Child trafficking, a serious problem

A North India conference on children in difficult circumstances was held at Lucknow. Himachal Pradesh had a contingent of three, Kuldip Verma from the Peoples’ Action for Peoples’ Need from Sirmaur, Ramesh Badrel from the Himachal Pradesh Voluntary Health Association, Shimla, and myself as free-lancer. The conference was jointly organised by Plan India and Gram Niyojan Kendra (GNK), Ghaziabad. There were about 50 delegates from various voluntary organisations located in North India and government officials.  After the welcome address by Dr Sutapa Mukherjee, secretary of the GNK, the keynote address was given by Kulbir Krishna, Adviser, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Delhi. A mime by Babu Bahini Manch, Lucknow, (see photo) depicting the problems faced by the children in difficult circumstances set the tone for the conference and its deliberations.

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The four panels discussed child marriage, child labour, child trafficking and girls as victims of violence as the burning topics. Important observations and findings on all aspects were discussed but I am sticking to child trafficking because Himachal Pradesh had the honour of chairing it. Dr KK Mukherjee, Director of the GNK, wanted the panel to explain human trafficking to participants. It was told to the gathering that there were three elements necessary to meet the trafficking definition. 

The first is ‘Process Action’ which is recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring or receiving a person. The second element is ‘Means Adopted’ and that covers force, fraud, coercion or abduction while the last element is ‘The Purpose’ which could be involuntary servitude, debt bondage, slavery or sexual exploitation of the child forced to trafficking. 

May I inform my readers that in 2009 a report on trafficking in persons, the ‘could be’ President of the USA, Hillary Clinton, says, “India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation?”

 It is said a large percentage of economy of India is generated by using or abusing children. The report further raises fingers on the black spots for India. There are lakhs of sex trafficking victims and millions of bonded labourers, including forced child labourers. There is no conscious national anti-trafficking effort and no recognition of bonded labour in any of the official site in India. The efforts to check sex trafficking is there but are half-hearted measures. The report concludes that the largest democracy  has the largest problems of human trafficking, including child trafficking.

We know that after the Nirbhaya case, the government has adopted the suggestions of the Verma Report for the amendment of the IPC and the Criminal Procedure Code to conform to the internationally recognised definition of the crime of trafficking as outlined in the Palermo Protocols. Palermo is a town in Italy and in a conference here, three protocols were accepted: 1. Prevent, suppress, punish trafficking in persons especially women and children; 2. Check smuggling of migrants by land, sea and air, and 3. Protocol against the illicit manufacturing and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunition. Amod Kant of ‘Prayas’ told me that India was a signatory to these protocols but was still continuing with the 60-year old Immoral Traffic Act. He said amending this Act could put India in line with its international legal obligations under the Protocols.

The CID Records of Himachal Pradesh reveal that during the quarter of 2012, 291 persons were found missing or disappeared from the state; of these the missing children were 46 girls and 30 boys. I believe that the trafficking can reduce if there is synergy among all stakeholders – the police, NGOs and the administration. 

Ruchika Chaudhry, one of the panelists, an additional Superintendent of Police at Lucknow, confessed that the action under child laws was the last priority for the police. I believe that if better results are the expectations of society then the police-role needs a change to victim-centric approach; developing gender and child-right sensitiveness; adopting policy of ‘prevent, prosecute and protect’ and that requires capacity-building of officers.

TAILPIECE

Let us stop reading STATISTICS and start changing those. — The writer is a retired bureaucrat