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India
Strategy for addressing child labor, sexual abuse and trafficking in the entertainment industry
Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) has worked to end child labor and trafficking in the circus industry. There is a serious problem of trafficking of young girls between Nepal and India (both countries are on the Tier 2 Watch list in U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report). The girls are trafficked for the purposes of slavery, including sexual slavery and prostitution.
Due to the socio – political situation in Nepal, coupled with illiteracy and ignorance, a large number of children (especially girls) are trafficked into India. Within India, the unorganized sectors like the entertainment industry, circuses, agriculture, brothels, etc., play a willing host to these victims, as a lot of industrial laws are not applicable in these sectors. There is little or no significant effort on the part of the government to prevent these practices. Thus, a pro-active initiative by the civil society sector was imperative in the prevention of abuse and exploitation in these sectors. The initiative was to involve the forces within the industry and ensure legal compliance and human rights' based approach for prevention of a social evil.
Empowering children with information, skills and formal structures to advocate for their own rights
The Concerned for Working Children (CWC) facilitates the establishment of formal structures that allow children to advocate for their own rights. Makkala Panchayats, Task Forces, and working children unions to promote children’s political participation in their communities. Makkala Panchayats are children’s village councils that participate in the development of the village and that address the children’s concerns. Task Forces are comprised of children and adults who work together to link the children and the local governments. Working children unions are of and by working children. The unions are powerful advocates of the rights of working children. These tactics of organization-building empower working children to take part of the political space and decision-making process in their communities and help to eradicate child labor.
Blog: Tactical Transferability: The Nonviolent Raid as Case Study
photo: Benoît Aquin
One goal of the New Tactics Project is to help us adapt action methods in innovative ways. As we look to various tactics, the main focus remains on "transferability", the capacity to bring and apply a given tactical framework to a different issue or situation.
It's hard.
Most activists do not even think twice about "transferability' when they choose to organize a march or a boycott. But when it comes to more complex tactics, most people can't bring themselves to envision it in a different context. Yet, every tactic is transferable.
Because I have had some experience with the nonviolent raid as intervention tactic, some fairly recent, I thought it might be useful to show a few examples of how this tactic can be, and was, transferred across different campaigns on a number of issues. The goal of the exercise is to spark our imagination.
Blog: The Nonviolent Raid as Intervention Tactic
From the movie Gandhi (1982). — See the raid on the Dharasana Salt Works.
When Santa Claus and elves tried to deliver a piece of coal to the Prime Minister of Canada last December, the tactic they used was the nonviolent raid. In a nonviolent raid, committed and well-trained actionists attempt to enter a protected facility to seize it, or to carry out some legitimate task consistent with their goals.
The nonviolent raiders are seen advancing. They seek to enter the facility. But fences, barricades or police lines are there to block them. They proceed nonetheless. Most often than not, they are stopped through some form of repression, with arrests usually. But they still win.
Blog: One use of the “nonviolent raid” tactic
Photo: Ashley Fraser, The Ottawa Citizen, Dec. 13, 2007. — Protesters dressed as Santa Claus and several of his elves were arrested at 24 Sussex Drive last night when they took Stephen Harper a lump of coal. It was to be his reward for what they call his sabotage of the UN climate talks in Indonesia.
That’s a picture of yours truly as... well, a flying elf.
I was arrested last week. Again.
First time ever as one of Santa’s Little Helpers, though.
Let me tell you what happened as an introduction to how the tactic — the nonviolent raid — can be, and has been, used in a wide range of campaigns.
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