PROHIBITION OF TRAFFICKING UNDER ARTICLE 23(1) - AN UNRESOLVED PROBLEM IN OUR COUNTRY INDIA.
INTRODUCTION
The kind of learning we provide to the children in their growing days would ultimately build up the present generation into responsible and dedicated citizens for the future of our India. The core focus of this paper is to identify the causes resulting in the uncontrollable rise in human trafficking cases as well as to emphasize more on what all is needed to clear this social, political, and economic evil with the support of legislative control, executive expertise, and judicial assurance. In this pandemic, it’s a high alert time to save those helpless children who are starving as a result of the loss of livelihood. The merciless child traffickers can easily exploit the children. The Court has observed that the young boys and girls are forcefully dragged into the flesh market for the flesh trade, thereby crossing all the limits of violation against humankind.[1] Such forms of vulgarity need to be stopped by taking effective actions immediately. Even there are so many kids, men, and women who remain lost and unidentified.
Most of the parents are scared to let their kids, grown-up boys and girls go out alone, the reason being the traffickers do take the kids and vanish immediately by threatening the life of the family in many cases. In the name of marriages, many fraud people are just misusing the young girls. A man who got married to a woman even after assuring her by promising a pure tie-up turned out to be a fraud one - the Court ordered him to pay compensation to the victim woman for her loss.[2] It is rightly mentioned by Prabha Kotiswaran that the Trafficking Bill passed in 2018 is less focused on the issues arising out of bonded labour and inter-state migrants involved in the trafficking offences.[3] The existing laws are silent on the trafficking offences that are carried out from one place/state to another place/state. Strict laws and actions are needed to be taken by the law makers to curb this to avoid sex trades and forced labour works. This research paper is based on both the qualitative and quantitative analysis of different facts and figures related to trafficking in India. Focus is to analyse the issues in eradicating the human trafficking and find out effective measures to end it.
“CITIZEN OF THE NATION” – THE FUTURE OF INDIA, LOST IN ANONYMITY
A number of trafficking cases have been registered so far in which the happiness of the culprit was in hurting the victims and just exploiting them ridiculously. I agree with the statement by Justice Jagdish Sharan Verma that “The problem of trafficking needs to be solved by getting involved in it and not by treating it as a case to be given away.”[4] The reason being just as any other serious offense being solved by the Constitutional provisions, the functioning of the National and State Commissions also needs to be executed on a very serious note.
“In order to fight against trafficking, for the capacity building of people the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) introduced a scheme for strengthening the enforcement of law. It has also raised funds for setting up Anti-Human Trafficking Units for around 270 districts throughout India.”[5] There are many other kinds of trafficking for which the existing laws and the provisions mentioned in the Human Trafficking Bill, 2018 are not at all enough for reducing the rate of such an offence of selling of human beings. We often read the newspapers with the highlighted headings of incidents and events happening across different locations in India.
Formation of a policy shall be done by the Central Government and the State Government for compensating the trafficking survivors for the losses and injuries suffered by them.[6] “Whereas, on the other hand, in the reports of NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) between the duration of the year 2011 and 2018, the poor status of compensating the trafficking survivors has been reflected when the cases were 35,983. The RTI (Right to Information) had received responses revealing that since the month of March, 2011 till April, 2019 only 82 trafficking victims have been awarded compensation.”[7]
The punishment for all the acts of trafficking for exploitation of the human beings is provided under the Section 370 of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013. “According to the report of the National Crime Records Bureau in 2018, the total cases of human trafficking reported were 2465, 5362 persons were arrested by the police- 3922 persons were charge sheeted, 432 persons were convicted by the court and 1126 persons were discharged by the court. Hence, this shows the number of the traffickers who are being discharged later on in the cases of human trafficking and it also indicates the lack of stringent laws for punishing the offenders.”[8]
SUGGESTIONS
The efforts that the judiciary and the existing laws have put together has resulted definitely in justice for the victims of trafficking. The trafficking victims of about 8,281 in 2015 increased up to a figure of 22,955 in 2016 that were identified by the government. Half of the victims i.e., 11,212 were forcefully dragged into forced labour, 7570 victims into sex trafficking, 3824 victims being troubled for other purposes and 349 victims were those pushed into marriages forcefully without their consent.”[9] The prohibition of the act of human beings for sales purposes to other locations and commercial sex works needs greater attention by the lawmakers in India. The number of efficient as well as effective judges in the High Courts and Supreme Court shall be increased to keep a fast track of the day-to-day cases evolving as a result of which the pending cases would come up on time. The Bill of Trafficking after 2018 needs to be reintroduced with strong laws and provisions by emphasizing more on the remaining factors leading to trafficking in our country.
