Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on June 13th, 2017

[Dipesh Tank]

Every girl we rescue goes through a series of check-ups. Many times we find out that the girl is HIV-positive. In such cases, there is a special care plan that has been made for them to ensure that special care is given to them. That is one way.

Unfortunately, in the majority of the cases the families don't want the girls to come back home, or they are in total denial. In such cases, the girl stays in our shelter home until the time she is hale, hearty, and she will live there as long as she wants. We take care of these girls. There are a lot of girls in our Boisar shelter home, where the girls are HIV-positive, and we take good care of them.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you for your testimony today.

I want to shift the focus away from India for a moment, but I want to note that the U.S. State Department has said that although there are problems with the way the government has addressed the problem of trafficking, it is making significant efforts to do so. We've heard a great deal of testimony on what's happening within the country. We've also heard a great deal of testimony that would suggest looking, and has in fact pushed us a committee to look, beyond India and examine this as a regional issue in South Asia.

I want to ask a question from the perspective of Canada, as a Canadian member of Parliament, someone who is very interested in development policy in particular. What can a middle power such as Canada do to help in the rural areas? I know that in the rural areas, the problem of trafficking is particularly acute because of the very significant levels of poverty that exist there.

Could you speak about programs that could help? I'm thinking about small loans to farmers to help them grow businesses and develop commerce and things along those lines. Micro-finance stands out as one potential example. Could you speak about that focus in general, the rural areas and what can be done?

[Dipesh Tank]

In my personal opinion, I don't know how many farmers' daughters or sons are choosing the particular business or profession of farming, for various reasons, so I don't know how much farming will do the right job. However, I don't want to rule out that opportunity. I feel that a lot of young students, young men and women in this country, are approaching metropolitan cities. Learning new things is one of the biggest turn-ons for them, to go to cities and learn new things.

In our shelter home, we give them basic training, for example, beauty parlour courses, hair-cutting courses. We teach them how to do screen printing, how to design small artwork and make it into a digital print, and to sell it the way they want. We try to give them those opportunities so that they know they can go back and do this job. She can go to a city and print a mug she has designed, and she can sell it to a local market, flea market, or anywhere else. These are the kinds of opportunities we have to generate.

Along with that, it is important that there be a massive sensitization program, not only from the state, from the Government of India, but also from the people and the local authorities, to ensure that fair opportunities are given to the girls and they are not being pushed into this.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

Thanks very much.

I have one quick question to follow up. I guess there is some time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Levitt]

Okay.

Mr. Jose, are you on the line as well?

[Joshy Jose]

Yes, I'm on.

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Levitt]

Go ahead.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

I'll ask the question, and I hope Mr. Jose can answer it. If we have a technical difficulty again, I'll just pose it to the other witness.

On legal aid clinics, we as a country have focused on helping to fund, not completely but have directed significant amounts of funds toward, clinics that can then be put to use in the efforts to pursue advocacy and justice. Do you think this is something that could help address the situation that exists in India and, frankly, in South Asia, when it comes to the problem of trafficking, and child trafficking, to be specific?

[Technical difficulty--Editor]

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Levitt]

I think the line is still not in great shape.

Mr. Tank, do you want to give a quick 30-second answer to that question? Then we'll move to the next question.

[Dipesh Tank]

I'm sorry, can you quickly repeat that? My apologies.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

Sure, it's regarding legal aid clinics, their importance, and whether you work with them or not.

I asked the question because the Canadian government has helped to provide funding to legal aid clinics throughout the world, and that has gone a long way towards advocacy efforts and the effort to pursue justice.

[Dipesh Tank]

Legal aid is important, yes.

A huge amount of money goes into fighting in Indian courts and in the Indian judiciary, because that is another challenge. For example, we are currently fighting this case in one of the Bombay high courts, where there was a release order given for 68 girls we rescued earlier this year. We rescued them from one of the very rural parts of the state. Unfortunately, it became difficult for us, because the majority of the money that we raise is for girls and their rehabilitation. In India, everybody wants to give money for food, education, and health, but for legal aid or better salaries, it's so difficult.

Thankfully, we have lawyers who are helping us pro bono, but still there is a massive cost to fighting this legal battle in the courts. Unfortunately, that is the only place where people feel they can get justice, and they can, but the period is so long that people get tired. A non-profit like us also feels a burden on that front.

[The Chair, Liberal, Michael Levitt]

Thank you, Mr. Tank.

MP Sweet.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Tank, for all of your testimony and your good work.

I want to ask you more specifics around your good work. But to continue on with where you were, are you seeing a change in attitude? You mentioned to my colleague that it was riskier to bring in Nepalese girls, because it sounded like there was a higher threat of arrest.

Are you seeing a change in the mentality of the law enforcement, that arrests are being made and convictions are being pursued more avidly now?

