UNODC is carrying forward the global initiative to fight human trafficking in South Asia in general and India in particular. Lewis observes that vulnerabilities like poverty, illiteracy and lack of employment opportunities, as well as natural disasters and conflict situations contribute to this. He spoke to Shruba Mukherjee of Deccan Herald. Excerpts:

Despite the constitutional provisions, special laws like Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) and many sections of the Indian Penal Code, prostitution, trafficking and other forms of exploitation of children and women continue. Where exactly have things gone wrong?

The problem will continue until India has a more equitable growth. Poverty makes people, especially women, more vulnerable. They become easy targets of traffickers. Poverty forces young people to migrate to distant places, who are often forced to earn their living by working as commercial sex workers, domestic workers and bonded labour.

There are about 200 million people migrating in South Asia and half of them are from India. Leaving their own place makes them more vulnerable and then they have to suffer from shortage of food, caught in debt-traps and women face social evils like dowry.

And there is also a demand for young women, courtesy the skewed sex ratio in the country. Affluent states have more imbalance due to sex-selective abortions. Women, particularly from poor families, are lured by prospects of job or marriage and then trafficked and sold to brothels.

But, now we also have a situation where people talk more about the problem of trafficking. Fortunately, India is embracing the problem visibly and vocally. There are a few countries, where the problem is not even recognised.
Once the problem is recognised, we need to beat the drum loudly, telling the people who are more vulnerable to trafficking, about the predators and how to deal with them.

According to a National Human Rights Commission study on trafficking, over 80 per cent of police officers interviewed attached either “nil” or “low” priority to the issue of trafficking. So, even if we spread awareness about the problem, how are we going to deal with it?

In 2000, 9,550 cases were registered under the ITPA. By 2005, however, that figure had dropped to 5,908 cases. In fact, 11 states in India registered less than 10 cases under ITPA in 2005. Only two states have registered more than a thousand cases under the Act — Karnataka 1,241 cases and Tamil Nadu 2,777 cases. There is a need for better orientation as far as law enforcement is concerned so as not to re-victimise the victim. Policemen need to orient themselves to target traffickers, pimps and brothel owners rather than the victims. They should act as protectors and not tormentors of the victims of trafficking.

What has been the role of UNODC in this regard?
UNODC has taken an initiative in this regard and launched a project of training the police in five states — Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Goa, Maharashtra and Bihar. In operation for about a year-and-half now, the project has produced impressive results as there has been a dramatic increase in arrest of persons involved in trafficking and a drop in the number of victims arrested.

The project aims at changing the outlook of the police towards commercial sex workers or trafficked women so that they are treated with dignity. As part of the project, anti-trafficking units have been set up in the police force in all the five states.

Have you ever thought of roping in the panchayats or other local self-government institutions for putting a check on trafficking?
We are yet to look into this aspect, but I would like to take the help of these institutions for increasing awareness about the problem.