Drafted in a vacuum
There are serious concerns over the efficacy of the Anti-trafficking Bill, which neither addresses the root causes of trafficking nor provides for protection and rehabilitation of victims.
ON July 26, the Lok Sabha passed the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018. Known as the Anti-trafficking Bill in short, it received mixed reviews. Though there was no disagreement over the need to tackle the menace of trafficking, society remains divided on the efficacy of the new Bill that awaits a nod in the Rajya Sabha.
Human trafficking is a serious problem, with thousands of men, women and children being transported and exploited in their own countries and outside every year. India ranks among the worst countries in terms of its prevalence. On any day in 2016, about eight million people were living under various forms of modern slavery in India, according to the Global Slavery Index.
According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau data, in 2016 there were 8,132 reported cases of human trafficking in the country. About 15,379 people were trafficked, of whom 9,034 were below the age of 18. In addition, 23,117 people were rescued from trafficking situations, of whom 14,183 were below the age of 18. The number of rescued victims is higher than the number of trafficked people as rescued victims may also include persons trafficked in the previous year.
Most of the rescued victims reported being trafficked for the purpose of forced labour (10,509 cases), followed by the purpose of prostitution (4,980 cases) and other forms of sexual exploitation (2,590 cases).
According to Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, the new Bill is victim-centric and “will not spare anyone who has trafficked a girl for sex work”. It includes rigorous punishment from a minimum of 10 years to life imprisonment and a fine not less than Rs.1 lakh.
TERMS OF THE BILL
As per the Bill, the victims are entitled to interim relief within 30 days to address physical and mental trauma and further appropriate relief within 60 days from the date of filing of the charge sheet. A Rehabilitation Fund has been created for the physical, psychological and social well-being of the victim, which includes education, skill development, health care, psychological support, legal aid and safe accommodation. The Bill creates dedicated institutional mechanisms at the district, State and Central levels that will be responsible for prevention, protection, investigation and rehabilitation work related to trafficking. The National Investigation Agency will perform the tasks of the Anti-trafficking Bureau at the national level under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
In 2015, while disposing a public interest litigation petition filed by Sunitha Krishnan, co-founder of the NGO Prajwala, the Supreme Court bench of Justices Anil Dave, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph noted the submission of the government that it had set up a committee under the Ministry of Women and Child Development that would prepare a comprehensive law to deal with trafficking. The committee was supposed to study the various pieces of legislation relating to various aspects of trafficking. Currently, trafficking is addressed by a basket of laws, including Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 370-370A, 371, 372-373 and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA), 1956, which criminalise activities related to prostitution. The new law is expected to consider the gaps in the existing legislation from the point of view of prevention, pre-rescue, rescue, postrescue and rehabilitation and to strengthen the victim protection protocol so as to ensure that victims are treated as victims and not as offenders. The Bill is being touted by the government as one that “addresses one of the most pervasive yet invisible crimes affecting the most vulnerable persons especially women and children”. But according to some activists, it does not do so.
According to Apne Aap Women Worldwide [a grass-roots movement to end sex trafficking], trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation is the most common form of human trafficking and yet the proposed Bill does not include “sexual exploitation” or the “prostitution of others” in its definition. “This means that India’s 16 million girls and women who are victims of trafficking will be cut off from vital services. It also means an increase in risk for the most vulnerable girls, most of whom are Dal-