Hasina Kharbhih recording the truth.
Traffickers work through local agents who prey on areas where there is little or no surveillance, then move elsewhere as pressure is brought to bear. Hasina’s coordinated approach enables an orchestrated “early warning system” that alerts villagers when traffickers are operating nearby, or are likely to move in. She also assembles research on trafficked girls, their traffickers and who works for whom into a shared database, the first of its kind in India. Shared with over 1000 government and citizen sector groups, the data helps them piece together a girl’s identity and the likely destinations where she may have been sent. Eight states in Northeastern India have adopted Hasina’s model and have worked with her over the past decade. Her approach has saved over 70,000 people in the region from enslavement. As trafficking extends its reach, Hasina recognized that she had to engineer international data sharing. However, India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar were stuck not cooperating. Working with all three parties, Hasina recently brokered an agreement whereby INTERPOL acts as host for each
country’s database and the parties commit to upgrading and harmonizing their systems using best practices, with the database Hasina developed for Northeastern India as the model. Her work in this field is endorsed by the Government of India and is seen by the parties as the most advanced.
Hasina has been fighting... to end trafficking in the Northeast and so far, has saved 72,442 people.”
The cross-sector approach Hasina pioneered is now internationally recognized as a model for combating trafficking effectively. Beyond the Northeastern states and the Interpol agreement, India is piloting it nationally, and Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh have adopted it. Hasina is currently working with the British High Commission to take the model global.