Ending child trafficking: Parliament should take the lead

World Day against trafficking in persons

Sometime in early March, an 'informer' revealed to a representative of an NGO working in the field of child protection and rights that 33 minor girls from Telangana, Odisha, Gujarat and Assam were working as performers at a Roman Circus venue in Sirval town of Satara district in Maharashtra. There were some other girls who were majors. The NGO representative shared the 'intelligence' with the superintendent of police and the district magistrate, with the assistance of the district legal services authority (DLSA), so that the girls could be rescued.

On May 26, police, along with officials from the women and child development, labour and revenue departments, raided the circus and 39 girls, including three minors, were rescued. But that is when confusion reigned supreme. Officials of the different departments could just not agree on the precise course to follow to take the case to its logical conclusion. To top it all, there is no certainty that the case would go through the rigours of police investigation, leave alone prosecution.

Determining the ages of the girls proved difficult. When documents were checked, it turned out that six of the girls were minors. On the other hand, the police were hesitant to act, claiming, after talking to the girls, that they had joined the circus troupe of their own volition. It took over a month of persuasive action by the NGO for the police to finally lodge an FIR based on Sections 370 (child trafficking) and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other relevant provisions of the 2015 Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act. Surprisingly, however, no arrest -- of the circus owner or of the unnamed traffickers -- has yet been made.

The alleged trafficking of the minor girls took place in the backdrop of Maharashtra's abysmal track record on child labour, which is an outcome of trafficking to and from other states. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)'s three reports show that from 2016 to 2018, Maharashtra recorded 14,559, 16,918 and 18,892 cases of crimes against children. As for child trafficking, Maharashtra competes with Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in terms, with 29 cases recorded in 2018, in which 49 victims were involved.

While NCRB reports do not quite provide a realistic picture of child trafficking across India, the US State Department's 'Trafficking in Persons Report: 20th Edition', released in June 2020, has categorised India as a ‘Tier II country’ -- in other words, it is among other countries "whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA's (or the Trafficking Victims Protection Act) minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards".

While that is a charitable comment insofar as India is concerned, Yuri Fedotov, former executive director at the UN Office of Drugs and Crime claims in the same report that "(Human trafficking) thrives in situations where the rule of law is weak and people lack opportunities", which is an apt description of the conditions that prevail in India and which in fact engender child trafficking.

The Sirval story is symptomatic of most cases of child trafficking across India. Trafficking is an organised crime and is recognised by the IPC. It occurs as a consequence of an economic demand-supply condition, which means that while 'sending' states are breeding grounds -- for reasons of governmental neglect of the local economies, unemployment, poverty, backwardness and lack of awareness -- for armies of child labour, the 'receiving' states or cities are perennially in need of cheap labour which is cheaper still when children are trafficked and pushed into a cruel and unforgiving market.

But what makes the situation worse is official inaction and apathy towards this seemingly 'open' and brazen crime which is not 'taken seriously' by officialdom who often look upon it as 'low' crime. But beyond this lies a dark underbelly where the nexus between traffickers, unscrupulous employers and the police runs so deep that the supply of child labour remains unending. The maxim, 'who profits from the crime?' applies aptly to this nefarious scheme of things.

The obstacles at the official level and the anomalies of the 'market' can, however, be corrected provided there is political and administrative will to focus on a few tough but not insurmountable steps. First, there is an urgent need to take a quick relook at the existing legislations that lack teeth. A decision to replace insipid legislations, laws and norms by novel ways and means could not only vastly improve investigative capabilities of the police but also allow for focused and result-oriented prosecution and trial, besides enhanced punishment for traffickers and other related wrong-doers.

Secondly, the investigative capabilities of the police would not miraculously improve by simply tweaking complex laws or legislations. While the police in most Indian states is overburdened with law and order duties, they have little or no focus or interest on working on crimes against children, including trafficking, which are considered 'lesser' transgressions of the law. In these circumstances, one of the most result-oriented approaches would be for NGOs to partner with police forces to train different categories of police officers on crimes related to children, especially trafficking, which is at the root of all forms of child labour, abuses and exploitation.

Third, certain NGOs focused on child protection have, time and again, alerted state police departments and shared the identities of individual traffickers so that their crimes could be nipped in the bud. Yet, the police forces have been lethargic in their approach to deal with a truly pan-Indian -- and sometimes trans-border -- crime. Relying on normal police work and technology, they must adopt a time-bound and proactive approach and bust the trafficking networks across the 'sending' states. For this, evolving cooperation and coordination, which are displayed in other heinous crimes, is key.

The challenge before civil society organisations fighting this scourge is to force the political leadership at the Centre and in the states to make child trafficking a central focus in their administrative efforts in general and strictly enforcing the law in particular. This is a time for collective action and the lead must be taken by parliamentarians to formulate mechanisms to end child trafficking.

(The writer is a Member of Parliament, YSR Congress Party)