SAVE THE CHILDREN
Legislative reform is long overdue, say rights activists
Activists in India call for new legislation to protect young girls and boys from child traffickers,
MUMBAI // Activists are calling for the swift enactment of a new law against child trafficking in India, a problem that has plagued the country for decades.
Child trafficking “is a matter of grave concern”, said Kailash Satyarthi, a Nobel peace prize laureate and activist for children’s rights.
“Despite the efforts of the government and civil society groups, we are failing to protect young girls and boys from trafficking and modern forms of slavery,” he said.
Last May, the ministry of women and child development unveiled a draft of anti-trafficking legislation, but it has yet to table the final bill in parliament.
Mr Satyarthi said the government needed to produce a “strong and comprehensive” law as a matter of urgency.
“We need a national surveillance system and structure ... that takes concrete measures for women and child protection and victim rehabilitation,” he said.
Children, largely from poor families, are trafficked for manual labour, sex work, adoption, and to be sold as child brides. Some children have been sent overseas.
The victims are taken from villages to cities where they work in factories or serve as domestic help. In many cases they are not paid, making them slaves. In several instances, the children went missing without trace.
A few weeks ago, Juhi Chowdhury, a leader from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, who was allegedly a central figure in a child-trafficking ring in West Bengal, was arrested.
The racket involved selling Indian babies to their countrymen and foreigners, from countries including America and Australia, for between 100,000 rupees (Dh5,620) and 200,000 rupees, said the police.
West Bengal, which borders Bangladesh and Nepal, has become known as a human-trafficking centre.
Last year, 9,104 children were trafficked in India, an increase of 27 per cent from 2015, government data shows.
But Mr Satyarthi said the numbers did not reveal the full picture because a “lack of data has made it difficult to even report the figures correctly”.
He said: “National and regional government agencies are finding it difficult to investigate and prosecute trafficking cases due to discrepancies in the law, which allow perpetrators to get away with their crime.”
Komal Ganotra, director of policy and advocacy for Child Rights and You, an NGO, said child trafficking was largely caused by social and economic inequality.
Children in rural areas are particularly vulnerable because of poverty and lack of employment opportunities. She said new legislation against child trafficking was long overdue.
India’s existing law against human trafficking, introduced in the 1990s, has failed because it is reactive rather than preventive, and adequate protection by the authorities rarely extends to rural areas, enabling child trafficking to flourish.
The current law also focuses more on commercial sexual exploitation and does not adequately address other activities for which children can be exploited. Consequently, conviction rates for trafficking offences are low. Last week, the government said it was taking steps to tackle child trafficking and was working to finalise the new legislation. Shrimati Krishna Raj, a junior minister for women and child development, said the legislation would include preventive measures such as anti-trafficking committees at national, state and district levels, and more investigations into trafficking offences.
The new legislation would be finalised for the government’s approval before tabling it in parliament, the minister said without giving a timeline.
Ms Ganotra said it was unlikely that the bill would be introduced in the current parliamentary session, but she said she hoped that this would happen in the next session of parliament in July or August.
“The indication definitely is that the new legislation is a much more comprehensive law, which covers all dimensions of trafficking and focuses on prevention as well as response. So we are hopeful for a positive move,” she said.