A comprehensive legislation against human trafficking, which was long overdue, will see the light of the day with the proposed anti-human trafficking law. The Draft Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill 2016 unveiled by Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi was available for public comment till June 30 last.
The proposed Bill aims to prevent trafficking of persons along with their care, protection and rehabilitation in a legal, social and economic environment that promotes anti-trafficking in India. Human trafficking has been a global concern with increasing vulnerability of women and children to the organized ensnaring network of traffickers engaged in spreading of commercial sex, organ trade, drug, crime and forced slavery.
The National Crime Record Bureau reports that there were 5,466 of human trafficking cases registered in 2014 and the number has been increasing every year but the real figure is not available with the Government as many of the cases remain under reported. The countries such as India, Nepal and Bangladesh having huge human trafficking problems as south Asia is the fastest growing along with East Asia in the world as reported by the United Nations office for drugs and crime. It is reported that rural poor, women and children are being trafficked. The Global Slavery Index of 2016 published by Walk Free Foundation says that India is home to the largest number of enslaved people in the world. There have been reports of trafficking of women and children from backward regions of the State to different parts of the country. They are mostly poor and a large chunk of the trafficked population belongs to socially and economically backward communities, Dalits, Adivasies and minorities who are mostly poor and resourceless. The poor people in poverty, illiteracy and unemployment are given false promises of good jobs and marriage and later, exploited for sex work, commercial sex, forced labourer and all other degraded inhuman jobs in bondage. Many women and children are confined to brothels as sex workers and their life becomes worse in such conditions.
The Bill has drawn its foundation from Article 23 of Constitution of India which prohibits trafficking in human beings and Article 21 that guarantees life and personal liberty of a person and the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime and its three optional protocols including the protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children which India has rectified.
The Bill has provision of Central Anti-trafficking Advisory Board at the national level headed by the Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, with representatives of concerned Ministries and civil society organizations.
At the State level, the Bill has provision of State Anti-trafficking Committee with the Chief Secretary as its chairperson and Secretaries of Women and Child welfare, Home, labour , and Health departments, DG police, Secretary, State legal Service Authority and two social workers nominated with gender balance by the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court as its members. The responsibility of the committee is to implement this Act and advise the State Government and district anti -trafficking committees.
The district anti-trafficking committee will be headed by the district Collector and members drawn from judiciary and social work background, representatives of District legal Service Authority and officials of Social Justice and Women and Child Development departments. The committee has to meet at least once in three months to deal with trafficking prevention, rescue, protection, medical care, psychological assistance, skill development and need based rehabilitation of victims who are to be produced before the committee by police, public servants, social workers or the victims themselves.
There will be a special agency to be constituted by the Central Government to investigate offences under the provisions. The Bill has proposed protection homes or special homes in each district either by the Government or voluntary organizations under provisions of support service for care, protection and long term institutional support for rehabilitation.
There are provisions of punishment, penalty and imprisonment in case of disclosure of identity of a victim in any report, newspaper or magazine or audio-visual media. It has included use of narcotic drugs, psychotropic or alcoholic substance for trafficking and use of chemical substance or hormones for the purpose of exploitation as serious offence. There is provision of confiscation, forfeiture and attachment of property of the offender. The State Government in consultation with the Chief Justice will specify a court of session as special courts for trial of trafficking cases of the district with special public prosecutors having ten years of active practice as an advocate before a court of session.
There will be anti-trafficking fund to be created by the Government for the implementation of the provisions and other related activities. The Central and the State Government will have power to make rules and give direction as per the provisions.
Activists and civil society organizations have been critical about the Bill as they argue the definition of trafficking is not wide enough to include many other forms of human trafficking and the long term rehabilitation aspect of rescue person is not clear. They say the new legislation should be an addition to existing two Acts, that is, the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act and the Juvenile Justice Act 2015 and must address the limitations of many existing laws to prevent trafficking of women and children. They also suggest for involvement of cross section stakeholders in the process of consultation to make the legislation more realistic to implement and address the ground realities and issues faced by the trafficking persons in distress and post rescue arrangements.
Backward State Odisha has serious trafficking problem in the districts of Sundargarh, Bhadrak, Kendrapada, Sambalpur, Baleswar, Angul, Dhenkanal, Boudh, Kondhamal and Ganjam. They are mostly from rural areas and poor economic background who are trafficked to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jhansi, Uttarakhand, Haryana ,Rajasthan ,Punjab ,Chennai, Karla for sale.
With support from the Union Ministries of Home Affairs and Women and Child Development, the State Government has setup integrated anti-human trafficking units having representatives of police, advocates, NGOs and other related departments as part of the policy and resolution made in 2014 to prevent trafficking in the State. In the resolution of the Government, there have been provisions of involvement of district, block and Panchayat officials along with NGOs, media and leaders of women self-help groups and other concerned to collect information about the traffickers and make all efforts to ensure zero tolerance to human trafficking in their area. It is instructed by the Government that local officials, NGOs, media and Panchayati Raj Institutions should work closely to generate whistle-blowers in the area and encourage people to intervene in the issues. The Panchayat level committees have a major role in this regard because of their direct contact with people in village .The Sarapanch, ANM, ICDS supervisor, school teacher, NGOs and women self-help groups have to openly take initiative where ever they are coming across issues of human trafficking. The marriage registration at Panchayat level should be enforced strictly by promoting awareness among public and to prevent fake marriage and false promise of marriage. The registration can help in monitoring such marriage and prevent the traffickers to take the girls outside. The women self-help groups and other women forums should educate the young girls and make them aware about the human trafficking issues and motivate them to know the details of outsiders. Media has an important role in exposing the traffickers. It is expected that the new legislation will add more strength to tackle the problem in a more integrated manner.
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