The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Fighting trafficking in women from within

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 07, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Fighting trafficking in women from within

Ramya Kannan

Peer educators' collective rescues victims

Chennai: Sometimes the best way to fight is from the inside. It is also the only way these women can take their battle against trafficking forward.

Formerly sex workers who had become victims of trafficking , this group of women came together under a registered entity — Indra Female Peer Educators' Collective (IFPEC) — to take up cudgels on behalf of young victims of flesh trade.

Starting as a 20-member group in Chennai, their numbers have risen over the years.

They now have over 1,030 members in Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Madurai.

K. Kalaivanisecretary of the collective, says they have so far rescued 18 girls from brothels and pimps. "Our aim, even when we launched initially, was to prevent women from falling into the same trap. Later, we realised that we had a role in rescuing young girls who had been forced into the profession."

Access to the sources of sex industry, intricate knowledge of its convoluted processes and the clout to swing things in their favour have been the key strengths that helped the women in their tasks. For instance, when a girl from Kerala was smuggled off to a brothel in Hosur, the women had to use all their available sources and even the services of some `rowdies' to trace her and send her back home.

In another case, the collective president, B. Baby, had to act as a decoy to bust a begging and sex racket in Ongole, Andhra Pradesh. "I pretended to have fallen on bad times and said I badly needed to make some money. The old lady pimp was convinced and led me straight to the den where a young girl was trapped. We were then able to rescue her from that place," she recalls. It is their complete unobtrusive posture that has helped them succeed where many have failed.

More requests

With each such successful task, word spreads about the prowess of this group of women and more requests come to rescue daughters, wives and sisters.

In addition, IFPEC members, first brought together by the Indian Community Welfare Organisation, conduct legal awareness camps for sex workers, cooperate with the anti-vice squad, accompanying them during raids.

In this latter act, the women, former sex workers, see a great accomplishment: from being adversaries, they have managed to establish a rapport with the police and even work with them.

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