‘States reluctant to share details on anti-trafficking units’
A study spearheaded by Sanjog, a technical resource organisation, and Tafteesh, a coalition of lawyers, activists, social workers and survivor leaders, on assessing the operational competence of Anti-human Trafficking Units (AHTUS) across India has unveiled that states are reluctant to share information regarding the amount of funds allocated by the Home Department of the state governments and the Ministry of Home Affairs for the formation and functioning of AHTUS, in the state from FY 2010-11 till FY 2018-19, as well as the level of utilisation of those funds for the same time period.
As a part of this study, RTIS were filed in 33 states and Union Territories by five lawyers and only 10 states responded to the information on budget and funding. Even out of these 10 states, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Chhattisgarh provided incomplete information that only consisted of funds allocated and did not cover the utilisation of the same.
The RTI also asked whether AHTUS have been allocated any budget for the purpose of collecting intelligence and conducting research on human trafficking on an annual basis from FY 2010-11 till FY 2018-19, as well as levels of utilisation of the same. It was observed that Arunachal Pradesh was the only state that had a separate budget allocation for intelligence and research.
According to this study, Uttarakhand and Nagaland were the only states that claimed 100% utilisation of funds issued for the setup of AHTUS, followed by Kerala and Mizoram with 99.90%. The lowest percentage of funds utilisation was in Arunachal Pradesh, where only 33.3% of the budget for intelligence and research was utilised. Tamil Nadu and Bihar claimed 92.49% and 76.17% utilisation of funds issued for the set-up of AHTUS respectively.
This comes in the backdrop of an advisory issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, asking all the states and UTS to set up new AHTUS and upgrade the existing ones through Rs 100 crore that has been allocated from the Nirbhaya Fund in this regard. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Pompi Banerjee, a psychologist and researcher at Sanjog and a member of Tafteesh, said: “AHTUS are never really the agenda of political parties in elections, that is part of the reason why only the Central government, through the Ministry of Home
Affairs, issued funds for the set-up of AHTUS and state/ UT Home Departments do not provide any funding for the same in any jurisdiction.”
Asma Mollya, member of Utthan and a community leader in ILFAT (Indian Leadership Forum Against Trafficking), who herself is a survivor and had been rescued in 2011, said that the local police were rude to her and only agreed to record the statement after intervention by a local NGO. It was when her case was transferred to the AHTU that the investigation was done promptly and efficiently, using descriptions and sketches to identify the accused; something that the local police never did. Meetings were on time and spaced out, so that she could prepare herself. The local police had made her feel like a criminal, she said.
Kaushik Gupta, advocate, Calcutta High Court, also heading the legal team of Tafteesh, said, “I find that officers from local police stations are unable to conduct robust investigations and the same cases, when transferred to AHTUS, have a much better impact and help in prosecution. I can’t say if AHTU officers are better trained or more skilled, but prima facie, they have the time, resources and systemic support to do a diligent job.”