New Delhi: Aimed at bringing multiple offences including slavery, organ trade, beggary and forced labour under ambit of its proposed human trafficking law, Ministry of child and women development on Monday unveiled a new draft bill that lays down other reasons of selling of women and children apart from sexual exploitation.
The existing Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, 1956, deals only with prevention of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.
Human Trafficking victims will not be sent to jail, according to the first draft of Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016, which was released by Union Minister Maneka Gandhi on Monday.
Hinting at a nuanced approach towards decriminalising of prostitution, Maneksa said, It is a grey area which needs to be further discussed."
"We are not decriminalising prostitution, but we are taking a more nuanced approach. I agree that there are grey areas and that gaps exist in the bill, but we have one month to fill these."
"This bill is an attempt to deal with trafficking as a standalone problem with a focus on repairing the life of the victim,"she said.
The provision was made in view of treating "victims as victims and not offenders", irrespective of the trade they are trafficked for, including sexual exploitation, which is currently punishable under Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.
"At present the law says the trafficked and the trafficker are both criminals and they both go to jail. Now, we are saying the victim will not go to jail. We will find different ways to reform her life," the minister said after releasing the draft bill on Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation).
"There is a grey area and we are going to work on it. Let the draft go through everyone. Let everybody give their suggestions to this draft to see that those grey areas become less grey. For instance, suppose a girl has been in prostitution for 15 years. Is she still a victim or she is just a part of a trade. In which case does ITPA apply to her or we do. That also has to be thought about," Ms Gandhi said.
She said the draft bill will be on the ministry's website for a month for public consultation and inviting suggestions from NGOs and stakeholders.
"This will be on our website for a month. During that period everybody is welcome to give suggestions and ask questions," she said.
The major provisions of the "victim oriented" bill include prohibition on disclosure of identity of the victim of trafficking and witness, penal provision for the use of narcotic drug or psychotropic substance or alcohol for the purpose of trafficking, use of chemical substance or hormones for exploitation and institution mechanism.
It also has provision for registration of placement agencies, setting up of s Special Investigation Agency, Special Court and creation of Rehabilitation Fund for victims by the state governments.
"If considered as trafficking, the victim will be produced in court, the district anti-trafficking committee will decided on what happens to the victim like will get sent to home to rehabilitated or will they get change of name," Ms Gandhi said.
