The Heinous Loop of Trafficking : Daily Current Affairs

The Heinous Loop of Trafficking

July 30 is maintained as the United Nations World Day against Trafficking in Persons.

U.S. Department of State still classify India as Tier-2 country in global human trafficking.
An estimate of about 9000 children have been rescued from this hazardous trap between April 2020 and June 2021.
The Childline India helpline received approximately 44 lakh distressed calls for the same issue in 10 months.
The Corona pandemic worsened the situation where children are being trafficked to work in hazardous factories with low payment to save losses.
This is in tandem with the economic crisis in poor families where parental care is either absent due to death of the parents or minimal due to need for food.
Between April to August 2020, over 10,000 cases of child marriage have been reported especially in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.
Cyber-trafficking has become a major threat where the lure of employment traps innocents into depths of violence.
A recent report by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime proves these facts that pandemic gave advantages to the traffickers with respect to loss of livelihood and false advertisement of jobs on social media.
RTI responses revealed on-paper set up of 225 Anti-human Trafficking units (AHTUs) out of 300 promised. These too aren't visible on ground reality.

The provisions of the Bill, if passed, needs to be implemented in reality, not just on paper.
Bill itself needs certain improvements regarding the role of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the stringent punitive measures.
Attention must be given to the challenges seen by prosecutors and judges in such cases in court.
Fast track courts, not only needs to be established, but need proper management and maintenance to bring actual results.
Beneficiaries of monetary compensation need to be identified correctly and also mental and psychological counseling needs proper attention.
Education and improved awareness is the key on the local level with authorities focusing on proper implementation.

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