Context: Last month, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warned the world that the Covid-19 pandemic would lead to a major increase in human trafficking. India’s Home Ministry responded by issuing an advisory to its state governments earlier this month, with clear instructions to set up or improve local anti-trafficking networks. The Ministry has written to states and Union territories to expedite the setting up of new anti-human trafficking units (AHTUs) and upgrade the infrastructure of existing ones to ‘combat and prevent’ human trafficking. The AHTUs are an integrated task force to prevent and combat the menace of human trafficking. Trained representatives from the police, department of women and child development, other relevant departments and renowned non-government organisations are part of the unit which was first established in 2007. While the Central government has provided financial assistance for setting up physical infrastructure in these units, it is the responsibility of various states to depute suitable manpower to manage them. 
About the Day

• In 2013 when the United Nations General Assembly designated 30 July as the World Day against Trafficking in Persons followed by a high-level meeting of UNGA to form a global plan of action to tackle Trafficking in persons.
• It aims to raise awareness about the condition of victims of human trafficking and to promote and protect their rights.

Who are First Responders?

• The first responders are those who work in different fields like identifying, supporting, counselling and working to provide justice for victims of trafficking, people who are working to challenge the impunity of traffickers. 
• The role of first responders has become even more challenging amid the COVID-19 pandemic as with restrictions on the movement, the work of detecting trafficking has become more difficult. 
• The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has decided to honour the hard work of first responders amid these trying times.

Data related to Human Trafficking

• According to the UN- International Labour Organization (ILO) defines human trafficking as the trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of forced labour, commercial sexual exploitation or sexual slavery for the trafficker or others. 
• It estimates that 21 million people are victims of forced labour globally which includes victims of human trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation.
• According to the UNODC, people are being trafficked for various exploitative purposes including forced marriage, begging, labour, sexual exploitation, organs removal, selling children etc. 

How big is the problem of Human Trafficking?

• According to the report by the UNODC, most of the victims detected globally were trafficked for sexual exploitation, although this pattern is not consistent across all regions.
• Trafficking for forced labour is the most commonly detected form in sub-Saharan Africa.
• In Central Asia and South Asia, trafficking for forced labour and sexual exploitation are near-equally detected.
• 90% of detected victims of sexual exploitation are women and girls.
• There is a popular understanding that trafficking is happening a lot more between countries but the report highlights that close to 60% of trafficking happens internally in countries.
• Many other forms, such as trafficking for exploitation in begging or for the production of pornographic material or armed combat, are reported in different parts of the world.

Gap in data and under-reporting

• The World Vision report said that existing prevalence data from secondary sources for human trafficking for CSE(commercial sexual exploitation) do not exist as victims are a hidden population and there is no valid survey method to track it.
• Estimates of women and girls in CSE vary from 70,000 to 3 million in India.
• NCRB data reveal only reported cases that not all cases are reported, simply because parents are very hesitant to report or parents themselves are involved.”

Insufficient data hinder work for organisations such as World Vision India.

• Government agencies’ work also suffers–lack of data makes it difficult to detect and target high-prevalence areas, making it difficult to focus prevention and law enforcement efforts effectively.
• Lack of data makes it very difficult to track the gravity of the situation and the scanty numbers indicate that there is no immediate problem.
• There is a global data gap in reporting trafficking. It is not easy for trafficking victims to report because many of them are from some of the most vulnerable and marginalised sections of society but a lot of data is lost due to lack of an integrated data collection system.
• Integrated reporting and use of digital databases by police would result in more accurate national collation of data.
• Once first information reports and charge-sheets are entered into a digital system, there would be more accurate reports of trafficking crimes.

International Conventions on Trafficking

• UN Convention: India has ratified the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime (UNCTOC) which has as one of its Protocols Prevention, Suppression and Punishment of Trafficking in Persons, particularly Women and Children.
• SAARC Convention: India has ratified the SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution.
• A Regional Task Force was constituted to implement the SAARC Convention.
• A study tour for SAARC Member countries was conducted to learn from the experiences of the Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) established in various districts of the country. Representatives of Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Afghanistan participated in the study tour.
• Bilateral mechanism: For dealing with cross border trafficking and to address the various issues relating to prevention of Trafficking, victim identification and repatriation and make the process speedy and victim-friendly between India and Bangladesh, a Task Force of India and Bangladesh was constituted.

