Charities: USAID stops funding to Indian NGO

The US government funding agency USAID, has terminated funding to the NGO Sampada Grameen Mahila Sanstha (SANGRAM) for allegedly supporting brothel owners and obstructing the rescue of minor girls from red light areas.

Ambassador John R Miller, director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking In Persons, said that SANGRAM is the first NGO to be cut off from funding for trying to thwart rescue efforts. "It is for the first time in India and perhaps internationally, as far as I know. I want to believe this is an exception, an anomaly. But we are reviewing other programmes and if there is any specific information that an organisation is trying to keep people from being rescued from any kind of trafficking we will be looking into it." .

However, Meena Saraswathi Seshu, director of SANGRAM, defends the organisation saying that it is strongly against child prostitution that is akin to child sexual abuse but feels that "a simplistic solution as raid and rescue merely offered patchwork relief."