Empower People

I'm applying for the Elevate Prize because our work in the field of anti-trafficking is very unique and innovative in many aspects while being absolutely survivor-centric with a rights based approach. Having developed a successful module in our areas of intervention in Haryana and Assam over the past 15 years, we stand poised at a junction where we can make large scale impact with the right support and resources in other areas suffering from high rates of trafficking. 

We require exactly the stage, funds and support which you will be providing the winners of the Elevate prize with. Hence I'm applying for this opportunity with confidence and an assurance of utilizing the prize funding and support to exponentially boost support for bride trafficking survivors across many other States where they remain unattended to and unseen. We work closely with the community, administration and local leaders to ensure safe and secure reintegration of survivors of bride trafficking who are often left with no support in the regular scheme of things; our larger goal being to shape a pro-survivor society.

Survivors’ rights-based perspective forms the bed-rock of Empower People. Our focus is on understanding the underlying mechanism and social matrix which reinforces the practice of trafficking and then tackling it. The worldwide failure of efforts indicates that there is something wrong with the current approach and understanding. Trafficking evolves from us and our societies. It is a need of the hour to develop a strong response mechanism which emanates from the society through the State. Our endeavor is to revive the dying humanness to embark into a society where everybody is empowered to LIVE as humans, a society with an awakened social consciousness where there is a belief in SERVING the humanity that we are a part of. Our work began as a grassroots movement and today 20 survivors are leading the efforts on ground. We are planning to launch an alliance for promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of trafficking survivors across India and the Globe.

Empower People pioneered the cause against bride trafficking back in 2005 in a time when it was going unrecognised as a gross violation of human rights. Bride Trafficking(BT) involves selling of girls and women for the purpose of marriage and this gruesome violation of their human rights is seen as something normal in a society that has great blind value for the institution of marriage. As per National Crime Record Bureau, a total of 25,360 women were trafficked for the purpose of forced marriage in 2019 alone. Globally, China is a well known destination of bride trafficking procuring girls from Cambodia, Pakistan, Myanmar etc.
Empower People is tackling the issue on three fronts of Prevention, Intervention and Rehabilitation and is known for its work to protect, support and organize trafficked women and girls against the vicious cycle of trafficking with an active engagement of religious/ethnic leaders, community members and other stakeholders. This helps generate an overall sense of ownership within the community in fighting for the cause while also generating ground level awareness of the humanity of women who are otherwise seen and treated as objects to be used and thrown or sold forward.

Empower People adopts a multi-pronged approach with a strong focus on empowerment of survivors against sheer lack of recognition of human rights of women and girls. Often the girls and women who are trafficked come from marginalised and disenfranchised communities with little to no access to natural resources. On the other hand, women in general lack rights over property in the deeply patriarchial society of North India. We have been able to break that barrier for our survivors and have successfully helped more than 500 survivors to have claim in the land rights of their "husband" to secure their safety and dignity in an alien community which until then treated them as objects for labour, sex and domestic work with no identity of their own. On the other hand, we successfully raised the voice of tribal communities in Jharkhand against efforts in the name of development that would kill their access to forest, land and water and thus their only source of livelihood which would further render them resource less and prey to advances of traffickers when they migrate for livelihood opportunities. Our movement today is led by 20 survivor leaders on ground which has been our trademark strength.

Empower People works to support law enforcement agencies and families of victims, in locating missing girls and conducting rescue operations. Our rehabilitation model has been successful especially because none of our 5000+ rescued survivors have fallen back into the cycle of re-trafficking. As per statistics, 66% of rescued are often re-trafficked because of poor and incomplete rehabilitation mechanisms. We ensure close follow-up of every rehabilitation process in source areas by forming a diversity group for each individual case to ensure her safety against being trafficked again and to mitigate the social stigma prevailing in the area. This group consists of people with diverse backgrounds from the same society who act as her guardians in the local community. Similarly, for trafficked brides who continue living with their ‘husbands and children in destination areas, village communes are created which are managed and led by survivors themselves. The communes run skilling centers for women, where they gather to mutually learn and associate with each other as trafficking survivors and celebrate their unique individuality. Today, cases have considerably dropped in our areas of intervention and the community itself stands in support of any survivor being abused or ill-treated and that's our mark of success.