Poverty alleviation, creation of employment opportunity, consciousness of the common people, education and coordination among the government and non-government agencies are the requirements to stop trafficking of women and children.

This was observed in an international workshop on "Cross Border Trafficking."

Organised by Association for Community Development (ACD), a Rajshahi-based NGO working for development and human rights, the daylong workshop was held at the Rajshahi Tennis Complex conference room in the city recently.

Participated by about 100 delegates from host Bangladesh and India and many other national and international agencies, the workshop identified some issues, fixed up some targets and chalked out the probable line of action for the agencies working to check trafficking of women and children.

The workshop observed that rescue of the trafficked victims was

hindered and became difficult for lack of bilateral and multilateral pacts between the countries. Complex judicial procedure is also another reason hindering rescue of the victims. Repatriation and rehabilitation have also been proved difficult for non-cooperation of the families and society, the workshop observed.

As most of the trafficked women and children are engaged in prostitution, risk of spreading AIDS and sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) has been increased, the workshop observed.

The workshop was inaugurated by the Divisional Commissioner (Incharge) of Rajshahi Abdus Sattar.

Second Secretary of the Royal Norwegian Embassy Tam Hanstad and Rajshahi Sector Commander of Bangladesh Rifles Col Mohammad Enamur Rahman Chowdhury were the special guests at the inaugural function. Member of the Board of Directors of ACD Prof. Abdul Halim presided over the inaugural session, while ACD Director Salima Sarwar delivered the address of welcome.

In the working session, the keynotes were presented by Project Coordinator of Sanglap of Kolkata in India Tapati Bhoumik, expert of Bangladesh Ain-O-Shalish Kendra Advocate Rawshan Jahan Perveen, Laila Rashid of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association and Ratan Sarkar of INCIDIN, Bangladesh.

The working session was presided over by the Deputy Commissioner of Chapainawabganj Nurul Haque.

The discussants were Development Adviser of the Royal Norwegian Embassy Zakia K. Hasan, Trafficking and Child Labour Adviser of USAID Nishat Chowdhury, Project Officers of Save The Children, Denmark Shwapan Kumar Roy Ballav and Rasheda Begum, Prof Abdul Halim, Prof Abdul Jabbar Khan, Project Officer of ASTEC, Bangladesh Chapter Mobashwer Hossain Didar, Aminul Islam of Aparajeo Bangla, Journalists Uttam Kumar Das, Wajed Mahmud, Anu Mostofa and others.

The concluding session of fixing targets and taking recommendations was conducted by Nishat Chowdhury and Uttam Kumar Das.

Among others, the session was addressed by Roma Banerjee of Kolkata, Thia Boram of Save The Children, Denmark, Carole Camissa of USAID and AB Siddique of Dinajpur Pally Unnayan Sangsthya.

ACD executive member Jebunnessa Mukul delivered the address of thanks.