In 2018, out of 20,000 trafficking cases reported in Pakistan, 92pc were women
Zubair Qureshi
There were almost 20,000 reported victims of domestic trafficking in Pakistan in 2018 and 92 percent of them were women, said the official of Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) at a seminar jointly organized by UN Women Pakistan, National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) and Kashf Foundation.
The seminar titled “Together to combat trafficking of women and girls” attracted a large number of the representatives of civic society, activists of women rights and media persons.
Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by human trafficking. Global estimates indicate that women and girls may constitute up to 80 percent of persons trafficked globally, with more than 60 percent of those trafficked coming from the Asia region. Most of the evidence on trafficking in Pakistan is anecdotal. While studies have been conducted at different levels, the number of girls and women trafficked for domestic labour, forced marriages or sexual exploitation is very difficult to ascertain from these reports. However, available data indicates that traffickers are not always strangers but can be family members, friends or acquaintances. Victims of trafficking are often lured on the pretext of better employment, marriages, better economic prospects or simply kidnapped from outside their homes or public places. The age of women and girls trafficked ranges from 2 to 50 years.
Pakistani women are not only being trafficked from poverty-stricken areas to urban centres, but also from big cities like Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad to Southern Punjab and Balochistan.
Recently, there have also been reports of young Pakistani women being trafficked outside Pakistan on the pretext of marriage. It is clear that the scale of the issue is immense and needs to be tackled at all levels, including raising awareness among the masses.
While delivering his welcome address, Jamshed Kazi, Country Representative UN Women Pakistan, said, “When we prioritize protection of women’s rights as human rights and develop strategies to combat violence against women, we encounter various challenges.
One of these challenges is trafficking of women and girls, which rarely gets the attention it deserves.” He said, “In order for Pakistan to successfully tackle this threat, we need to work towards changing the underpinning social norms and behaviours in a transformative way, which would lead to adoption of new behaviours and result in social change.”
“One such initiative that is being supported by UN Women for the first time in Pakistan is a drama serial on trafficking of women in girls in partnership with NCSW and Kashf Foundation, which is currently being developed. It is often seen that the impact of an intervention lies in how its story is narrated, one of the reasons behind this is that people look at drama characters as role models.”
While UN Women in Pakistan supports government partners and other stakeholders in legislation, research and initiatives to end violence against women and girls, it also aims to work towards transforming social norms and mindsets by reaching out to people where they are.
Khawar Mumtaz, Chairperson NCSW, delivered the vote of thanks and hoped that the partnership between NCSW, UN Women and Kashf will lead to sensitizing people of Pakistan in general and policymakers, influencers and law enforcement agencies about the adversity trafficking of women and girls brings to a society and the need to tackle this issue effectively.