[Dipesh Tank]

Yes, I want to clarify one point while I am also raising a lot of issues within my country.

I want to quickly say that I know this is the problem in our country and we are committed to solving it, and yes, there is definitely a massive change from what I hear. I have given my full-time career in advertising and radio, and I have joined this non-profit for the last six months now. I have known about the Rescue Foundation for the last six years, but my colleagues who have been working for the last 10 or 15 years tell me that the kinds of challenges they were facing then have definitely changed. People are changing their mindset towards this. Police authorities are getting more sensitized toward this. There are many workshops for the army and the police guarding the borders on how to identify a trafficked girl or how to identify a trafficker.

There is definitely a massive change that has been happening since what it was then, two years or five years ago, especially when I can say that there is a special team being set up in the state of Maharashtra. In the anti-human trafficking cell there are x number of men and women located to do only rescue of trafficked girls from brothels and other places where girls are trafficked.

Yes, we do see a change.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Thank you.

The other answer that you gave my colleague also interested me. You mentioned the money you raise. Are you supported entirely by donations from people from within India?

[Dipesh Tank]

Yes, we have been supported by some foreign donors who help us out. They see our work and they support us, but the challenge is massive. At times we can't do certain raids because we know we don't have that kind of money to take care of the girls.

We feel very helpless, and we feel unfortunate. It is so difficult to raise money for a cause like human trafficking. As I said, it is not a cute charity, unlike when you go to an orphanage, or an old age home, or a cancer hospital where you feel really sympathetic and emotional about girls or boys who have been suffering. I feel we are the victims of convenience charity, because people want to go and do it, and they want to click photographs and put them up on social media and feel awesome about it.

In our shelter room we cannot let them click photos and put them up on Facebook, for the simple reason that we have to protect the girls' identity.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Is there any chance that you've had any opportunity to partner with international justice ministries in these law enforcement cases?

[Dipesh Tank]

No. As an organization, we are very strong, very good at rescue and rehabilitation, but unfortunately we are not good at marketing and talking much about it. I think I am the second guy who can speak English in my organization.

I don't see it as a problem, but this is an issue because there is no bright talent on board and bright talent comes with a lot of money.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

You've talked about raising a lot of money. You've talked about a lot of stories, too, and particularly on long-term care for some of the girls who have acquired HIV, which is tragic, but you're willing to look after them, and that's even more heartwarming.

What is your capacity? You've mentioned that you have three facilities, I believe. It sounds as if your capacity is huge for the number of girls you're rescuing, you're caring for, you're educating, and I assume you're trying to then provide employment, because a lot of them, as you said, won't be accepted back by their families. Give us an idea about the capacity you're running at right now.

[Dipesh Tank]

Every year we rescue about 250 girls and we take care of about 500 girls. Now our shelter home is under the Juvenile Justice Act of India, so we take care of not only those girls whom we rescue, but if there is a girl or a child in society who is subject to any kind of sexual or physical violation, then the court will send her to our care and protection, and it's our job and duty to take care of her also.

The youngest girl in our shelter room is four years old and she was sexually abused by her father, and now she is going to start school in one week.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Do you get any government financial assistance, then?

[Dipesh Tank]

Yes, but it is not to the level where we can survive. If I'm not wrong, it's about 500-some rupees per girl for one month. We do apply for other grants, yes, so we do try, but we are 90% funded by individual donors whom we have to seek out.

We have three facilities and, as I said, every facility has capacity for about 100 girls. We can take care of them.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

I just want to ask you one more question. You said you had 150 spies. It sounds like, how would I say it, they are an interesting cavalcade of people. Do some of your staff and interested bystanders want to help you sometimes for their own gain? Is that what I'm hearing?

[Dipesh Tank]

Of course. If I have to explain this, the time is too short, but as I said these spies are not saintly people. He could be a drug addict, he could be a trafficker, she could be a trafficker. It could be anybody you can imagine. It could be a rapist also. We don't know that. What we know is that we get information from them. Dipesh Tank cannot go to red-light areas and get information from brothels. Somebody has to go there. Somebody has to ensure that the girl is there. We get phone calls saying, the package has arrived. We ask them, is it a smaller package? How many packages? He tells us, like...and we send our investigator to the brothel to investigate and find out whether the information is valid.

So many times it's a trap for us. My president's husband was killed in this job while on a rescue mission, so we know that it's not an easy job. Just a month back I was on a raid in one of the interior parts of Maharashtra, and I was surrounded by traffickers and brothel owners to take the case back because we rescued one 13-year-old girl, and one who was 14, and two 18-year-old girls. It's not an easy job. At times it's life threatening, but we feel that we have to do this. Without this, we cannot do investigations. If we are rescuing 200 girls every year, this cannot happen by just calling a brothel and saying, “You know what, can we come on a rescue mission?” So, yes, it cannot happen without that.