Odanadi Seva Samsthe or Odanadi Seva Trust is a pioneering social organization based in Mysore, South India, working for the rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration of trafficked women and children.
Odanadi has organized and undertaken 54 rescue-operations. Over 1800 girls in and out of Karnataka state have been rescued, and the perpetrators of this traffic have been brought to justice.
Human trafficking: the facts
• Every year an estimated 2.5 million people are trafficked around the world – and the majority of them are aged between 18 and 25.
• Every day in India 200 women and girls enter prostitution and 80% of them do so against their will as victims of trafficking.
• The 2007 U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report states that India's 'trafficking in persons' problem is estimated to be in the millions (90% of which is internal).
• The 2004 report by Shakti Vahini confirms that Karnataka, where Odanadi is located, is one of the major trafficking-supply states.
• Purposes for trafficking in Karnataka include: forced prostitution, child marriage, domestic servitude, child labour, entertainment, begging, adoption, drug smuggling, organ transplants, and the castration of male children.
• Traffickers may be family members or friends, brothel owners and brokers, community leaders, women in sex-work or people in powerful positions such as police and other government employees.
• The vast majority of trafficked women and girls are poor, landless families and most come from the Dalit, Adivasi and other low-caste communities.