Coimbatore Included In On Commercial Sex List
The State Government has identified seven districts - particularly tourist destinations and pilgrim centres - as hot spots for commercial sex and is launching a pilot project to prevent human trafficking. The project will be launched in Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur, Thiruvannamalai, Salem, Pudukottai, Coimbatore, and Kanyakumari, and in major cities, including Chennai, by initially reviving the watch dog committees at the village level to create awareness on issues relating to trafficking.
The government has written to the district collectors asking them to appoint a revenue officer as nodal agent at the district level and to conduct monthly meetings with NGOs and other stake holders. A decision has also been taken to organise an apex body meeting in January 2009 to evolve a holistic plan to prevent trafficking in the State.
Based on the inputs given by NGOs from all over the State at a meeting here recently, it has been decided that a strategy for the pilot project in the seven districts will be evolved by different government departments that will coordinate with each other, Archana Ramasundaram, Additional Director General of Police, CB CID, and State-level nodal officer for the anti-human trafficking initiative, told . The departments that will be working together on the project are social welfare department, nutritious meal programme, social defence and the police. I have sent the letter to all the SPs of the seven districts asking them to work in coordination with the NGOs and other departments to prevent and control human trafficking, she said.
She has also urged the district authorities to revive the watch dog committees that have almost gone defunt of late. Functioning under the Social Welfare Department, the committees, headed by the panchayat presidents, have the VAOs as conveners and an NGO representative as member. Now a recommendation has been made to include the headmaster of the local school and a policeman/ police woman from the local station for better functioning of the committee. Throwing light on the inputs given by the NGOs, a senior police officer said lodges and hotels in Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur, Thiruvannamalai, places known for temple tourism, were being used for commercial sex.
He said women and children were being trafficked for comercial sex from other districts such as Coimbatore and Kanyakumari. Girls in the age group of 14 and 16 were trafficked for the textile and other industries in Coimbatore and Tirupur and sexually exploited, he said. In the case of Pudukottai, he said the prevailing socio-economic condition had come in handy for traffickers to lure people with promises of job opportunities to urban centres and exploit them by engaging them in commercial sex.
