Survivors ask parliamentarians to get anti-trafficking bill passed

NEWDELHI: At 14, she was allegedly sold to different dance bars, sexually exploited and tortured for two years. Since her rescue, she has been leading a collective to help human trafficking survivors in her native state of West Bengal. Now 23, she is one of the eleven survivors from different parts of the country, who have come together in the national capital on Friday demanding the passing of the anti-trafficking bill, 2018.

The survivors from 11 states, each with their own stories of horrors about bonded labour, domestic work, prostitution and organ trade, urged the a group of parliamentarians to push for the passage of the bill during the winter session of Parliament.

The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018, proposes categorising of offences into “trafficking” and “aggravated trafficking”. For aggravated trafficking, one could be given life imprisonment . The draft bill was cleared by the Union cabinet in March this year and is pending before the Rajya Sabha.

The survivors and parliamentarians were brought together by Prayas, an NGO, that works in the field of rehabilitation of women and children who are trafficked. Amod Kanth, general secretary, Prayas, said, “It is time that the law provides necessary tools to tackle the complex organised crime of human trafficking. The bill provides this and must be passed at the earliest.”

The six parliamentarians — D Raja, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Pradeep Tamta and N Gokulakrishnan, Satyanarayan Jatiya and Bhubaneshwar Kalita — said they would ensure that human trafficking becomes a part of their party manifesto during the election.

“Discussion on the trafficking bill is the need of the hour. I hope it’s taken up in the winter session of Rajya Sabha. I will also ensure that human trafficking becomes part of our party manifesto,” D Raja, Rajya Sabha MP, said.

Most survivors said they had to wait for years to even get their cases registered. The traffickers are still at large, they said.

In the case of the 14-year-old from West Bengal, she was lured away on the pretext of a job and was trafficked to a dance bar in Bihar, where she was confined and exploited. After two years in captivity, she was rescued with the help of the hotel owner, where she along with other women, had been sent to solicit customers.

“No police case has been registered against the traffickers till date. The two years were a nightmare. Besides the sexual abuse, we were made to work for 14 hours a day without wages. The food provided was meagre and the employers would beat us up every time we resisted,” she said.

With the help of a human rights organisation, she could return home. She now leads the state wing of Utthan, an NGO that helps rehabilitate survivors.

“The passing of this bill is necessary, as it provides for establishing a national level anti-trafficking bureau. Once the law is in place, it will become binding on local police to register cases and help in interstate investigation,” she said.

Another survivor, a 21-yearold from Chhattisgarh, said she and 13 others were forced into bonded labour at a brick kiln in Odisha.

“We were brought to Odisha on the pretext of getting jobs at a factory. It was only later that we realised that we have been sold to a landlord. We were sexually abused by the owner and his employees,” she said.