The Anti-trafficking Bill has been passed by the Lower House of the Parliament. However political leaders want it to be revised again.
The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed “The Trafficking of Persons(Prevention, Protection, and Rehabilitation) Bill 2018”. The Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha by Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, on July 18. The Bill is intended to prevent trafficking of persons, especially women and children and to provide care, protection and rehabilitation to the victims of trafficking, to prosecute offenders and to create a legal, economic and social environment for the victims.
The Bill which provides for confidentiality of victims, witnesses, and complainants, time-bound trials and repatriation of the victims.
However, Maneka Gandhi said the legislation does not intend to harass sex workers.
“It is commendable that the Indian government is taking trafficking in persons seriously. However, if the Bill is enacted in its present form, it will put adults who engage in consensual sex work, at risk of human rights violations.
“This bill is not for anyone who is voluntarily doing sex work and has not been trafficked. However, this bill will not spare anyone who has trafficked a girl for sex work. We feel that this Bill will help crack down on the powerful and rich who traffick girls and push them into the sex trade,” said Maneka Gandhi
In fact, Maneka in her speech in the Lok Sabha had referred to the bill as “victim-centric”. “Yes, there are other laws but they only focus on the criminal aspect. This law will focus on the victim and rehabilitation. The purpose of this law is very clear that there will be zero tolerance towards any kind of trafficking crime,” Maneka told the reporters. While Gandhi did not make any comment on the fate of the existing Immoral Traffic of Persons Act, sources said, “it will be subsumed automatically in the new law.”
READ ALSO: 5 women on anti-trafficking awareness camp gangraped at gunpoint
POLITICAL LEADERS’ CONCERN ON BILL
Several members of the Lok Sabha raised concerns about the Bill and demanded that it be sent to the Standing Committee.
Dr. Shashi Tharoor MP, in his speech in Lok Sabha, described the bill as a “rehash of existing laws” as the offense of trafficking was already covered by Section 370 of IPC. He said that the bill only added to the existing overlapping cocktail of laws, and through the creation of ten anti-trafficking bureaucratic bodies, it will create confusion in the enforcement of these laws.
Further, concerns were raised about lack of safeguards to prevent possible misuse of the provisions against adult consenting sex workers. He also highlighted that the provisions without safeguards could result in harassment of transgenders.
It was also pointed out by Dr.Tharoor that the Bill contained phrases like ‘may lead to trafficking’or “likely to be used for trafficking”, which may not stand judicial scrutiny due to vagueness. The rehabilitation scheme provided by the Bill was criticised as “reiteration of the failed method of institutional rehabilitation”.
BJD’s Thathagatha Satapathy also endorsed this view and suggested to include provisions for community-based rehabilitation for survivors, instead of institutional rehabilitation.
Trinamool Congress’s Pratima Mondal and CPI’s Badaruddoza Khan said that provisions for confiscation of properties were stringent and likely to be misused.
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