The Trafficking Bill, 2018 aims for the removal of social evil, to protect the people, for rescuing the victims and to punish the offenders in the cases of trafficking in India. Offences like beggary, sex trade, etc. initiated by the traffickers was covered under this bill for punishing the offenders.[10] To make this Bill work out effectively the reintroduction of the Trafficking Bill with relevant modifications covering provisions for all kinds of social issues faced by the people is required. Throwing light on the trafficking carried on through supply chains, trade of human organs, commercial surrogacy and even more, the Indian legal system has to find solutions for it also very seriously as such illegal trade by the traffickers is a red alert for the safety and security of the citizens of our country. Punishing the traffickers should never affect their kids and family members. Therefore, it is very necessary to provide proper educational aid and protection from the harmful environment of the traffickers. “Even a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) was being filed for the purpose of securing and safely keeping the children of those workers involved in sex rackets to avoid their impact on their kids.”[11]
Instead of just going through the heart threatening news that we hear from other people and news sources with our hands folded, we have to realise that each one of us have a unique role to play, be it by helping some victims of trafficking for their livelihood, for their education and make them and rest of the uneducated people how to be careful of the fraudulent activities that they are likely to face and which would drag their lives into a totally darker phase. Not the government alone is responsible for social welfare, so by collaborating with different known NGOs (Non-Government Organisations) free campaigns can be conducted by collecting more and more people residing in the remote areas of the nearby places we live in. Self-defence training must be imparted among the boys and girls in their growing years itself to build up self-confidence, enough courage and strength to strike down the attackers involved in some or the other trafficking racket.
CONCLUSION
This paper focuses on the root causes of the trafficking cases happening across different places in India and how to tackle these cases. Where the bad experiences of a person compels his/her mind to do bad to others, there arises the chances of doing unethical things. Starting from the fraud marriages to the illegal sex trades, the traffickers have left no ways of troubling people. The statistical figures recorded by the NCRB about the human trafficking cases has been found as most of the cases being neglected by relieving the offenders from the police custody. Amendment in the trafficking bill is a much-needed solution to curb this increasing threat to the lives of people residing in India. For the brighter future of the present generation, it is required to keep the kids of the trafficking offenders safer from the negative environment and protect as well as guide them towards a good path in life. The more united we stand together for a good cause, the more we are likely to eradicate the inhuman trafficking practices in India.
This article has been written by.
Content Writer- Ayushi Ranjit,
Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan
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[1] Vishal Jeet v. Union of India, (1990) 3 SCC 318. [2] Bodhisattwa Gautam v. Subhra Chakraborty, (1996) 1 SCC 490. [3] Prabha Kotiswaran is reader in Law and Social Justice, Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London, What Is Wrong with India's Trafficking Bill 2018, Economic & Political Weekly, ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846 Vol. 53, Issue No. 28, 14 Jul, 2018 [4] National Informatics Centre( NIC ), NHRC calls for Eradication of Trafficking in Women and Children in India available at https://nhrc.nic.in/press-release/nhrc-calls-eradication-trafficking-women-and-children-india [5] Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, available at https://mea.gov.in/human-trafficking.htm [6] The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, §357-A. [7] Shiv Sahay Singh, Only 82 survivors awarded relief in last 8 years’, available at https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/only-82-trafficking-survivors-awarded-relief-in-last-8-years/article30778464.ece [8] National Crime Records Bureau, report available at https://ncrb.gov.in/sites/default/files/crime_in_india_table_additional_table_chapter_reports/Table%2014.7_0.pdf [9] National Crime Records Bureau, Asian Times, available at https://asiatimes.com/2020/02/new-law-to-counter-human-trafficking-in-india/ [10] The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA). [11] Gaurav Jain v. Union of India, AIR 1997 SC 3021.
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