Prayas report labels bar girls 'human trafficking'

Tuesday, September 20, 2005 12:41:00 AM
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Prayas report labels bar girls ‘human trafficking’
Gayatri Jayaraman
Think about it. You're a single woman, with two kids in primary school. An HR consultant gives you a job, takes large chun
should you not be as beautiful as some of your colleagues, and the job gives you grief. You'd quit? According to a new repor
just couldn't.
Crorepati bar girl Tarannum is fast becoming unrepresentative of the mass of women in the business, states a field action r
by Prayas, a field action group of Tata Institute of Social Sciences and one of the few NGOs working directly with prison cells.
The report spent the last six months studying bar girls at the Protective Home for Women, Chembur, the Kalyan prison, the S
Home for Minor Girls, Deonar, at bars and in their homes. The study examined entry processes, socio-economic situations,
and alternatives after the ban.
Vijay Raghavan, director of the project, squarely calls the business “trafficking”, claiming it fits the definition of the term
Protocol of 2002, key being the exploitation of a person in 'a position of vulnerability'.
"The findings of our study illustrate that these were not women who went into this business out of choice. We recommend th
taken against middlemen. The women urgently needed to be provided night shelters — they are very vulnerable now," he said