Why is anti-trafficking bill important?

Not having an anti-trafficking law is shameful for India, says Sunitha Krishnan, who has read the proposed bill and thinks it is the most comprehensive one addressing prevention, protection and prosecution at every level…

Bangladesh has a very strong anti-trafficking legislation and it has a death penalty for trafficking. We don’t still have a law, which is shameful

It was in 2018 that the cabinet cleared an anti-trafficking bill that has factored in proposals from hundreds of social workers and thought leaders. It provides stringent punishment for trafficking and proposes decentralised rehabilitation and investigation framework for victims from national to district level. The bill was not tabled during the last parliament session. “I hope that our Parliament does some work this session at least if only to ensure that the bill is introduced,” shares prominent social activist and co-founder of Prajwala, a non-government organisation that works to protect and provide rehabilitation to sex-trafficked victims.

Even though the bill is yet to see the light, there are several doubts and contentions in its effectiveness, and its relevance in the wake of two already existing laws – Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act and Section 370 C.

The Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act looks at prostitution that is defined as sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes. Even though it does not anywhere say prostitution is illegal, it surely mentions exploitation and abuse which in turn are crimes and not sex work. Every act of prostitution – running a brothel, pimping, living on prostitution are criminalised. “From a lay person’s point of view prostitution is abuse,” shares Sunitha Krishnan, who applauds the new bill and says, if passed, it will probably be the most comprehensive of the anti-trafficking laws across the world, today.

Interestingly, it was only in 2013 that the word trafficking was first used in our law books. Until then the closest definition was – procuring, inducing or taking a person for the sake of prostitution that was considered criminal acts. It was only in 2014, Section 370 came into existence and trafficking for prostitution and labour exploitation was clearly mentioned along with other forms of exploitation.

Sunitha explains, “Trafficking is done not just for prostitution. It could be for labour, trafficking could be for begging, for slavery, for forced marriage, for domestic work. One of the purposes is prostitution. It is in this context, we need to understand the bill.”

She further adds, “Having a section of the law and having a comprehensive legislation are two different things. Section 370 may be the basic thing we are working on, but the bill goes way beyond. It ensures a structural element from the national level to the local level so that Section 370 is correctly implemented. It looks at a national anti-trafficking bureau to be set up, which will be a police wing. So, it will have powers to tackle inter-state trafficking that right now nowhere we have any powers to it.”

“If we look at the flow of girls from Hyderabad, most are from West Bengal. We have girls coming from Uzbekistan, Nepal, Bangladesh…and as of now nobody has a clue how to deal with this. A Bangladeshi girl, who is a victim of trafficking is repatriated back to her country. The crime that started in Bangladesh and probably went through Kolkata and many other states before coming to Hyderabad doesn’t get tackled at all. What gets tackled are the two pimps that are caught here. If they are convicted fine; otherwise they are acquitted…bail and acquittal being more common.

We need an organisation that has a pan-India power,” she elaborates.

“This will be perhaps the most victim-centric legislation. It recognises the entirety of damages at every stage and ensures provisions are put in place to correct them. It proposes to have a rehabilitation committee at national, state and district level because it involves not just the Women and Child Welfare Department, but includes the Panchayat Raj, providing education, livelihood, etc. Yet another crucial aspect the bill deals with is to hold the stakeholders accountable – be it the police, the NGOs that provide victim services, and deals with secondary victimisation. Among the other important aspects that the bill tackles are the victim witness protection and a rehabilitation fund to be provided for the first time.”

In short, the bill acknowledges trafficking as damage that no country should incur and hence stresses on prevention, in addition to protection and prosecution. Commenting on the resistance to the bill Sunitha Krishnan opines, “It may not be perfect; amendments and additions can always come up as we go along. But, I don’t see why anyone except for the sex workers lobby should have a problem with such a comprehensive bill. This is about millions of women and children that are being trafficked. India is going to be a very regressive country if we are not going to bring this anti-trafficking bill. Even smaller countries have the law in place. Bangladesh has a very strong anti-trafficking legislation and it is made the death penalty for trafficking. We don’t still have a law, which is shameful.”