Bangladesh and India

BANGLADESH AND INDIA
http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_12758.shtml
The New Nation
Dhaka, Delhi deal likely to check human trafficking
By UNB, Colombo
Oct 1, 2004, 12:54
Bangladesh and India are in negotiation to strike a bilateral agreement to effectively deal with the rising incidents of women and children trafficking and their commercial sexual exploitation, UNICEF officials said here on Friday .
The planned agreement will encompass various measures to check the trafficking and for identification of victims, their treatment and quick repatriation and rehabilitation in society.
A similar agreement is also expected between India and Nepal, Herve Berger, a senior child labour specialist of ILO, told a press conference after the 3-day South Asia Regional Mid Term Review of the Yokohama Global Commitement-2001.
"Bangladesh and India are in discussion, which is now at the advanced stage to have a potential bilateral agreement while India and Nepal have started the negotiation," Berger said.
According to statistics, about 300,000 Bangladeshi women and children have been trafficked to India and 200,000 to Pakistan while about 200,000 Nepalese women are estimated to be working in Indian cities - 30 percent are thought to be girls.
Asked about the authenticity of 500,000 Bangladeshi women and children trafficked to India and Pakistan, UNICEF Regional Communication Officer Martin Dawes said they got the figure from a publication of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
He admitted that it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of how many have been trafficked and how many have joined the prostitution.
"It is just estimation and we are trying to develop mechanism and monitoring system to figure out the actual situation and the impact," he said, adding that the available figure only showed the gravity of the problem.
In reply to a question, Dawes said despite efforts by the governments, NGOs and civil society, the trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of girls and boys were high and worsening in South Asia.
The UNICEF officials said poverty, joblessness, changing technique of traffickers as well as intricate relation of demand and supply in the sex market made the situation vulnerable.
"Despite multilateral efforts, we are not doing enough to tackling the critical issue," Berger told a questioner.
Replying to another query, he said easy access to Internet that helps increase the proliferation of child pornography turns the situation more critical for children.
He added that proliferation of computers and Internet at schools and homes lead the girls and boys to the cyber pornography sites, a common concern for both the developed and developing world.
The UNICEF officials said it would be welcoming to put some kind of restrictions on the child pornography in the Internet. They, however, felt that it is most important to educate children about the IT access and prevent them from landing into the pornography sites.
Meanwhile, 24 children from the eight countries attending the meeting called for forming a national and regional Task Force of Children to be constituted by 'children for children' as a step to combat sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking.
They said if the children and young people are given an opportunity to work with the governments, it would speed up the fight against the acute problem.