The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : A peek into untold misery of trafficking victims

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

A peek into untold misery of trafficking victims

Special Correspondent

The 8-minute docu-fiction film ‘One Life, No Price’ dwells on how they are lured

The film is commissioned by UNODC and produced by Touchriver Pictures
Commentary by John Abraham, Preity Zinta and Amitabh Bachchan sends a powerful message

Moving visuals: Stills from the docu-fiction film ‘One Life, No Price’.

HYDERABAD: “Let’s shed our silence against trafficking, let’s shun apathy towards trafficking.” The message in the baritone of Amitabh Bachchan has a powerful impact on the compelling eight-minute docu-fiction film on trafficking of young women and innocent children.

Commissioned by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and produced by Touchriver Pictures with inputs from P.M. Nair of UNODC and Sunitha Krishnan of Ujwala, an anti-trafficking activist, the film was screened for a press preview on Tuesday.

The short film, ‘One Life, No Price’ made by Rajesh Touchriver dwells on human trafficking and how girls and children from vulnerable backgrounds are lured into it with promise of a better life and then exploited.

With moving visuals sans dialogue but with crisp commentary by Bollywood stars John Abraham, Preity Zinta and Amitabh Bachchan, it succeeds in sending a powerful message to all to be responsive and about positive interventions for giving a life of dignity to rescued victims by various agencies.

Mr. Nair, an IPS officer who did a study on trafficking for National Human Rights Commission and on a deputation to UNODC, said a pilot project was taken up in five states including Andhra Pradesh towards creating awareness about the rights of the victims of trafficking, empowering public, media, police officers, prosecutors and rehabilitating rescued victims.

GIFT initiative

This was part of the UN Global Initiative Fighting Trafficking (GIFT). Principal Secretary, Woman Development and Child Welfare, Chaya Ratan, said concerted efforts were required to tackle trafficking along with stern punishment against perpetrators.

Press Academy Chairman D. Amar said media had a social responsibility to expose aberrations in society though at times it focused on trivial issues to increase viewership and readership.

He suggested that the film be dubbed into regional languages to reach out to the masses.

AP Police Academy Director Gopinath Reddy said 3,475 police personnel were trained to deal with trafficking issue and it made them socially responsive. Earlier, posters on trafficking were released.

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