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SAVE OUR LAND [SOUL] ORGANISES ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRING PROGRAMMES: JOIN THE CAMPAIGN FOR "BETTER POLICING" in Mumbai Brief Report of a well attended meeting on April 22 at 7.45 p.m at St. Anthony's Mini Hall , Marve Road. Key Note Speaker : Mr. Anson Thomas, CNN-IBN Real Hero Award Winner in 2009 for rescuing over 700 women many of whom were minors, a campaign against human trafficking. Event hosted by SAVE OUR LAND [SOUL ] Team who support the "Better Policing " Campaign and are our networking partners. Brief Profile: Mr. Anson Thomas , 48 years now, one of our NAGAR / PRW supporters is a CNN-IBN Real Hero award winner in 2009. He has rescued more than 700 women many of whom were minors in the last 18 years when he began a personal mission- a one many army against human trafficking despite repeated threats to his life. Anson who is an ex-Custom Officer has been relentless in the face of an uninterested administration. The award money of Rs 5 lakhs was donated by him to one of the girls rescued in 1996 so that she could buy a house to begin a new life with her husband. According to him there are more than 50,000 girls in brothels who haven’t come there by choice and trapped in the Brothels. . You can google him on you tube to know more about it. Mr. Anson Thomas shared with us his testimony of what prompted him to get involved in this rescue with a missionary zeal. Also give us insights into the rescue operations with the help of the Police. How he had motivated his Marthomite Church to support the campaign and setting up of the Rehabilitation centre at Murbad which currently houses over 150 children rehabilitated from the red light area. Besides countless others who are supported for their education etc by the community. Mr. Anson also shared the Law pertaining to Immoral Trafficking known as PITA-Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act. He also shared the filing of the FIR, facts to be recorded, the role of Panchas who sign the panchnamas and play a very important role in ensuring that the Brothel Owners / Managers are convicted. His rescue operations have resulted in several convictions. Mr. Anson's demand is to auction the Brothel premises and the proceeds are used for the welfare of all those who have been rescued. While sharing the various sections of PITA he mentioned Section 7 [1] Any person who carries on prostitution and the person with whom such prostitution is carried on in any premises which is within a distance of 200 metres of any place of public religious worship, education institution , hospital should be punishable with imprisonment. He appealed to the gathering to get involved in such campaigns and also put pressure on the Police to ensure that appropriate and prompt action is taken in all Human trafficking cases. Mr. Anson asked for a special appeal to put pressure on the Government and the Police in reference to the Brothels at Congress House which is just 50 metres from the Queens Mary School which has over 1200 girls only School. In 2012 Anson had launched a campaign and a front page article in the Mumbai Mirror did not elicit the type of support needed from the Government and the Police to cleanse this place from the Brothels. Are we going to act only if any of our girl students are raped or kidnapped was his remark. The article from the Mumbai Mirror has been attached. Photographs of the event are also enclosed. Mr. Anson Thomas who was accompanied by his team mate, Mathew Thomas truly inspired and motivated the participants. The SOUL Team along with NAGAR /PRW would support to launch a campaign with the concerned authorities on this issue. Please do let us know if you have any better ideas to support this campaign. Please note my new number: 9833884227 warm regards, Dolphy D'souza NAGAR Coordinator - Police Reforms Watch 9833884227 NAGAR Cecil Court, 3rd flr., Mahakavi Bhushan Marg, Colaba, Mumbai - 400001 T: 022-22882018 T/F: 022-22021621 W: www.nagar.org.in E: [email protected] fb: www.facebook.com/nagar.org.in Subject: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/cover-story/Queen-Mary-Schools-SoS-to-cops-Save-our-students-from-perverts/articleshow/16222536.cms QUEEN MARY SCHOOL'S SOS TO COPS: SAVE OUR STUDENTS FROM PERVERTS By Swathi Akella | Jun 19, 2012, 03.30 AM IST inShare Comments More A A Queen Mary School on Lamington Road is just a short walk away from the infamous Congress House http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/cover-story/Queen-Mary-Schools-SoS-to-cops-Save-our-students-from-perverts/articleshow/16222536.cms Students and teachers of one of Mumbai's oldest and best-known girls' schools have lived in what they call a constant fear of sex pests for the past two years. The plight of around 1,200 girls studying at Queen Mary School at Grant Road, located less than 50 mts from the in-famous Congress House, is not hidden from the cops and the politicians, but nothing has been done to save the students from the daily harassment and vulgarity unleashed by the neighbourhood perverts. The managing authorities of the 137-year-old school, which boasts of alumni such as Nargis Dutt, Shabana Azmi and Shobhaa De, allege that a police chowky in the vicinity has been functioning “irregularly” over the past two years despite the school's location in a “red light area”. Since 2010, the school has been appealing for greater police presence in the vicinity, while the cops say they have always ensured the students remained safe. Congress House and the lanes nearby are home-cum-business centre to gangsters, prostitutes, bar girls and drug peddlers. Whistles, lewd remarks, and suggestive gestures have become a routine for the students and their parents, but a particularly nasty incident last year traumatised the students and shocked the management. Subsequently, the school increased the surveillance on its premises. A senior official at the school said, “The incident happened last year, around the time the school reopened after the summer break. One of our students came in sobbing… a man in the neighbourhood had dropped his pants in front of her. The girl was traumatised, and we decided to help ourselves. Apart from strengthening the security on the premises, we now hire private security guards every time there is a school function.” The school officials said that frequent fights among the antisocial elements at the Congress House adversely affected the girls. An official said, “There is a brothel operator, Savitri Gowda, who functions out of the Congress House. She gets arrested, comes out on bail, gets into fights, and gets arrested again... She is feared in the area, and she often conducts her business right outside the school premises, when the classes are on. We don’t know how to handle this situation.” If teachers are worried, the parents are petrified. A south Mumbai resident who collects her 10-year-old daughter from the school after the classes recounted her ordeal: “There are no cabs in the congested area, forcing me to drive to the school in my vehicle. I never find parking space, which leaves me with no option but to park at quite a distance from the school gates. There are perverts standing near the gates, strengthened by their belief that nobody will ever confront them. It’s a humiliating experience.” Another parent said she was traumatised when she saw a “deal” being struck while she and her daughter were heading towards their vehicle. “Filthy words, abuses, and calling women names is commonplace in the area. The prostitutes sit outside the Congress House, soliciting clients,” she said. Mumbai Mirror has copies of the two letters the school wrote to the Police Commissioner in March 2010. In both communications, the principal pleaded with the commissioner to “visit the area and see for himself” the students’ plight. On Monday, Principal In-charge Manju Asha said, “The residents of the area are co-operative and have ensured the girls are not harassed. But there is no check on the antisocial elements from the neighbouring areas. All we are asking for is the presence of cops in the chowky. Because of the neighbourhood, we are in a scary situation and live in constant fear. Our girls’ safety is our only concern, and priority.” On June 7 this year, award-winning activist Anson Thomas, who’s running a campaign to save the women from the city brothels, wrote to the Minister of School Education, slamming the police inaction. Urging the cops to slam the shutters on the brothels in the area and ensure the school’s students were not harassed, Thomas wrote, “Is it only after some of the girls are kidnapped or raped that the police and the State will wake up from their slumber?” Senior Inspector Ajit Surve from D B Marg Police Station, in whose jurisdiction the area falls, said the cops are always in the vicinity during the school hours. “We understand the school’s concerns, and have never failed them. As far as Savitri Gowda’s menace is concerned, she has been externed from the area.”