Situation in India

• The most affected state presently is West Bengal followed by Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Assam.
• The trafficking of children for forced labour, for all kinds of domestic work and trafficking of women for sexual exploitation is the heaviest in these areas.

Root Causes of Trafficking

• Poverty is a cause behind child trafficking. Some parents sell their children, not just for the money, but also in the hope that their children will escape the situation of chronic poverty and move to a place where they will have a better life and more opportunities.
• Social or cultural practice of devaluing women and girls in society, thus making women disproportionately vulnerable to trafficking.
• Other causes are porous nature of borders, corrupt Government officials, the involvement of international organized criminal groups or networks and limited capacity of or commitment by immigration and law enforcement officers to control borders.
• Migration: The desire of potential victims to migrate is exploited by offenders to recruit and gain initial control or cooperation, only to be replaced by more coercive measures once the victims have been moved to another State or region of the country, which may not always be the one to which they had intended to migrate.
• Some of the common reasons behind migration are poverty, oppression, lack of human rights, lack of social or economic opportunity, dangers from conflict or instability and similar conditions.

Relevant Laws in India

• Article 23 and 24 of the Constitution of India.
• 25 sections in IPC such as 366A, 366B, 370 and 374.
• Section 370 and 370A of Indian Penal Code (IPC) provide for comprehensive measures to counter the menace of human trafficking including trafficking of children for exploitation in any form including physical exploitation or any form of sexual exploitation, slavery, servitude, or the forced removal of organs.
• The Juvenile Justice Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act and also the Immoral Traffic Act, Prevention of Child Labour Act, the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, among others.

Challenges

• Human Trafficking is the third most challenging organised crime in the world, the first being drugs and the second being weapons.
• ‘Human Trafficking’, has not been defined clearly anywhere in the Indian laws.
• There is no dearth of the related laws in the country but there is a problem of inadequate understanding and unfaithful implementation of laws. In the police priorities, human trafficking does not figure in the top five.
• Social media is becoming a new tool for human trafficking. India does not have any law to regulate the use of facebook, whatsapp and even twitter in certain matters.
• There is not enough data on the crime.
• The government has not been not able to ensure timely release and rehabilitation of victims.

Suggestions

• The government needs to look at the scope of trafficking crime in respect of the social media. The new law should have a provision to address human trafficking crimes via social media.
• According to some sources, the Bill defines human trafficking and provides for strict punishment and also bears the provision of rehabilitation.
• The capacity building of the Police along with that of the NGOs is necessary to tackle the menace of human trafficking.
• There is a need to ensure proper data sharing, internally in an administration or between agencies like the police or the NGOs, or between the different countries as well.
• The Justice Verma Committee had recommended for census of the missing children. The state government and the central government should work together to make data reporting more robust.
• The proper enforcement of the existing laws should be a priority. The law enforcement needs to be strengthened in terms of its capacities, awareness, resources, for e.g, building capacity of the Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs).
• There has to be an element of time bound response for victims.

Government needs to take some preventive steps, such as

• Educating children on the crime of trafficking by including the same in their school curriculum.
• Making people aware as a society i.e. if an individual comes across any suspicious activity, s/he should report the same to the concerned authorities.
• The society needs to be made sensitive towards victims of human trafficking.

Road Ahead

• The menace of human trafficking is huge, and there is a need to not just prevent such crimes but also ensure that the relief and rehabilitation process takes place in a smooth manner. Policies further need to be improvised and appropriate actions should be taken by various agencies and stakeholders. The right to be protected against human trafficking is a constitutional right. This right needs to be protected to provide a dignified life to every child, every man and every woman in the country.
• In 2019, 21 million people were trapped in modern slavery that was the official data but in reality the number could well be over 50 million being trafficked every year. Organ donation is one of the biggest reasons why people our persons are trafficked; sex trafficking has come down considerably in the recent past; Women are trafficked for wombs and eggs children are used to work underground these are some of the some of the underlying reasons and problems of Human Trafficking. It is not limited to poor countries alone but also well of countries see a hugeamount of human trafficking where there is a big economic disparity. Also functional justice delivery system will go long way in dealing with the problem, we need convergence and coordination between different departments to deal with the problem. Therefore, Organized crime need an organised approach.