Frame law to end child trafficking

Eight children were allegedly among the dead in the December 2019 fire at two bag-making factories in Delhi’s Anaj Mandi. Some of them were between the age group of 11 and 16 years and were trafficked from different districts of Bihar and employed in these illegal bag units.

NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) filed a petition in the Delhi High Court claiming that an attempt was being made to cover up this incident of “child trafficking” and “child labour” which allegedly flourished right under the nose of police administration in the source and destination states.

Is a strong legislation the right answer? Can a strong legislation that integrates all the states and makes police accountable, the answer to the problem? Let’s understand this in the light of some incidents of the recent past.

Over the last four months, 169 child labourers, mostly from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, were rescued from different parts of Delhi, further strengthening the argument that we have failed to crush inter-state trafficking gangs.

A startling trend all these years has emerged that though the police is at the forefront of raid and rescue with NGOs, it does little to cripple trafficking routes from one state to another. It is high time we create a political consensus and explore a national legislation to effectively make our force more accountable.

Curious case of NCRB data: A curious feature of the 2018 data, in respect of Karnataka, according to the 2018 National Crime Research Bureau report, is that only two cases involving three children were filed.

This certainly borders on the ridiculous, especially when RTI responses are taken into account. Responses to BBA’s RTI applications, specifically in relation to Karnataka, reveal that 176 child trafficking cases were lodged in 2018.

It is a clear case how we are at times even not carefully documenting crimes against our vulnerable children.

Legislature should rise to the occasion. We should step up effort to provide legal security cover to our poor and downtrodden children.

It is precisely with this aim before them that the executive, the legislature and the judiciary must act in tandem to devise and implement an over-arching law which would bring together other laws and instruments that seek to curb and, eventually, stop the crime.

Involving NIA, CBI may not be an ideal way to curb trafficking. In July 2019, the NIA was given the additional mandate to investigate human trafficking cases.

The CBI also has a similar function. But this may not be the right architecture to deal with a trafficking that has inter-state – and sometimes inter-country – dimensions and ramifications.

In the event of a fresh proposed legislation, the government of the day could consider establishing a ‘lean and mean’ new force whose remit would be to gather information/intelligence, investigate and prosecute cases of child trafficking.

This would isolate vested interests such as the police in the states who encourage or even benefit from the crime.

Key proposals

The proposed legislation could, by raising the punishment level from seven to 10 or even 15 years, clamp down on traffickers by confiscating, attaching and seizing their property (procured through pecuniary gains from the crime), freezing their bank accounts and breaking up the networks at all levels, including links, if any, with the local police and the legal fraternity.

There is a need to iron out differences over lapsed 2018 anti-Trafficking Bill. There are a slew of other provisions in the erstwhile Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill that could be replicated in a freshly-minted proposed legislation.

Last but certainly not the least is the misplaced concern (in respect of the 2018 Bill) that, should it be replicated now, it would not meet global standards.

Provided all stakeholders agree on and successfully iron out their differences on the lapsed Bill, a new provision could put India on the progressive map as a nation committed to end child trafficking.

Making India in line with global standards: This would also be in keeping with achieving the enviable objective of attaining the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030, especially when Goal 8.7 is related to the need to take immediate and effective measures to end forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking.

Any move to institutionalise a new legislation would be in line with SDG 16.2 which seeks to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence and torture against children.

A new legislation, properly and squarely implemented, would push India to achieve the 2025 global target of ending child labour in all its forms.

(The writer is a Rajya Sabha Member and Convener, Parliamentary Forum on Children)