Press Releases 2008

U.S. CONSULATE AND APNE AAP ORGANIZE ANTI-TRAFFICKING INFORMATION CAMPAIGN

April 30, 2008

Kolkata – Committed to combat human trafficking, the U.S. Consulate General, Kolkata, in collaboration with Apne Aap Women Worldwide, is launching an information campaign to promote awareness about this social scourge.  Posters, designed and created by the Apne Aap to highlight the problem of human trafficking, are displayed in the Consulate's visa waiting room.  The Consular section is also distributing brochures to visa applicants containing information on the nature of the problem, including contact details for victim assistance programs in the United States and India.

Human trafficking is a serious problem worldwide.  Every year, nearly two million people across the world, mostly women and girls, are trafficked and sold into servitude and slavery.  The U.S. Government is committed to fight against this modern-day slavery.  In 2007, the United States contributed approximately $79 million abroad to fund 180 international anti-trafficking projects in 90 countries.  India received nearly $8 million dollars from the United States to fight trafficking of persons.  Approximately $600,000 in grants were given to NGOs in West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, and Meghalaya. The NGOs of West Bengal received more than $400,000 to conduct programs. Since 2001, the U.S. government has funded more than $528 million to fight human trafficking.

Since its inception in 1998, Apne Aap has been working with a mission to end sex trafficking and prostitution.  Over the years it has grown to become one of the leading anti-trafficking NGOs in India. It  provide legal protection, education and income-generation programmes to over 5,000 women in prostitution and their children in Bihar, Delhi, Maharashtra and West Bengal. It trains police officials in Bihar and Maharashtra on laws related to trafficking and campaigns for anti-trafficking policies through its nomination to the Steering Committee of the Planning Commission, Working Group of Ministry of Women and Child and the Task Force of the National Human Rights Commission.