Creating and Managing a Forum to Advocate for Policy Change
Human trafficking is a severe global concern and a silent crime that exploits people’s vulnerabilities across the world. India lacks a unified law that covers the intersection of all forms of trafficking and exploitation. This unmet need was the genesis for forming a national survivor-led federation of the survivors of all forms of human trafficking. Through this forum, we worked towards promoting and strengthening the voices of survivor leaders to shape the policy discourse for the creation of victim-centric national legislation on human trafficking. As the secretariat, we have been responsible for the overall management of the forum through capacity building and training of identified leaders, stakeholder identification and outreach, engagement with policymakers and parliamentarians. We developed position papers on varied themes and stakeholder representations, sensitised stakeholders to build advocates in the ecosystem, and undertook initiatives to create visibility for the forum. Our efforts have resulted in the leaders getting a seat at the table for policy discussions with the government and shifting narratives from victim-centric conversations to survivor-leadership-based voices in the ecosystem.
