FXB India Suraksha in partnership with the Asia Foundation convened a regional sharing meeting in Manipur on Monday to discuss optimising screening and support services for gender-based violence and Trafficking in Persons (TIP) victims in India at Classic Grande.
The meeting brought together stakeholders engaged at the forefront of screening and service delivery, including law enforcement, government institutions, civil society partners, survivor networks, and subject experts.
The Asia Foundation, with support from the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP), United States (US) department of State conducted a country qualitative research study to help inform and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of screening and service provision to victims of TIP and gender-based violence (GBV) in diverse contexts in three target countries India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
The programme partnered with FXB India Suraksha in India, Centre for Policy Analysis in Sri Lanka, and Social Science Baha in Nepal, to conduct country specific research.
“Manipur is one of the states that taught me major challenges in this field and also how to deal with the challenges world-wide,” said FXB India Suraksha, India chief, operating officer Satya Prakash.
“We realised that most victims suffer from GBV which made them vulnerable to trafficking and hence researches like the one we undertook that focus on screening, become very important in making the overall process much more effective,” he mentioned.
Second, effective screening can help stringent conviction of the perpetrator and identification of correct services required for rehabilitation of the victim, he said.
The study provides an analysis of the screening and identification services in India, and explores the relevance and opportunity of integrating services for victims of Gender-Based Violence and TIP, he said.
It highlights the gaps in the screening process for victim identification and the resultant mismatch in service delivery and includes recommendations and tools to help improve screening and identification of victims of TIP, he said
The discussion was attended by secretary, District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Imphal East Arshad Saeed Shah; former president, Naga women union, Manipur and former expert committee member NCW Grace Thumra Shatsang; state programme officer, department of Social Welfare Mala Lishram; former member, Manipur Commission for Protection of Child Rights Keisham Pradipkumar Singh; convenor, Manipur Alliance for Child Rights and former member, Manipur Commission for Protection of Child Rights Montu Ahanthem and chief Functionary, Integrated Women and Child Development Centre Annie Mangsatabam.
The discussions highlighted various challenges in service provision in Manipur such as budgetary constraints – which affects the efficiency in service provision and also affected the construction of VLCPCs in every village of Manipur as there is no specific funds for them.
Strong hold of customary laws and the staunch patriarchal social structure of the state, especially among the tribal community that pose a bottleneck in accessing legal aid by the victims of GBV, was highlighted. It was stated that no facilities are available for the GBV victims who suffer from mental health issues. Non-analysis of services and accountability of the service providers by the government highlighted a major gap.
Panelists suggested making the legal aid service provision more efficient by the proactive nature of the legal service providers and not being just ‘mute spectators’. The need for appropriate monitoring of the foreign nationals while issuing refugee cards, to them as some of them have become continuous offenders was also mentioned. Mapping of women gone abroad for domestic work done to find out their welfare and security and seeing how many are trafficked and how many are really working as domestic workers, were discussed. A need for proper budget allocation and state specific policy formulation was also laid forth.
