MTV launches anti-human trafficking campaign

Mumbai, Aug 9 (UNI) MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom and the MTV Europe Foundation, a registered UK charity has announced the launch of MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) across Asia and the Pacific.

As a part of the anti-trafficking campaign by MTV-Exit a documentary, featuring gut wrenching stories of victims of human trafficking in Bangladesh and Nepal, presented by Bollywood star Lara Dutta, will be aired in September.

The documentaries will be followed by a series of public service announcements in 2007 and 2008, along with a multi-language website,www.mtvexit.org, and live awareness and prevention events.

According to United Nations (UN) estimates, there are 2.5 million victims of trafficking in the world with the majority being in Asia and the Pacific. It is the second largest illegal trade after drugs, with criminal traffickers earning over 10 billion US dollars every year through the buying and selling of human beings.

According to the UN '' Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, and receipt of a person for sexual or economical exploitation by force, fraud, coercion, or deception in order to make a profit. Often, victims are young men and women, who are guilty only of aspiring a better life for themselves and their families''.

It had been estimated that over the past decade in south Asia alone, some 30 million people, mostly children, had been trafficked.

And India is a major destination and a transit point for human trafficking in the sub continent. The majority of trafficking in India, both trans-border and in-country, happens for the purpose of sex work. A combination of growing demand for cheap domestic labour, labour and sex coupled with extreme poverty makes human trafficking an easy and lucrative business in India.

But trafficking can be fought through awareness and prevention.

Thus, MTV EXIT will highlight and address three major forms of trafficking in Asia and the Pacific: sex trafficking and forced prostitution, labour trafficking, and forced domestic servitude.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Bill Roedy, Vice Chairman, MTV Networks said,''Human trafficking has become a critical human rights issue facing young people across the Asia and Pacific. Victims are subject to horrendous abuses, including rape and torture, with women and girls particularly affected. Education is a key to prevention.

MTV EXIT is part of our commitment to help for highlighting issues affecting young people in Asia and across the world''.

The MTV EXIT initiative across Asia and the Pacific is an extention of the successful MTV EXIT European campaign, which has been raising awareness and increasing prevention of trafficking and exploitation in Europe since 2004. Many influential artists have supported MTV EXIT's special programming and events in Europe, including Angelina Jolie, Helena Christensen and Roedy informed.

UNI