STOP Trafficking and Oppression of Children & Women

🧥✨ Jacket Distribution for RBCT–STOP Students ✨🧥


📍 Tughlakabad – 8 January 2026
📍 Tigri – 20 January 2026


• 🧒👧 Winter jackets distributed for warmth and comfort
• 🎖️🤝 Tughlakabad distribution by
– Retd. IAS Officer & former Chief Information Commissioner
Mr. Amitava Bhattacharyya
– 🎓 Prof. Ranjana Bhattacharya
• ❄️❤️ Protecting students during the winter season
• 📚🌈 Supporting education and daily activities
• 🌟😊 Encouragement, care, and happy smiles

📍✨ Visit to Maitri Ghar Vidhwa Ashram, Vrindaban (Uttar Pradesh)
📅🗓️ 12 January 2026


💛🤝 Ramola Bhar Charitable Trust (RBCT) visited Maitri Ghar Vidhwa Ashram to extend warmth, care, and solidarity to elderly widows residing there.


👥🌸 Visit by
👩‍💼 Ms. Roma Debabrata (Founder, RBCT)
👨‍💼 Mr. Debabrata Chakraborti


🧣❄️ Winter Support Initiative
• 🛌🧶 125 blankets distributed to widows to help them through the winter
• 💰🤍 Individual financial assistance provided as a gesture of care


👵📊 Key Observations
• 🇮🇳🧕 Nearly 95% of the residents are Bengali widows
• 🌼🏡 Residents were found living with dignity and proper care
• 🎂💪 A 109-year-old resident actively engaged in daily work highlighted the supportive environment

🏥✨ Living Conditions at the Ashram
• 🧼🧹 Clean and well-maintained premises
• 🩺⚕️ Accessible medical facilities
• 🍲🥗 Adequate quality and quantity of food
• 🔐🛡️ Secure and safe environment
• 🍛🙏 Daily meals supported by Akshaya Patra Foundation


📖🕊️ Brief Historical Context
Many elderly Bengali widows in Vrindaban trace their displacement to earlier social practices in Bengal, especially child marriage and the social exclusion of widows. While legal and social reforms have reduced such practices over time, women affected decades ago continue to live in shelters like Maitri Ghar, ageing within institutional care systems.

✨ New Year Celebrations at STOP Communities ✨


🌱 New beginnings, strong voices, and fresh hopes 🌱


💙 STOP communities welcomed the New Year with energy, reflection, and renewed commitment to positive change! 💙

• 🎤 Tigri community welcomed the New Year with enthusiastic speeches and shared reflections
• 🎯 Tughlakabad community started the year with meaningful resolutions and collective commitment

📌 PAN–Aadhaar Linking Camp at STOP Tughlakabad 📌


🗓️ 30th & 31st December 2025
📍 STOP Tughlakabad Community Centre
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To strengthen access to essential government services, STOP organized a two-day PAN–Aadhaar linking camp for community members 🤝
The camp focused on checking PAN–Aadhaar linking status, providing on-the-spot assistance, and spreading awareness on the importance of official documentation.
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💡 The initiative not only resolved documentation gaps but also enhanced community awareness about government procedures, compliance, and digital inclusion.
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Celebration inside STOP’s Communities


✨Festival of Lights✨
STOP’s communities celebrated the Festival of Lights with warmth and a spirit of togetherness.
🎈 Children’s Day 🎈
Children’s Day was marked with games, laughter, and joyful moments as children celebrated their special day with fun-filled activities.
❄️ Winter Carnival❄️
The Winter Carnival brought music, activities, and winter cheer, creating happy moments for both the ecommunities.

KNOW YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS × TIGRI COMMUNITY


📅 12 November 2025
📍 STOP Centre, Tigri
🤝 With the legal team from MAP (Migration & Asylum Project)


The MAP legal team began with a short introduction, followed by a grounded discussion on the different forms of abuse women face at home:

👊 Physical abuse – hitting, slapping, pushing
💔 Emotional and psychological abuse – criticism, humiliation, manipulation, gaslighting
🗣️ Verbal abuse – shouting, name-calling, degrading remarks
🚫 Sexual abuse – forced intimacy, marital r**e
💰 Economic abuse – denial of money, control over earnings, restriction from working
🏠 Social isolation – cutting women off from family or friends
📱 Digital abuse – cyberstalking, device monitoring, online threats
🎁 Dowry harassment
🍼 Reproductive abuse – forced pregnancy, pressure for a male child
😞 Neglect – ignoring health, emotions, basic needs


The session stressed that abuse is never normal and every woman has the right to safety and dignity.


