Going home: how do children feel about - and what are the experiences of children - going home? 19 th September, 2012

Look at us with Respect Perceptions and experiences of reintegration: The voices of child survivors of sexual exploitation and practitioners in West Bengal and Jharkhand School of Women’s studies, Jadavpur University Commissioned by the Centre for Rural Childhood, Perth College, University of the Highlands and Islands and funded by the Oak Foundation

Background Commissioned in 2011 Carried out in the two adjoining states of West Bengal and Jharkhand in India To learn more about reintegration needs and support offered

Respondents Interviews with practitioners from NGOs and CBOs (n=36) Interviews/FGDs/ group interviews with survivors in the community (n=33) FGDs with survivors in shelter homes (n=49) Interviews with shelter home staff (n=5) Interviews and FGDs with family members (n=19) Interviews with government (n=4) Group interview with community group (n=3)

Challenges The sample The sample was purposive and convenient with CBOs acting as gatekeepers No boys In Jharkhand - difficult to access survivors Other challenges Maintaining confidentiality Language Terminology Explaining the research

Limitations Limitations of the findings Not representative of the situation for every child Bias towards the situation in West Bengal Only a partial insight into the current reintegration work and experiences of children affected by trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation

Key Findings Adjusting Freedom of movement Marriage Education Livelihoods Therapeutic support Participation and decision-making Training and sensitivity of staff

Adjusting Both practitioners and survivors talked about the problems girls faced in adjusting to both a shelter setting and to rural living One practitioner said: ‘There might not be electricity or sanitary napkins available, for instance. This is not to scare or dishearten her but to give her a reality check....’ One survivor said: ‘I miss watching television and listening to music. Since we don’t have electricity we can’t charge our mobile phone batteries at home. We have to send it to the shop far away where there is electricity. I enjoy dancing and singing which I can’t do here’.

Freedom of Movement Girls who had returned home spoke of the lack of freedom they had One survivor explained why she was not able to meet friends: ‘....my father does not allow me to go out...he is scared that I might be lost again or that people will talk bad about me’. Another survivor explained: ‘There was no one with whom we could talk to about our experiences after we came back home. Our movement inside the community is very restricted’.

Marriage and the Family’s Wishes Marriage – the ultimate achievement Girls appeared to have little say: ‘...he wants me to get married.... I have no say because it is my father and brother who decide’. ‘I am getting married soon. My uncle has fixed my marriage’. Girls feared making another ‘wrong decision’. ‘I’ll do whatever my parents tell me to. I have made a mistake once and will not do it again’.

Marriage and Respect A survivor who had married on return: ‘No one can say any bad things about her if a girl is self dependent. But I am married; I am dependent on my husband’s income, so I can’t do anything on my own’. One survivor felt that girls needed to gain respect and independence before entering marriage. ‘Parents want to get their daughter married but we don’t think like that because first she has to fight for lost respect. After she becomes self dependent, she can think about marriage’.

Education and the Family’s Wishes Education as a way to ‘mainstream’ Girls who had returned home, when asked whether they wanted to study, said: ‘Yes but I cannot go to school. My father will not allow’. ‘Yes, but my uncle will not allow’. ‘....I sat for the annual exams but I will have to leave my studies because my elder brother doesn’t want to me to study, he wants me to get married....’.

Other Barriers to Education Some girls feared the response of returning to the classroom and questioned the practicalities and benefits of studying: ‘I want to get admitted to class IX in a different school, as my old friends have gone to higher classes and will ask me different questions’. ‘I am 16 years now. Who will take me now? I have read only up to nursery. I don’t like studies’. ‘What will happen if I study? It will not help me to earn. And I will have to study with younger children of my village and they will tease me’.

Livelihoods: Centrality and Respect ‘… But we need to earn money. We had gone away because we were promised work and money. So when we come back, we need that...’. Earning money equaled earning respect in the community. As survivors engaged in a livelihood programme said: ‘We will prove ourselves and earn that respect so that no one can say anything’. ‘The work that we will do, we will do it with so much hard work that we will reach great heights and people will look at us with respect’.

Vocational Training Problems included: 1. Not being able to practice enough as the shelters didn’t have enough equipment: ‘There were four machines and we were more than 30 girls, one sir would teach... we used to gossip among ourselves’. 2. Being unable to complete training courses that they had started because they had to return home when told to: ‘I was studying and undertaking a beautician course in the shelter home, but could not complete the course as I was sent back to the community’.

Vocational Training 3. Forgetting the skills they learnt in the home. 4. Not feeling confident as not having practiced the skills since leaving the shelter: ‘I remember them. But I am not confident because I have not practiced them for more than a year after I returned home’.

Vocational Training 5. Not having money to buy the raw materials to make products to sell: ‘Who will give me the money to make things and who will buy them’? 6. Not having buyers for their products.

Survivors Involved in Family Business ‘What will I do sitting at home…this is all I can do and my family members are also doing this…so I joined them’. Survivors in the study were involved in:  Beedi binding  Unwinding and straightening hairs  Making fireworks  Saree printing

Developing Group and Micro Enterprises in the Community NGOs reported that developing group enterprises for survivors was challenging. Difficult to get girls to come to a central location for training and other activities.

Other Forms of Support As one girl said: ‘This dada from the organisation comes regularly. He talks to me and my parents. I like talking to him’. Another commented: ‘No, nobody came to speak to me. The didis in the Home showed me the bed. They asked me where my house was and what had happened to me. I stayed there for two days and then came back home’.

The Child’s Participation and Decision-Making Girls remained marginal in decision-making. Decisions were guided and taken by the frontline workers, parents or other male members in the family. There was a general dependence of the girls and their families on the organisations to make decisions. As one survivor said: ‘I don’t want to take decision for myself. I will leave it on the NGO dadas and my mother’.

Training and Sensitivity of Staff As one girl in a shelter home said: ‘They stigmatise us by saying that we don’t have any future’. One practitioner noted: ‘Another problem is that after reintegration the follow up is mostly done by the grass root level local NGOs or CBOs. These local bodies are not free of social values and beliefs that stigmatise the girls and so the girls also become a victim of it as these bodies can often be judgmental of the girl’s habits, lifestyle etc’.

Conclusion Reintegration is a process involving various social and economic aspects. Children and young people have different needs and experiences of care and assistance received. Contradictions and a divergence in views. Examples of positive work. Many challenges and gaps that persist.

For More Information The full report and summary report will be available soon on Contact Dr Ranjita Biswas, Research Coordinator for more information

Question and Answer Session

Working papers Read more about ‘going home’ in our working paper: ‘What do we think we know about…returning home: one option for children affected by sexual exploitation and/or related trafficking?’