The lok Sabha on Thursday unanimously passed a comprehensive law to deal with the menace of human trafficking, with Union Minister Maneka Gandhi stating that the legislation does not intend to harass sex workers. Assuring that she would incorporate in the Rules any “lacunae” that the members have pointed out, the Women and Child Development Minister said the bill is intended to go after human traffickers and not the victims.
The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018, provides for confidentiality of victims, witnesses and complainants, time-bound trials and repatriation of the victims. Congress and CPI(M) MPs initially pressed for sending the bill to Standing Committee arguing that many lacunas and ambiguity exist in the bill. later, they heeded to Minister’s request when she said that this was long overdue and is needed to prevent human trafficking.
“This bill is not intended to harass those social workers who are voluntarily in the profession... This is a bill that has a compassionate view of people who have been victims of sex racket,” Maneka said.
“When 11 year-old Tara is trafficked from her village and sold into bonded labour, beaten and burnt by her owner, how do we save herIJ When she is sold to marriage to a 45-year-old man and raped everyday for months, how do we save herIJ We have no institutions, no processes to do so,” she said.
The legislation proposes to create institutional mechanisms at the district, state and central levels. It calls for punishment ranging from 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine not less than Rs 1 lakh.
Besides prevention, rescue and rehabilitation, it covers aggravated forms of trafficking such as forced labour, begging and marriage.
A rehabilitation fund with an initial corpus of Rs 10 crore would be created for the first time which willbe used for the physical, psychological and social well being of the victims. Also there would be designated courts in each district for speedy trial of the cases. Gandhi also assured the members in the House that the amount would increase as and when required. The Bill provides for attachment and forfeiture of property and also the proceeds of crime.
A National Anti-Trafficking Bureau would be set up to perform functions of international coordination with authorities in foreign countries and international organisations. Currently, India uses different laws to deal with human trafficking cases depending on the facts of the case.
The police sometimes uses the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act to raid brothels and rescue the women in it, while in other cases, the
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act is used to prosecute traffickers.
Participating in the discussion, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said the bill has been drafted “by the bureaucracy, for the bureaucracy” and the victims are the “least priority” in the bill. He said the law was just another law and it did not provide for inspection of rehabilitation homes as he suspected that the relevant “lobbies were successful.”
Describing the bill as a retrograde one, he said inspection was provided in the draft bill. Tharoor said children should not be forced to live in rehabilitation homes with a paternalistic logic and should rather be re-united with their families. He said those voluntarily in the sex-trade should not be harassed as police misused the provision to keep women under illegal confinement.
Tharoor said even though the world looks at India for passing an exemplarily robust bill, the UN experts “who rarely comment” on national laws were criticial of it. He sought that the bill be sent to the standing committee.
Replying to Tharoor, the Minister said the draft bill has been in public domain for over a year and the Congress MP had not “shared his wisdom” so far. Gandhi said during consultation on the bill, Tharoor had met her officially with representatives of sex workers to give their views, so that they are not harassed.
Pointing out that there are a lot of lapses in the Bill, Tathagata Satpathy (BJD) said it deserves proper scrutiny and should be sent to standing committee for fine tuning of the legislation. This Bill seems to be virtual copy of the American Bill, he said, adding it lacks community-based rehabilitation and labour law perspective is also missing.
NPC MP Sypriya Sule said although the intent of the units is noble, it has to be seen whether the bill takes into the consideration the emotional aspect. She said the police needs to be sensitisied in this.