Sara Khan (Changed name) was from Nepalganj, a Sub-Metropolitan City in Banke District, Nepal. At aged 18, She was lured for a better life and were being trafficked to Delhi. Member of the Action Against Trafficking Group, an active group working to prevent human trafficking traced her in a suspicious condition and reported to Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). She along with the traffickers were intercepted and the trafficking was averted.

Human trafficking cases like this one occurs in large number at the Indo-Nepal Border. It is seen that the number of trafficking cases has decreased due to the border force, staff and community member’s courageous steps.

In 2017, Caritas India and DEHAT, PGSS & DSWS with the support from the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) launched ‘Swaraksha’, anti-human trafficking programme to combat human trafficking at the Indo-Nepal border. The programme closely worked with schools, communities, border police, railway police, transport departments, CWC, ChildLine, shelter home, government departments and NGOs to create awareness and sensitise citizens to raise their voice against human trafficking.

In brief 18 months, the programme succeeded in rescue and repatriation of women, children & youth. The programme partners have formed several women SHG, youth and children groups in the 30 bordering villages & 5 Slums and conducted awareness and sensitization programmes for these groups. A definite change can be seen today because of these awareness programmes among women & children as they are better informed and are aware of the human trafficking. Community members can easily articulate the emergency Helpline numbers which they were not knowing earlier.

The programme has not only bridged the gap of knowledge & understanding among the community members against Human Trafficking but it has also created an alert among people to abstain from being trafficked. The village head has taken measures to prevent human trafficking. One of them has started keeping movement register at the village level, put solar lights in the village and encouraged girls to go to school and also started tailoring classes for adolescent girls. Women from the SHG groups have started small income generation activities. This program has taken a multidimensional approach working with the communities to the different stakeholders to reduce vulnerability of women, youth and children so that they are not trafficked.

The programme has worked closely with border force and NGOs working at the border from Nepal and India. Three booths were started at three major borders (Sonauli, Tutibadi and Rupaidiha) with the support of border force. It has also trained and sensitized police personnel and border force to identify cases.

The next phase of the programme will have Shakti Samuha as one of the new partner from Nepal, an organisation working in Nepal to ensure the social justice for those victims of human trafficking and who are at high risk of such trafficking. This new initiative will help in home assessment and repatriation of the victims through the support of Nepal government.

It will also focus majoring on creating resilient community by empowering women and youth to develop their skills and start small scale business. The programme is also planning to have transit home at Indo-Nepal border to provide safe shelter to the survivors during the process of home assessment and coordination with different stakeholders. This was important as there was no short stay home facility at the borders which makes the repatriation process get delayed and he/she has to be taken 300 to 350 Km from the border to the respective districts for short stay until the assessment is on.