India: NGO Campaign to Fight Human Trafficking
Friday, December 28, 2012 4:40 PM

An anti-trafficking NGO Apne Aap gathered trafficked women and Indian college and university students to launch a campaign they called “Cool Men Don’t Buy Sex.” Its objective is to raise awareness of sex trafficking problem in India and to influence the government to make necessary amendments to the Indian Immoral Traffic Prevention Act.
 
The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation reports that there are around 1.2 million prostituted children in India, and according to the U.S. State Department, “India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.”
 
The “Cool Men Don’t Buy Sex” campaign was started by two students at the Symbiosis College in Pune to stand against the idea of buying and selling women. Campaigners believe that it is very important to highlight the “force that fuels the trade itself – the male demand for sex – without which traffickers, pimps and brothel owners will be driven out of business.” Students want to put pressure on the Indian Government to punish pimps and johns and to stop stigmatizing victims. The movement started earlier this year, and is building momentum. It has presented President Pranab Mukherjee with more than 10,000 signatures on a petition calling for amendment to laws governing the sex trade. Recently the ministry of women and child development informed the campaigners that their suggestions “will be taken on board.”
 
Compiled from:  Sujoy Dhar, Anti-Prostitution Campaign Picks Up Speed, Inter Press Service (21 December 2012).