One year after the Swaraksha caravan rolled out of Hyderabad and spread the message against trafficking of children and women; it was a time for stock taking in the city with release of a tutorial video.
“In the 165 days the caravan travelled across the three states, we booked 112 cases against suspected traffickers, 40 brokers who accepted their guilt and 16 missing girls were discovered,” said Sunita Krishnan of Prajwala, at a function to release the video.
“This campaign was successful because of the interest shown by all the stake holders,” said U.S. Consul General Katherine Hadda before the screening of the video.
The gritty video shows the journey of the caravan as well as the experiences shared by some of the participants, officials and activists in the dozens of pit stops, where the sensitisation campaigns were held in the course of the journey that covered 15,600 k.m. between January 9 and March 21 of 2016.
“This campaign has removed the stigma of trafficking for the victims. The coordination between various stakeholders can be seen from the fact that when we learnt about a missing girl, the U.S. consulate put out a social media message which was noticed by Orissa Chief Minister and within six days the victim was traced,” informed Ms. Krishnan.
Justice S.V. Bhatt, who was involved from the beginning and played a key role in involving judicial officials during the sensitisation campaign said: “Unless we are all involved in raising awareness and fighting this crime, it cannot be stopped.”
