[asia-apec 1473] Upcoming Event: Trafficking in Women and Children in South Asia

[Faruq Faisel]

SOUTH ASIA PARTNERSHIP (SAP) CANADA
In collaboration with the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
presents a seminar and video screening on Trafficking in Women and Children
in South Asia

Video: "HIGHWAY TO HELL"

Discussant:
Ms. Upala Devi Banerjee
Manager, Child Rights Fund of CIDA in India


Date:
Thursday, June 22, 2000

Time:
12:00 - 14:00

Venue:
Room 871
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
200 Promenade du Portage
Hull

Ms. Upala Devi Banerjee is the manager of the Child Rights Fund of the
Canadian International Development Agency in India. Ms. Banerjee also
serves as the India Program Consultant for the American Centre for
International Labour Solidarity, a US-based organization working on
workers' rights issues worldwide.    Her areas of expertise include child
rights, trafficking in women and children, gender and labour issues.  She
has
worked with UNICEF, Department for International Development (DFID) UK,
NORAD and Save the Children's Fund-Sweden.

Prostitution in India and Nepal is a thriving industry in the hands of
traffickers who source, transport and sell young girls all over South Asia.
The interplay of economic, cultural and social forces including the low
status of the girl child bear down on the poor. Young girls from the
Sindhupalchowk and Narankot districts of Nepal migrate to the urban
commercial centres in search of employment in the flourishing carpet
industry.  These cities have become transit centres for the trafficking of
young girls across the border to the urban centres of Bihar, Bombay and
Calcutta.  According to a recent report, as many as 200,000 prostitutes in
India are Nepali girls, entering Indian between the ages of 10 and 14
years, at a rate of 7000 girls per year.

Ms. Banerjee's presentation will follow the screening of the documentary-
"Highway to Hell", produced with the support of CIDA's South Asia Regional
Gender Fund. This 30 minutes video presents an understanding of the
interplay between the macro-economic and social forces at work that keep the
young girls and their families in bondage.  Absolute poverty and food
security combined with the lack of education and low status of the girl
child, result in trafficking being one of the most organized, exploitative
forms of oppression against women in South Asia.  The film questions
stereotypical perceptions of society about sex workers and their children,
in the hope of paving the way for their integration, instead of the
isolation and ostracism they face.

Please RSVP by phone, fax or e-mail to:

Faruq Faisel
Canadian Program Manager
South Asia Partnership (SAP) Canada
1 Nicholas Street, Suite 200
Ottawa Ontario K1N 7B7
Canada

Phone: (613) 241 1333
Fax: (613) 241 1129
E-mail: sap at web.net