Patna: The finale of a three-city series of consultation meetings on child labour and sex trafficking was held in Patna on Friday.
It was jointly organised by Apne Aap Women Worldwide, Gender Alliance and Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI-Patna). During the meet, professor Ruchira Gupta said mainstream press ignored women's issues when she was working with them. Thus she decided to bring them to the fore by establishing an institution called Apne Aap Women Worldwide. It addresses the "evils of sex-trafficking".
Nadeem Noor of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) suggested that Bihar should empower its youth to invigorate the economy.
Vinay Kumar, the additional director-general of Bihar Police, said cops should respond promptly and the prosecution should be timely in cases of violation of child labour.
Deepak Kumar Singh, principal secretary, labour resources department, said the new laws enacted by the government with regard to child labour was progressive.
N. Vijaylakshmi, the managing director of Women Development Corporation, spoke on the state's response at the policy and programme level. "No government had earlier taken up campaign against dowry so seriously," Vijaylakshmi said.
Ruchira Gupta gave a vote of thanks for the first session of the consultation meeting.
Catherine A. MacKinnon, lawyer, global activist, writer, and law teacher at the University of Michigan and Harvard, delivered a public lecture on "Social Change through Legal Practices: The Last Girl", at the meeting. This can also be considered as the ADRI foundation lecture for the year.
MacKinnon has pioneered the legal claim for "sexual harassment" in the world. Her interactions with Apne Aap Worldwide have led to a successful Patna High Court order to combat sex-trafficking.
Shaibal Gupta, member secretary, ADRI, welcomed the guests and said the lecture was to highlight the vulnerabilities of the "last girl" or the victim of sex-trafficking.
Presiding over the lecture, Justice Shree Ajay Tripathy suggested that enforcement and implementation of law in the field of child labour, human trafficking, among others was very important.
Justice Anjana Mishra addressed the audience as a special guest. Prabhat P. Ghosh, director, ADRI, proposed a vote of thanks.
Sunita Lall, Ushashi Gupta, Tinku Khanna, Nisha Jha, Sister Sushita, Abinash Mohanthy, Satyajit Kumar Singh were present at the event. Lawyers and other intelligentsia of Patna were present too.
