The Hindu : India keen on combating trafficking in women and children

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 09, 2003

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India keen on combating trafficking in women and children

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI JUNE 8. With the ratification of the SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, India has reiterated its commitment to check violation of the basic right to human dignity and honour.

The convention, signed by India on January 15, 2002, and ratified last month, seeks to promote cooperation among the SAARC countries to effectively deal with trafficking in women and children, repatriation and rehabilitation of the victims of trafficking and prevention of use of women and children in international prostitution networks, particularly where the countries of the SAARC region are the places of origin, transit and destination.

Seeking to make the forcing into prostitution of women and children an extraditable offence, the convention says that where extradition is not permitted under the law the offenders should be prosecuted and punished by courts. The signatories to this convention are Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Pakistan. Under the convention, the judicial authorities in member-states will ensure that the confidentiality of the child and women victims is maintained and they are provided appropriate counselling and legal assistance besides helping each other in investigations, enquiries, trials or other proceedings.

The signatories to the convention will sensitise their law enforcement agencies and the judiciary in respect of the offence. They will establish a Regional Task Force, comprising members from the State parties, to facilitate implementation of the provisions of this convention and review it periodically.

According to UNICEF estimates, at least one million children are forced into the sex trade globally, most of them girls between 10 and 16 years of age. Of these, the most are in India, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines. International policing agencies estimate that at a minimum, 700,000 persons are trafficked each year across international borders, most of them women and children.

A report of the Department of Women and Child Development suggests that around 30 per cent of the sex workers in India are below 18 years. The National Crime Records Bureau says that between 1994 and 1998, reports of buying minor girls for prostitution registered a big increase. Between 5,000 and 10,000 Nepalese children in the 10-18 age group are trafficked into India annually. While most of them end up in the sex trade, some become domestic workers.

According to another report, some victims have been trapped into trafficking on the lure of a good job. Others have been sold into this modern-day form of slavery by a relative, acquaintance or family friend. "Criminal networks take advantage of this victims vulnerability, at the root of which lie poverty, ignorance, often illiteracy and poor income-generating skills," says the report.

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