Kolkata intellectuals pledge to combat sex-trafficking at end of anti-trafficking film festival on International Women’s Day organized by Apne Aap

Kolkata , 7 March: Filmmakers, artistes, writers, directors, doctor, lawyers, musicians educationists, theatre persons, businessmen and other eminent Kolkatans from  different walks of life pledged to combat sex-trafficking at a round table on , ‘My Role In Combating Trafficking’ at the end of a three- day anti-trafficking film festival  organized by  Apne Aap Women Worldwide to mark International Women’s Day at ICCR today.

Writers Samaresh Mazumdar and Ruchir Joshi, directors Buddhadev Dasgupta, Anjan Dutt and Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, actor Chaiti Ghoshal, musician Tanmoy Bose, dancer Alokananda Roy, were among the speakers. Emmy winning journalist and founder president of Apne Aap, Ruchira Gupta welcomed the support of Kolkata’s intellectuals to this cause: “Kolkata’s intellectuals have come forward to take a stand against modern day-slavery. We hope that the politicians take notice of this in the coming general elections and make the end of sex-trafficking a campaign promise.”

The festival Of Inhuman Bondage- started with Ruchira Gupta’s documentary, The Selling of Innocents and was followed by Bappaditya Bandopadhyay’s  Kaal, Mando Meyer Upakhyan, Sudhir Mishra’s Chameli, Human Trafficking and Roz Heller’s Trade

The event was inaugurated by the Chief Guest Lt Gen Vk Singhpvsm, Avsm, Ysm

Goc - In - C Eastern Command who launched the Apne Aap campaign against ex-trafficking by signing a petition asking  to punish buyers and traffickers and support capacity building programmes for victims and survivors of trafficking.

Padmashree Bharatanatyam artiste Geeta Chandran composed a  special dance for the occasion and a skit was performed by the children of Apne Aap’s centre at Topsia, under the direction of Dolly Basu. The event was co-sponsored by ICCR and US Consulate.

Apne Aap WomenWorldwide (A2W2) is a six–year old India organization linking learning, livelihoods and legal protection through its anti-trafficking units inWest Bengal, Maharashtra, Bihar and Delhi. The organization has been nominated as a member to the Steering Committee of the Planning Commission, thev Working Groups of the Ministry of Women, and the Task Force of the National Human Rights Commission to provide inputs on policies affecting women and children highlighted the interlinkages between caste and prostitution. The organization has been able to develop a 'bottom up' women-centric model where groups of women havemoved from being victims to leaders to map their community's course in the fight against trafficking.

For further information contact:

Sharbani Das at 033-22834354/2489344

Or at mailme_sharbani@rediffmail.com

www.apneaap.org