Context: Recently the Ministry of Women and Child Development released Draft anti-trafficking Bill, the Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021.
Key Features of Trafficking in Persons Bill, 2021

• It provides a person found guilty of trafficking can be imprisoned for a minimum term of seven years, which can be extended to 10 years.
• It shall apply to every offence of trafficking in persons with cross-border implications.
• It proposes stringent punishments for offenders, including hefty fines seizing of their properties.
• It will also allow the properties of the convicts, bought using money from trafficking, to be forfeited.
• The property bought via such income as well as used for trafficking can now be forfeited with provisions set in place, similar to that of the money laundering Act.
• It also does away with the provision that a victim necessarily needs to be transported from one place to another to be defined as a victim.

Defines ‘Exploitation’

• The exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation including pornography, any act of physical exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or forced removal of organs, illegal clinical drug trials or illegal bio-medical research.

Government Officers as Offenders

• Offenders will also include defence personnel and government servants, doctors and paramedical staff or anyone in a position of authority.

Objectives of Trafficking in Persons Bill, 2021
The objective of the bill is to

• Prevent and counter trafficking in persons, especially women and children;
• Provide for care, protection, and rehabilitation to the victims, while respecting their rights; and
• Creating a supportive legal, economic and social environment for them
• It aims to ensure prosecution of offenders and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Coverage of Trafficking in Persons Bill, 2021

• It will extend to all citizens inside as well as outside India.
• It will cover persons on any ship or aircraft registered in India wherever it may be or carrying Indian citizens wherever they may be.
• It will also cover foreign national or a stateless person who has his or her residence in India at the time of commission of offence under this Act.
• The scope of the Bill viz a viz offenders will also include defence personnel and government servants, doctors and paramedical staff or anyone in a position of authority.
• It extends beyond the protection of women and children as victims to now include transgenders as well as any person who may be a victim of trafficking.

Arguments of Government on Trafficking in Persons Bill, 2021

• The Ministry has said that the proposed bill will provide care, protection, and rehabilitation to the victims of trafficking.
• It will also create a supportive legal, economic and social environment for them and also to ensure prosecution of offenders.

Legislations in India that Prohibits Human Trafficking:

• Article 23 (1) in the constitution of India prohibits trafficking in human beings and forced labour.
• The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA) penalizes trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.
• India also prohibits bonded and forced labour through the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976, Child Labour (Prohibition and Abolition) Act 1986, and Juvenile Justice Act.
• Sections 366(A) and 372 of the Indian Penal Code, prohibits kidnapping and selling minors into prostitution respectively.
• Apart from this, the Factories Act, 1948 guaranteed the protection of rights of workers.