3 million females, 40% of them minors, trafficked in India every year
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 19
Close on the heels being placed on the US human trafficking Tier 2 watchlist that names countries not doing enough to curb human smuggling, India has ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three protocols, including one to combat trafficking in persons.
The Convention remains, by far, the most potent international instrument in the fight against transnational organised crime. Currently, human trafficking is the third largest organised crime in the world after the narcotics trade and illicit arms trading. Together, these crimes generate annual revenue of $ 9.5 billion, with the share of human trafficking gradually rising.
For India, the development is significant considering it took 12 years to ratify the Convention, which is supplemented by protocols to combat human trafficking; migrant smuggling and illicit trafficking in firearms. The fact that India has ratified the ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children’ means the country would now have to evolve a comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation that conforms to international standards and provisions. Right now, the laws are unclear.
It would also have to find ways to train law enforcers who continue to book trafficked women under the provisions of Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, rather than booking them under provisions of the law which would see them as “victims” and not “offenders”. The National Human Rights Commission says only 6.6 per cent of the country’s law enforcers have any kind of training in trafficking issues.
If that was less, the Ministry of Women and Child Development estimates that around 3 million women are annually trafficked in India for various purposes - domestic to sex work - and 40 per cent of these are minors.
Most rescued victims currently have little access to rehabilitation and care, which means even after being freed, they run the risk of getting back to brothels. A woman caught under the ITPA for example is required to pay a fine to walk free. Because she has no money, her brothel owner walks in again promising to rescue her from jail provided she agrees to return to sex work.
CRPF Additional Director General Police (Operations) PM Nair, who has worked on trafficking issues, said the training of law enforcers was a must. Also, the government is now legally bound by the Convention to look at both prevention and protection issues.
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