Key legal protections discussed:
📜 Domestic Violence Act – protection from physical, emotional, sexual, and economic abuse
🏡 Right to reside in the shared household
⚖️ Section 498A (IPC) – protection from dowry-related cruelty
👩‍⚖️ Rights to maintenance, alimony, divorce, and child custody
🏛️ Independent rights to own and inherit property


The workshop encouraged women to recognise abuse early, assert their rights, and seek timely support through legal and community systems.

STOP's Communities celebrated Season's Greetings by showing off their skills in arts and crafts!


Here are a few sneakpeeks to their 'handicrafts'!







#2026

📚✨ Mentorship Programme at STOP’s Tughlakabad Community ✨📚


A mentorship programme was conducted at STOP’s Tughlakabad Community by Amitava Bhattacharyya and Ranjana Bhattacharya, focusing on academic learning, language skills, and building student confidence 🌱


👨‍🏫 Amitava Bhattacharyya conducted sessions for:
Class 9 – Science, covering Earth’s atmosphere 🌍 and basic chemical equation formation ⚗️
Classes 6–7 – An impromptu English writing exam to assess sentence formation and correct English syntax ✍️
Classes 3–5 – General Knowledge session to encourage curiosity and awareness 🧠


🏆 Student highlight: Aman from Class 6 won first prize for writing sentences with correct English syntax ✨


👩‍🏫 Ranjana Bhattacharya conducted a session for:
Class 9 – Session on the physical features of the Indian subcontinent 🏔️🌊 and their influence on history, especially water systems and settlement patterns.


🌟 The mentorship programme created an engaging learning space and motivated students to express themselves with confidence.


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🌍🤝 Strengthening Cross-Border Action Against Human Trafficking 🚫👥


📅 18–19 December 2025
📍 Ratna Hotel, Biratnagar, Koshi Province, Nepal


A two-day Stakeholders’ Consultation on Strengthening Response to Combat Human Trafficking brought together key actors from Nepal and India to build strong, joint systems for cross-border rescue, repatriation, prevention, and survivor protection.


🏛️ Organized by the Government of Nepal (MoWCSC) in collaboration with Maiti Nepal and Woord en Daad, the consultation convened government officials, law enforcement agencies 👮‍♀️, and civil society organisations 🤝 to strengthen coordinated responses to trafficking affecting women and children 👩‍👧‍👦.


🛡️🧠 Thematic sessions focused on prevention in border districts 🚧, victim identification and rescue 🆘, shelter, health & psychosocial care 🏥💬, repatriation protocols ✈️, mutual legal assistance ⚖️, joint trainings 📚, and technology-based coordination 📱. Group discussions 🤔💬 led to practical action points and shared solutions.


📌 STOP was invited and represented by Poonam Choudhary. 🙌


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🌏 Research | Dialogue | Collaboration 🌏


✨ The ECPAT Mukti South Asia Research Dissemination Workshop was held on 20 December 2025 at Aloft, Aerocity, New Delhi, as part of the Mukti South Asia initiative.

✨ The workshop opened with welcome remarks by Shrinkhala Thapa, Regional Coordinator, ECPAT South Asia, followed by a powerful research presentation — “Voices from the Ground” — by Chitra Iyer, Founder of Space2Grow. The presentation amplified survivor and frontline worker perspectives, highlighting shelter conditions, mental health gaps, staff capacity challenges, and the urgent need for school-level awareness.


💬 An engaging discussion with civil society organisations, researchers, and sector experts focused on translating evidence into advocacy, programme strengthening, and collaborative action. The day concluded with networking and conversations around future partnerships. 💬


🤝 STOP was represented by Paridhi Negi, Project Associate. 🤝