New Anti-Trafficking Law Good In Intent But Misses Key Points

It took Ruksana Khatun and Preeti Das (names changed) two months and many failed attempts to contact family amid daily torture, to finally manage a phone to call home. Intimated by a Basirhat-based NGO, the Gujarat police tracked down the number, zeroed in on the brothel and rescued them. Due to the Covid lockdown, the young men who brought them to Gujarat were stranded in Bharuch, and with information from the brothel owner, the police arrested the duo. A police team from Basirhat brought back Khatun, Das and the two accused. But, to the horror of the two survivors, both the accused got bail from a court in January 2021, despite being booked under provisions of the POCSO Act and the police having filed a charge-sheet on time.

바카라�The biggest flaw in the investigation in our case is that none of the Gujarat residents who bought us and exploited us sexually and physically were arrested. This leaves the probe incomplete and weakens the case against local traffickers,바카라� Khatun says. With the help of a local anti-trafficking organisation, both of them have returned to school; this year, both passed their secondary exam in the first division.  

According to Bikash Das of Teghoria Institute for Social Movement, the NGO that helped the survivors in pursuing the case and getting rehabilitated in their families and neighbourhoods, the new anti-trafficking bill that the Centre plans to introduce in the current monsoon session of Parliament should fill in the gaps that hamper probes into cases of inter-­state trafficking, for the new bill proposes investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

바카라�Unless law enforcers can strike at both the source and destination areas, the racket will not weaken. The NIA can come handy in giving justice to the victims of inter-state trafficking,바카라� says Das.

Like him, other anti-trafficking activists rest their hope on the provisions of the bill, formally called the Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehab­ilitation) Bill, 2021. It was passed in the Lok Sabha in its previous avatar in 2018 but was never placed before the Rajya Sabha after being roundly criticised.

The new law appears to be more acc­eptable to activists. Highlighting its positive aspects, Pompi Banerjee, a psy­­cho­logist and activist associated with Calcutta-based NGO Sanjog, says, 바카라�The new Bill has built on the criticism that the ministry of women and child development received on the 2018 Bill. For the first time, it attempts to provide a definition of rehabilitation with a focus on mental health and psychological recovery of trafficking survivors. It upholds their right to rehabilitation and compensation independent of criminal proceedings.바카라�

Yet many aspects of the Bill have made activists and trafficking survivors wary of it바카라�a reason why it has not received wholehearted approbation from them, even though it proposes stringent penal measures, including the death penalty, to trafficking convicts. 바카라�We welcome the proposal of investigation by NIA but the Bill neither mentions any fund for inter-state probes nor which agency is responsible for drafting the probe reports. Without specifying these, investigation into inter-­state rackets will suffer,바카라� says a leader of Utthan, a collective of trafficking survivors. She adds that they are upset as the Bill has also not met the dem­and that members of survivor collectives be made part of the district-level mechanism against trafficking, from prevention and rescue to rehabilitation.

The Indian Leadership Forum Against Trafficking, a forum of survivors spread across West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, says the draft bill 바카라�marks a significant departure바카라� from the previous one and had 바카라�undoubtedly made attempts to be a little more victim-centric바카라�.  The forum, however, points out that while necessary measures in ensuring care, dignity, and rehabilitation has been mentioned, the bill does not fix accountability on any one body to ensure its provisions are met. 바카라�There is no mention of a dedicated rehabilitation fund바카라�necessary for relief, rehabilitation, compensation, and funds for inter- and intra-state investigations,바카라� the forum wrote in its recommendations sent to the ministry.

Most activists also worry that the law makes no attempt to strengthen the existing anti-human trafficking units (AHTU) of different district police and about how the AHTU and the NIA would coordinate inter-state probes. Mentioning that survivors have noticed 바카라�a stark difference between AHTUs and over-burdened police stations in the manner of handling these cases, the forum adds, 바카라�AHTUs dedicated to trafficking cases, with sensitised police officers, NGOs and survivors, are crucial in ensuring higher conviction rates and treatment of victims with care and dignity. Therefore, a law that would set out the procedures with clarity on what will be taken up by which body is essential.바카라� At present, it is not mandatory for the police to hand over all cases of human trafficking to AHTUs.

According to N. Rammohan, an anti-­trafficking activist from Andhra Pradesh, police stations lack the expertise, time and resources to take preventive measures and track the network of traffickers. 바카라�The rising debt bondage of sex workers puts their children at risk of forced prostitution. Unless the AHTUs are empowered to break the nexus between money lenders, pimps and brothel owners, the entry of sex workers바카라� children into the trade, especially young women between 18 and 21, will seem consensual,바카라� Rammohan says.

Anti-trafficking researcher Roop Sen points out that the Bill is silent on the intelligence gathering requi­red for prevention in a crime that requires 바카라�strategies similar to those used against drug cartels바카라� to tackle. 바카라�Given that human traffi­cking is an organised crime, this legislation says nothing about gathering intelligence 바카라�and any strategic investigation for identifiying traffickers, buyers and users of trafficked persons for forced labour and/or sexual exp­loi­tat­ion,바카라� he adds. Sen suggests that the NIA should be given the task.

Members of Tafteesh, an anti-trafficking consortium, say that one positive of the new bill is that it proposes a common law to address all human trafficking바카라�from sexual exploitation, forced labour and slavery to trafficking of human org­ans바카라�and it should help remove 바카라�prejudice towards sex work as compared to other forms of trafficking as well as arbitrary inconsistencies between different legislations targeting trafficking.바카라�

However, Tamil Nadu-based anti-­trafficking activist Kandaswamy Krishnan says that the Bill needed to use 바카라�gender-neutral language바카라� to ens­ure all genders had access to its benefits. 바카라�Human trafficking is not restricted to women, children and transgenders. Males are victims of lab­our trafficking too,바카라� Krishnan says. He adds that the definition of 바카라�debt bondage바카라� requires to be expanded to inc­lude 바카라�any of lineal ascendants or descendants바카라� of the debtor whose services have been pledged. 바카라�A debtor could also pledge his/her children/ grandchildren,바카라� he says.

(This appeared in the print edition as "Under The Net")

By Snigdhendu Bhattacharya in Calcutta