A Community Health Worker (CHW) Delivered Intervention for DNTs in India

The 60 million people from India’s Denotified Tribes (DNTs) are at high risk of human trafficking, compounding social inequalities. Decades of public-health and interpersonal-violence research have demonstrated that strategies addressing psychosocial well-being can end and prevent violence, including human trafficking. With funding from the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, under the Program to End Modern Slavery, Research Professor Meredith Dank is collaborating with Sheldon Zhang (UMass Lowell), David Farabee (NYU Grossman School of Medicine), Hanni Stoklosa (HEAL Trafficking), India-based Praxis-Institute for Participatory Practices, and local DNT community members to conduct a randomized controlled trial in two regions in India. Through an intervention led by a community-health fellow and run by DNT community members and local stakeholders, the research team will help DNT communities develop economic alternatives and new livelihoods, reducing trafficking victimization.