Laws to fight human trafficking exist but implementation in India has to be strengthened, senior judges of the country’s judiciary opined, while calling for improvements in rehabilitation efforts for victims at a colloquium organised here on Saturday.
Speaking at the inaugural of the colloquium, Justice Ramesh Ranganathan, acting Chief Justice of the High Court at Hyderabad, said India is a well-known trafficking point and commercial sexual exploitation happens through varied ways. However, trafficking itself is a difficult crime to track for investigators, he added.
“Our indifference to the plight of victims of commercial sexual exploitation, and the ease with which we turn a blind eye, conveniently labelling them as immoral, does not show us in good light,” he said adding that most of society is in denial about it.
High Court Judge and President of A.P. Judicial Academy that organised the colloquium, Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy, said advances in medicine, including organ transplantation and surrogacy, have contributed to human trafficking. Justice Reddy also mentioned an amended Act to curb trafficking is in the works.
Among many things, the new draft law distinguishes between traffickers and victims. The existing law does not make such distinctions though investigating authorities have stopped booking victims under the existing Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, said, Rachakonda Police Commissioner, Mahesh Bhagwat, who was also part of Saturday’s deliberations.
Supreme Court Judge, Justice Lavu Nageshwara Rao, termed trafficking ‘modern-day slavery’, defined only in 2000. He also expressed concerns about rehabilitation for victims.
“We are speaking of trafficking in humans, which is human trafficking. Rescue of persons trafficked, is changing into humanitarian trafficking is the question discussed,” he said citing instances of victims fleeing rescue homes.
