Kerala - Kochi   

Ten grama panchayats in district selected for UNDP project

Staff Reporter

Aim is to prevent trafficking and spread of HIV

KOCHI: Ten grama panchayats in Ernakulam district - Elamkunnappuzha, Pallippuram, Kumbalanghy, Kuttampuzha, Thrikkakara, Choornikkara, Kadungalloor, Puthenvelikkara, Chennamangalam and Kottuvally - have been chosen along with ten panchayats each from the other districts for implementing the pilot phase of a UNDP-backed, community-based action programme for Prevention of Trafficking and HIV/AIDS (TAHA).

The initiative is being implemented through the Kudumbasree poverty eradication mission that has strong roots in community-based action involving local leadership, community development societies and neighbourhood groups.

The aim of the programme is to reduce unsafe and uninformed mobility of women and children, improve awareness among women on trafficking, community dialogue and networking for trafficking prevention, community acceptance and rehabilitation of victims, improved livelihood options for women from poor families and victims, convergence of various line departments at district and local levels, functional linkages with the local self-government and community-based monitoring on trafficking, said an official of the Kudumbashree District Mission here.

Besides, the programme also expects to build awareness among leaders about the problem of trafficking and to institutionalise the system under the local self-government.

India has the second largest number of HIV infections in the world after South Africa. There is an increase in the number of HIV infections among women and girls in the country over the years even as trafficking in persons is an increasing problem involving both sexual and labour exploitations of the victims.

The number of HIV positive persons has increased in Kerala since the first case was detected in 1987. People from the State migrate to other States for employment. Women from landless and marginal farmer families are particularly vulnerable to trafficking.

While women from the coastal areas migrate to the prawn-processing units in south Gujarat and Maharashtra, there are also a large number of women who go to the Gulf as housemaids. An element of trafficking is involved in all these as very often the women end up not getting what they were promised.

The TAHA project will identify the vulnerable population and enrol them in the Kudumbasree networks. Formation of neighbourhood groups exclusively for this section has also been proposed. Meanwhile, a Kudumbasree official informed that a training session for the resource persons for the programme would be held at Ashirbhavan on December 7 and 8.

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