Advocacy session with potential victims of Trafficking in Person in Lahore

Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) organized the district advocacy session with potential victims of Trafficking in Person (TIP) in Lahore. The purpose of this session was to create awareness of TIP and its impact on communities and country, trafficking in person laws, referrals mechanism, and the role of citizens in supporting government departments to identify and curb this practice. Human trafficking contains both sex and bonded labor, i.e., brick kiln and agri-farm. The session was also attended by the district officers of 5 districts from various departments including the social welfare department, department of human rights, Punjab police, and labor department.
The session was attended by Senior Provincial Minister Syed Hassan Murtaza, Bushra Anjum Butt, Member Punjab Assembly, Uzma Kardar, Former Member Punjab Assembly, Syed Kausar Abbas, Executive Director Sustainable Social Development Organization and Fiza Mazhar, Project Manager Sustainable Social Development Organization.
On this occasion Syed Hassan Murtaza, Senior Provincial Minister said that human trafficking is indeed a very heinous crime and a rising issue that needs to be addressed as a priority. We at the government level will work to take better actions to stop this crime. Ms. Bushra Anjum Butt, Member Punjab Assembly said that she has raised this issue in the assembly time and again and also raised it in the budget speech very recently. She said that she has requested the government to reinstate the issuance of the ‘Imdaad Card’ for the people to help the domestic workers, bonded labor, and other working-class with their finances.
Syed Kausar Abbas, Executive Director of SSDO said that SSDO has made stakeholders working group under the project intervention to help improve the work at the ground level and to insure the implementation of laws and other policies, and suggest improvements as needed.