hapless victims or disempowered survivors to solution providers.
(g) Elimination of stigma against survivors of human trafficking in families, communities, institutions (Panchayats, police, administrators, health service providers, educational institutions or in law makers or policy makers.
(a) Strengthening accountability of the criminal justice system to survivors of human trafficking: increased accountability of the police in investigation and prosecution of traffickers in source and destination areas: increased accountability of the court in protecting survivors` rights to rehabilitation.
(b) Strengthening accountability of social justice authorities (administration, panchayats, district administration and other duty bearers) in providing rehabilitation services and compensation to the survivors of human trafficking.
(c) Strengthening accountability of NGOs and lawyers to survivors of human trafficking for quality service delivery
(d) Participation of survivors in strategising and planning of Tafteesh and other anti-trafficking strategies initiatives by duty bearers
(e) Facilitate changes in anti-trafficking policies from custodial approachesto restorative approaches, where policies on rehabilitation are made in consultation with survivors.
(f) Change of media narrative around survivors of human trafficking from helpless and hapless victims or disempowered survivors to solution providers.
(g) Elimination of stigma against survivors of human trafficking in families, communities, institutions (Panchayats, police, administrators, health service providers, educational institutions or in law makers or policy makers.
Elimination of trafficking in persons, especially children, for commercial sexual exploitation or forced labour, or other forms of exploitation.
Context at Start (2013)
• Impunity of traffickers in South and North 24 Parganas, and Maharashtra, very low convictions. Impunity leads to escalation of crime, increasing profits. Poor investigations and low interest in LEA.
• Survivors of trafficking experience forced institutionalisation, poor access to rehabilitation services, negligible access to victim compensation & reparation leading to alination of survivors to the CJS, experience of acute stigma in reintegration, forced marriages and domestic violence, desertion and abandonment. Survivors participation in crime deterrence very low.
• Political agenda or mandate on human trafficking low - in both state and national governments. Significant structural improvements - AHTUs, victim compensation, ICPS, DVA.
• Highest incidence in trafficking amongst adolescents, through migrations. State and NGO approach to migration negative. Community/ family blame for migration of children.
• Bengal and Maharashtra highest amongst the trafficking affected states in India, wide gap in economic health, particularly between rural Bengal and urban Maharashtra. Structural inequities trigger migrations from Bengal to other economically stronger cities. Migrations for informal labour or other social migrations have no services for protection.
Tafteesh - a multi-stakeholder group that aims to combat trafficking
• Grassroots organisations in North and South 24 Parganas, the two districts most affected in Bengal - working on reintegration and prevention
• Survivors of trafficking as partners in the design, implementation and monitoring of the action
• Professional Lawyers - working in High Court and Lower Courts - to act as counsel to survivors (not of NGOs)
• Mental health professionals - to enable a client centred approach, and enable the system to be trauma-informed
• Intervention partner in destination point - to strengthen interstate coordination and systemic convergence in prosecution (of traffickers) and rehabilitation (of survivors)
• Media desk - enable survivors access to mainstream media and social media, challenge the custodial narrative and also the narrative of denial
• Human Resource Management to address capacity building needs, including on stress management, resilience building, strengthening trust, acknowledgement of competitiveness, democratic hierarchy, partnership and interdependence and empathy building.
• Alliances to focus on shift from custodial to restorative care, changes in law and policy at national and state levels, systems integration to deal with trafficking in all forms, remove conflation and prejudice against prostitution.
Inputs
• 10 years intervention - stable funding
• Consortium approach - funder/s integral part of the system apart from NGOs and other groups, survivors’ internal partner in the programme
• Design of intervention - Mobilisation and organising, building competencies and alignment, building leadership and strengthening consortium identity and culture
• Case management of survivors of trafficking - (a) access to rehabilitation services and entitlements, compensation, legal aid (b) independent legal representation in CJS to monitor investigations and prosecution, challenge investigations and DLSA to appeal in higher courts (c) escalation of non-responsiveness of Panchayats and District Administration to state and national level, asserting accountability demands by survivors and allies (other members of the consortium)
• Media engagement facilitated, monitored and analysis to feed into strategizing
• Planning tools and processes to be sensitive to culture, capacities, strengths of members rather than straightjacketing into linear, restrictive planning tools. •
Technology options to be maximised for communication and inclusion
• Programme to be monitored and managed by management committee comprising of representatives
• HR functions
Expected Outcome
• A dynamic and flexible movement in the shape of a consortium
• Priorities informed by survivors of human trafficking - from the grassroots to the macro - from individual to collective
• Rights based approach to build accountability of government and the Criminal Justice System
• Panchayats and BDOs, and all service providers in the grassroots become more responsive to claims and entitlements
• Implementation of compensation laws and policies become more efficient ensuring more victim-centricity and reparation not conditional to convictions
• Survivors assertion of legal rights challenge custodial powers of the State and the NGOs
• Internal stakeholders of Tafteesh develop organisational and personal leadership in the sector
• Media narrative engages with survivors and stakeholders directly, breaking away from perpetuating the custodial narrative created and sustained by patrons of the custodial system
• Mobilised and organised survivors and grassroots organisation strengthen accountability of Panchayats, district administration, police, mainstream political groups, the private sector and other philanthropic organisations for preventative actions including migration assistance, upholding economic rights of the most vulnerable and the marginalised, implementation and accountability of VLCPCs and the ICPS duty bearers
• Changes in the law - new law on human trafficking addressing all its forms, institutionalising AHTUs, defining rehabilitation, covering all forms of human trafficking and focussing on community based rehabilitation instead of institutionalisation (longer term)
Intended Impact
• Deterrence of human trafficking in the project sites
• Structural changes in law and policy impacting all states across India
• Leadership from the communities of survivors of human trafficking to get institutionalised as participants in the policy framing and monitoring eco system
• AHTOs (anti human trafficking organisations) become more rights based than custodial, more empowering than protectionist
• Panchayats and police - changed attitudes, behaviours and practices in responsiveness to human trafficking, child protection and migration
Context at Start (2013)
• Impunity of traffickers in South and North 24 Parganas, and Maharashtra, very low convictions. Impunity leads to escalation of crime, increasing profits. Poor investigations and low interest in LEA.
