NHRC calls for Eradication of Trafficking in Women and Children in India

Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, Justice J.S.Verma, has called for a holistic view of the problem of trafficking in women and children in India to identify all causes leading to this malady and eradicating them. He was inaugurating a one-day Technical Consultation for National Level Action Research on Trafficking in Women and Children, which is being organized by NHRC and UNIFEM in New Delhi today.

Justice Verma said that the word `trafficking’ obviously meant `illegal trade’ and both of these words were highly demeaning to be used in the context of any human being. However, in the case of women it was a discrimination several times over as it was in case of children and minors. Hence, he stressed that all efforts must be made not only to stop but also prevent this malpractice and this should also include measures for rehabilitation of victims. Applauding the response of the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of India, to the efforts of the National Human Rights Commission, he lamented that the other wings of Government involved in this sphere had not responded as sensitively. “This problem had to be solved by being involved with it and not treating it as a case disposed off”. The greatest effort in this process had to be that of the Government’s as proper policy makers was absolutely essential. NGOs also will have to play a key role as motivators and implementers of the policies. A massive effort was required to sensitize the society as involvement of the society and societal pressures alone will be able to bring an end with this problem.

Speaking on the occasion, Justice Smt. Sujata V. Manohar, Member, NHRC, said that trafficking was one of the worst forms of violation of human rights where a woman or a child was treated as a commodity and not as a human being. She expressed the need for a reliable database and a detailed analysis of the problem.

Shri V.V. Ayyar, Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Women and Child Development called a broad based action research on the subject and pledged this full support of his Department in tackling this issue.

According to the 1999 report of the National Crime Records Bureau, incidents of kidnapping and abduction in India were highest in the States of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. 68.3 % of cases against immoral trafficking were reported from Tamil Nadu. The largest number of victims of rape were reported from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam. The States of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and West Bengal contributed 62% of total rape cases of children reported at all India level. In cases of child rape, victims in the age group of below 10 years were more from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh and victims in the age group 10 – 16 years from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Delhi. These areas contributed 72.7% of victims in the country. Predominance of buying girls from prostitution were reported from West Bengal and Maharashtra and selling girls for prostitution from West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana, Bihar and Maharashtra. Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra were the major areas from where minor girls were being procured.

It is to tackle this problem, which is assuming alarming magnitude thatthe NHRC and UNIFEM is jointly initiating a National level Action Research. Today’s consultation aims at ensuring a well-designed and appropriate methodology for the Action Research