A manual for cops to combat human trafficking

New Delhi, Apr 18 : The Government released a manual on Friday for police personnel in New Delhi, to effectively counter human trafficking as well as dealing sensitively with the victims.

The 'Manual for Police Training On Anti Human Trafficking' that was unveiled with support of United Nations Office On Drugs and Crime (UNODC) intends to guide the police personnel on dealing strictly with those indulging in human trafficking as well as to be sensitive to the victims' plight.

The manual aims at bringing about an attitudinal change so that the vulnerable victims of human trafficking are not subjected to further indignities.

"This is a training manual for police officers. It has been developed with inputs from individuals and experts all over south Asia but especially from India. And as the United Nations does, it will take the best learning from this and use in the context of other products we are developing for use in other parts of world," said Garry Lewis, Representative, UNODC. So the knowledge that is coming from South Asia will be replicated and be available to other people, to other parts of the world, specifically police officers, who want to countermand trafficking in those countries," Lewis added.

Ranjana Kumari, Director of Centre For Social Research, an institution dealing with social issues related to women's emancipation stressed that Section 5C of the Constitution which sought to punish any person who visits or is found in a brothel for the purpose of sexually exploiting a victim of trafficking, should not be repealed.

"Through this manual, we hope to reach every nook and corner of the country and to conduct training programmes for police officers. They will be educated on effective implementation of laws to combat human trafficking," she said.

More than three million girls and women are engaged in prostitution against their will in India at any given time and more than 200,000 persons are believed to be trafficked into, within or through the country annually.

Travel rackets thrives in India, mainly in the states of Punjab, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, where human smuggling has been described as an organized crime.

Hundreds of thousands of women and girls in India are kidnapped, sold, coerced or trafficked for sex in a highly organised, yet illicit trade which is the world's third most lucrative after arms and drugs.

Almost 6,000 cases of trafficking were registered in 2005, activists say the real number is much higher and on the rise.

According to the International Labour Organisation, 2.45 million people worldwide are exploited and treated like slaves every year, and another 1.2 million people are trafficked.

ANI