Alarming new trend in sex tourism: CBI

According to the Director of CBI, Ashwani Kumar , exploitation in the name of sex tourism, child sex tourism and paedophilia have indeed come as a blot on its proud culture.

“Our country has a unique position in illicit human trafficking,” Ashwani Kumar told a seminar on organised crime and human trafficking here. “Because it is a source, transit and a destination.”

The “alarming increase” in human trafficking, Kumar said, is evident from prostitution in pilgrimage towns and the inflow of illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries. Topping it all is the fact that 40 per cent of 3 million prostitutes in the country are children.

Two-fold policy

The government’s policy, the CBI Director said, has been two-fold. While laws have been framed to curb sex trade and exploitation, the government has also been joining hands with NGOs and social groups to rescue and rehabilitate victims.

Inaugurating the seminar, Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta said human trafficking has been the third most organised crime in the world, behind narcotic and illicit arms trades.

“About 90 per cent of trafficking in India is internal,” he told delegates.

The environment of poverty and under-development has aided human trafficking in India, with the involvement of about 100 million people.

Police role

The Home Secretary said the issue has to be effectively handled by the state police and law enforcement authorities.

Ashwani Kumar  said human trafficking is tackled in “3Ps” method: protection, prevention and prosecution. “The law enforcement agencies have an important role to play in each of them, a reason why the CBI has been made a nodal agency for the government in enforcing anti human trafficking such as intelligence, investigation and prosecution,” he added.

Following the Delhi High Court’s directions, a Criminal Intelligence Cell has been established in CBI in 1999. Its functions include collection, collation and dissemination of intelligence regarding professional gangs responsible for kidnapping of minors for begging, kidnapping of minor girls and women for prostitution and kidnapping for ransom.

This total countrywide data is computerised for dissemination among the States and Union Territories, according to the CBI Director.