The Narendra Modi government is planning to strengthen the anti-trafficking law through a new Bill at the Monsoon Session of Parliament at a time an analysis shows that four in every five persons arrested for trafficking managed to find their way out of jails.
Official figures showed that only 324 out of 1,653 people or 19.6% of those arrested on charges of human trafficking were convicted in 2019 while 1,329 people managed acquittal or discharge from cases.
Activists attribute the high rate of acquittals to shoddy investigation, lack of proper evidence collection and improper presentation of the case in courts.
If one takes the number of cases, it showed that the conviction rate was 21.99% -- only 172 out of a total 782 cases in which trials were completed witnessed acquittal.
Maharashtra, which has the highest number of 986 trafficking victims in 2019, saw a dismal 14.3% conviction rate. Only seven cases completed trial, of which only one saw conviction -- one person was jailed while 15 were set free.
Not a single case saw completion of trial in Odisha and Rajasthan where there were 876 (in 147 cases) and 664 (in 141 cases) victims respectively. It was also the same case in Karnataka, which had 186 victims in 32 cases, as well as in 12 other states and union territories where cases were reported.
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Altogether, 2,260 cases of human trafficking cases were reported in 2019 in which 6,616 were victims. The number of cases in 2017 was 2,854 and in 2018, it was 2,278.
Among the victims, 6,571 were rescued out of which 228 were from Nepal, 98 from Bangladesh and 63 from Sri Lanka. An analysis of the rescued people showed that the major purpose of human trafficking was for prostitution (2,080 among rescued) followed by forced labour (1,141).
One of the prominent legislations that the government intends to pass during the Monsoon Session is the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill that increases the punishment for human traffickers, including death in extreme cases, assign National Investigation Agency as the prime agency for investigations and provisions for punishing erring public servant, police officer, military or paramilitary personnel, doctor or lawyer who "misuses" the relationship with a trafficked victim.
While activists generally welcome the draft of the new Bill, they also raise concerns about the need for strengthening the rights of survivors to reintegration and community-based rehabilitation. They also demand the need for strengthening the role of Anti Human Trafficking Units in different states for better law enforcement.
"The Bill has built on the criticisms and feedback that the Ministry of Women and Child Development had received on the 2018 Bill. It also defines human trafficking as an organised crime with international implications and attempts to move away from conflating trafficking with sex work," Pompi Banerjee, a psychologist and activist, associated with Sanjog, said.
Roop Sen, a member of platform for anti-trafficking stakeholders Tafteesh, sought to find fault with the Bill on the count that it does not talk about gathering intelligence and identifying organised trafficking networks and any strategic investigation for identification of traffickers, buyers and users of trafficked persons.
Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi urged MPs to pass a strong law in the Monsoon Session saying, "as long as children are bought and sold at lesser cost than cattle, no country can call itself civilised. Covid-19 has caused a rise in trafficking, especially of women and children...Our children, their freedom and dignity cannot wait."