• Survivors of trafficking experience forced institutionalisation, poor access to rehabilitation services, negligible access to victim compensation & reparation leading to alination of survivors to the CJS, experience of acute stigma in reintegration, forced marriages and domestic violence, desertion and abandonment. Survivors participation in crime deterrence very low.
• Political agenda or mandate on human trafficking low - in both state and national governments. Significant structural improvements - AHTUs, victim compensation, ICPS, DVA.
• Highest incidence in trafficking amongst adolescents, through migrations. State and NGO approach to migration negative. Community/ family blame for migration of children.
• Bengal and Maharashtra highest amongst the trafficking affected states in India, wide gap in economic health, particularly between rural Bengal and urban Maharashtra. Structural inequities trigger migrations from Bengal to other economically stronger cities. Migrations for informal labour or other social migrations have no services for protection.
Tafteesh - a multi-stakeholder group that aims to combat trafficking
• Grassroots organisations in North and South 24 Parganas, the two districts most affected in Bengal - working on reintegration and prevention
• Survivors of trafficking as partners in the design, implementation and monitoring of the action
• Professional Lawyers - working in High Court and Lower Courts - to act as counsel to survivors (not of NGOs)
• Mental health professionals - to enable a client centred approach, and enable the system to be trauma-informed
• Intervention partner in destination point - to strengthen interstate coordination and systemic convergence in prosecution (of traffickers) and rehabilitation (of survivors)
• Media desk - enable survivors access to mainstream media and social media, challenge the custodial narrative and also the narrative of denial
• Human Resource Management to address capacity building needs, including on stress management, resilience building, strengthening trust, acknowledgement of competitiveness, democratic hierarchy, partnership and interdependence and empathy building.
• Alliances to focus on shift from custodial to restorative care, changes in law and policy at national and state levels, systems integration to deal with trafficking in all forms, remove conflation and prejudice against prostitution.
Inputs
• 10 years intervention - stable funding
• Consortium approach - funder/s integral part of the system apart from NGOs and other groups, survivors’ internal partner in the programme
• Design of intervention - Mobilisation and organising, building competencies and alignment, building leadership and strengthening consortium identity and culture
• Case management of survivors of trafficking - (a) access to rehabilitation services and entitlements, compensation, legal aid (b) independent legal representation in CJS to monitor investigations and prosecution, challenge investigations and DLSA to appeal in higher courts (c) escalation of non-responsiveness of Panchayats and District Administration to state and national level, asserting accountability demands by survivors and allies (other members of the consortium)
• Media engagement facilitated, monitored and analysis to feed into strategizing
• Planning tools and processes to be sensitive to culture, capacities, strengths of members rather than straightjacketing into linear, restrictive planning tools. •
Technology options to be maximised for communication and inclusion
• Programme to be monitored and managed by management committee comprising of representatives
• HR functions
Expected Outcome
• A dynamic and flexible movement in the shape of a consortium
• Priorities informed by survivors of human trafficking - from the grassroots to the macro - from individual to collective
• Rights based approach to build accountability of government and the Criminal Justice System
• Panchayats and BDOs, and all service providers in the grassroots become more responsive to claims and entitlements
• Implementation of compensation laws and policies become more efficient ensuring more victim-centricity and reparation not conditional to convictions
• Survivors assertion of legal rights challenge custodial powers of the State and the NGOs
• Internal stakeholders of Tafteesh develop organisational and personal leadership in the sector
• Media narrative engages with survivors and stakeholders directly, breaking away from perpetuating the custodial narrative created and sustained by patrons of the custodial system
• Mobilised and organised survivors and grassroots organisation strengthen accountability of Panchayats, district administration, police, mainstream political groups, the private sector and other philanthropic organisations for preventative actions including migration assistance, upholding economic rights of the most vulnerable and the marginalised, implementation and accountability of VLCPCs and the ICPS duty bearers
• Changes in the law - new law on human trafficking addressing all its forms, institutionalising AHTUs, defining rehabilitation, covering all forms of human trafficking and focussing on community based rehabilitation instead of institutionalisation (longer term)
Intended Impact
• Deterrence of human trafficking in the project sites
• Structural changes in law and policy impacting all states across India
• Leadership from the communities of survivors of human trafficking to get institutionalised as participants in the policy framing and monitoring eco system
• AHTOs (anti human trafficking organisations) become more rights based than custodial, more empowering than protectionist
• Panchayats and police - changed attitudes, behaviours and practices in responsiveness to human trafficking, child protection and migration
