Centre defends Ravi Shankar Prasad’s claims on trafficking

NEW DELHI: Hitting out at Congress for mocking government’s assertion that prostitution has “nosedived” after the decision to ban high-value currency notes, the Centre has claimed that the principal opposition party has given a readymade poll plank on the platter for the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections.

Defending the claims made by Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, a senior BJP leader said, “We have data in support. There are several reports which have clearly stated that demonetisation broke the backbone of Rs 20 trillion trafficking industry.” Citing the reports published in different international publications, the party official said that demonetisation had brought the trafficking of women and girls for sex work to a grinding halt.

Another published report said that the business had slowed down at the Thakkar Bappa Colony shoe manufacturing hub in eastern Mumbai soon after the high-value banknotes were withdrawn by the government in an attempt to curb tax evasion and counterfeit currency.

According to child rights activists, trafficking had stopped completely soon after the implementation of demonetisation. “Since all the transactions used to happen in cash and after the ban on highvalue notes, employers had no money to pay the middlemen,” an activist of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an NGO, had said after the rollout of note ban decision.

Supporting the study, Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi had said, “Black money is the backbone of the trafficking industry in India. At the moment that structure has been fractured by demonetisation.”

While listing out the achievements of demonetisation, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had claimed that the notes ban had resulted in fewer incidents of stonepelting in Kashmir, put a check on Naxal activities, increased the provident fund (PF) and insurance cover of employees and had given digital transactions a huge push.