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Fortunate Mina, Helpless Police

by Farah Kabir
LAST month I was in
Sarsha, Jessore. a union 7 kilometres from the Benapole border. The Centre for Women and Children Studies has undertaken a research on women and child trafficking. It is also engaged in a campaign for raising awareness on the issue. My involvement took me to Sarsha and 1 met Mina.
Mina Is perhaps seven or eight years old. She is a cute little girl with a few teeth missing in the front, and two big beautiful eyes. There is fear in her eyes and she hesitates to speak. She is traumatised I
A month-and-a-half ago Mina was brought into the police station at Sarsha by a kind-hearted person. This conscientious citizen found her abandoned near the border lost and crying. Mina had been left behind by the traffickers.
The police have been trying to get her to speak, but Mina has suffered greatly and it took them long to find out her name. She would only speak In monosyllables till recently. The day we met with her she told the police the name of her father and the name of her village. On the basis of this information, police are trying to locate her father.
When Mina was brought into the police station, they were faced with the problem of where to keep her. They have the pris- -ons for men and the women convicts, and the delinquent Juvenile home/centre. They could not place her with the women convicts, nor could they place her in the juvenile home — after all she was not a criminal. Moreover, they where concerned about the kind of exposure she may have as a result of this. Ultimately one of the police drivers and his family was given the responsibility. The uncertainty of the possibility of rehabilitating her with her parents made the driver and his family jittery. They were in two minds about providing a shelter home to Mina.
Everyday there are reports of
women and child trafficking. Innumerable cases of child kidnapping are reported regularly in the newspapers. Tne government has acknowledged the problem of trafficking of women and children. It is perhaps time to provide the logistics and facilities to rehabilitate the few children that are rescued. I did not piggy back the issue of safe custody for children with that of women as many organisations, including CWCS. have been articulating this demand for some time now. Instead. I would like to request the authorities concerned to look into the matter of setting
up safe custody for children urgently and seriously. Efforts are on to rescue the children and women who are trafficked, and we would not like to wait for a mishap to occur before taking any action.
The police in Sarsha were extremely disturbed when faced with the issue of providing shelter to Mina. They had this child on their hands and a GD had been filed and therefore, it was their duty to try and locate the child's parents or at least rehabilitate her. But they did not have the provision to ensure her safety. There may come a time when police might turn such cases away. If ever a child is violated while in the custody of police with no provision of safe custody built into then we would have ourselves to blame for not having raised the issue before.
I would, therefore, like to request the policy makers and legislators to take up the issue and try and provide safe custody to children. They are already victim of the most heinous of crimes mankind has been engaged in — so, please let them not be traumatised twice!
We would like to request the government to ask the Home Ministry to closely look into the possibilities of setting up safe custody for children. Safe custody may be set up within the police station (s) which may be located at the Thana level, managed by dedicated individuals employed by the police department (s). or with the minimum number of paid staff and a few volunteers from the community. They may put in their time in shifts. School teachers and doctors may be involved in the process. Networking among the different police stations as well VDP, Ansar, the TNO. the development workers, the NGOs and others, they may consider necessary to facilitate the rehabilitation efforts may be established.
Concerted action is required to combat the problem of
women and child trafficking. Poverty, unemployment, high financial returns for minimum or no investment and an increase in demand for women and children for anti-social activities are the main reasons behind the abnormal increase in trafficking of women and children. To deal with these issues. national effort and support are required. It is not an easy task, nor can it be resolved in a short period. But we also have to address the multifarious problems that arise in trying to rehabilitate the victims of trafficking, we may start here.