Operating from the basement of a small house in a south Delhi locality, STOP (Stop Trafficking and Oppression of children and women), since its inception in 1997, has rescued over 500 minors, empowered more than 250 victims through vocational and skills training, and ensured more than 72 convictions. The organization's activities stem from the alarming rise in interstate and cross border trafficking in women and children. In India, 600,000 sex workers are used by tourists alone annually; more than 30,000 women and girls have been trafficked from Bangladesh to India over the past decade; and, on an average, 10,000 Nepali women and girls are lured across the border to India every year. The states of Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat and Rajasthan are rich source areas for interstate trafficking. About 60-80 per cent of these victims suffer from life threatening diseases including HIV-AIDS. Founded by Delhi University Lecturer Roma Debabrata, STOP today provides civil society with a blueprint of how cross-border, interstate and other forms of trafficking can be detected, intercepted and prevented. It also provides a roadmap by which rescued/recovered women and children can be restored their dignity and basic human rights.
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