Forum appeals to Central government to pass bill on trafficking

The consultation of Interim Working Group (IWG), Tamil Nadu – a collective of NGOs, and activists working in the Trafficking plane observed that the state was faring at number 2 position in terms of human trafficking next only to West Bengal, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics.

“TN is one of the most trafficking affected states given with high magnitude of domestic as well as international trafficking. It is both a destination and source states, wherein children and women from Tamil Nadu are trafficked to Maharashtra and Delhi for commercial sexual exploitation and the same from other states, including Odisha, Jharkhand, Manipur and Assam as well as Bangladesh are trafficked for forced labour in mines, textile and spinning mills. Trafficking in India has historically been associated with sex work and therefore with women and children,” the release from IWG stated.

Homes without registration

While 1,096 children’s homes, housing 3.5 lakh children, are registered in the state, almost an equal number operates without registration, evading government scrutiny, the communique from IWG observed, and further claimed that there were reports of exploitation of women and girls working in textile mills where they are held in confinement. “State has a few reported cases of child trafficking though,” it said.

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA) ,focussed on trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and then the Indian Penal Code (IPC) were amended to expand the definition of trafficking to include bonded and child labour. However, the Justice Sikri Committee, which was mandated by the Supreme Court to study effectiveness of law and policy in India to address human trafficking observed deficiencies in the current laws and recommended legal reform.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) then decided to form a comprehensive law to address all forms of human trafficking for any purpose, provisions for more robust investigation and prosecution to treat trafficking as an organised crime, providing for rescue and rehabilitation of its victims. This Draft Bill seeks to fill many of the gaps in the IPC and ITPA and address many of the specific concerns of Tamil Nadu, the statement said while delving into the details of the need for the legislation