JOIN USTrafficked person now to be treated as victims
Trafficked girls will no longer be accused for their involvement in human trafficking as per a new proposal by the women and child development (WCD) ministry's to enact a separate law to deal with the growing cases of human trade.
The draft bill is India's first anti-human trafficking law in the making.
The draft, Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2017, was recently cleared by a Group of (Union) ministers (GoM) with "certain recommendations" after several rounds of inter-ministerial consultations held by the WCD ministry held since 2016.
"All the issues with regard to the bill has been resolved at a recent meeting of the GoM, constituted to examine the draft of the anti-human trafficking law. The ministry is now in the process of sending the bill, along with the GoM's recommendations, to the Cabinet for its consideration at its next meeting," official sources told DH.
The draft bill seeks to prevent trafficking of persons, as well as provide protection and rehabilitation to the victims of trafficking, proposing 14 years of rigorous imprisonment to those found guilty of human trafficking.
It proposes to treat the trafficked girls and women in the flesh trade as victims under the law and not as accused.
The existing laws do not provide for a clear distinction between the traffickers and those trafficked even as human trafficking is considered third-largest crime in the world and majority of those trafficked are women and young girls.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in a 2016 report, noted that 70% of all detected trafficking victims across the globe were women and girls.
The anti-human trafficking bill recognises the safety of the victims of trafficking after rescue and extends the victims a legal right to rehabilitation.
It has proposed for the creation of an anti-trafficking fund for the effective implementation of the law along with the welfare and rehabilitation of the victims.
The proposed law also stipulates for giving new identities to victims after their rescue.
It stipulates for provisions to deal with the administration of hormones and drugs to those trafficked, with provisions for 10 years of rigorous imprisonment to the convicts of such crimes.
The bill includes forced beggary and bonded labour in the list of types of crime associated with human trafficking, proposing to make registration of all placement agencies mandatory.
Failure to register with the state authorities will earn such institutions a fine of Rs 50,000 under the proposed law.
"We are hoping to see the bill tabled in the Parliament for its passage in the second sitting of the Budget Session, which begins on March 5," an official said.