PANAJI: The trafficking of persons (prevention, protection and rehabilitation) bill, 2016 (draft) is a big disappointment feels the Anyay Rahit Zindagi (ARZ), claiming only the title of the bill is comprehensive while the rest of the bill is very sketchy.
ARZ is the nodal NGO for anti-human trafficking unit of the Goa police and has sent their suggestions pertaining to the draft bill to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, New Delhi.
According to Arun Pandey, director of ARZ, the bill does not define ‘human trafficking’ and is mainly a repeat of what has already been provided in other existing legislation’s.
“The draft bill requires a complete revamp,” said Pandey.
He said that, “the bill does not take age and gender of the victim into consideration in order to make different provisions. The bill has failed to recognise that male and transgender are also victim of trafficking and require protection and rehabilitation.”
According to Pandey, the draft bill does not give any definition of different forms of trafficking and that, “the bill does not have a single provision for preventing trafficking, whether it is cross border, internal trafficking, domestic labour, child labour, commercial sexual exploitation and so on. For protection, no provision is made for specialised police unit at district level.”
Referring to the bill, Pandey said that the bill does not have separate provisions and services to be provided to minor and major, male and female victims with regard to shelter home.
“With regard to rehabilitation, it has completely failed to address the demand of the victims of non shelter based rehabilitation, with a focus on livelihood and psycho-social services,” he claimed, adding that the bill does not deal with the issue of vulnerability of the street children, children and women who do not have shelter, children of trafficked victims.
It may be recalled that last month, the Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi had released the draft ‘Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016’ in New Delhi, inviting comments from the stakeholders. According to the reports, the bill aims to create a strong legal, economic and social environment against trafficking of persons and related matters.
The Minister had said that the bill is victim- oriented and makes clear the distinction between the ‘trafficker’ and the ‘trafficked,’ reports claimed.
According to the reports, the Minister had said that the draft bill plugs loopholes in existing laws and brings within its fold additional crimes pertaining to trafficking which don’t find a place in the existing laws.