Force to probe missing kids cases

The police will now have a new arm - anti-human trafficking units - to check India's increasing number of missing children, especially the girls.

Updated on: Mar 9, 2011, 24:51:43 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The police will now have a new arm - anti-human trafficking units - to check India's increasing number of missing children, especially the girls.

HT had first reported that over 60,000 children went missing in 2009 as compared to 44,000 in 2004. And, a large number of them were trafficked to either work as child labourers or for prostitution in cities. Half of them were girls, who find their way into brothels or as domestic helps. India is rated among the top 10 countries for human trafficking.

"We have proposed to set up 335 anti human trafficking units throughout the country and impart training to 10,000 police officers in three years," Home Minister P Chidambaram said in Lok Sabha, while replying to a question on increasing crime against women in India.

Of them, 110 units have already been set up at a cost of Rs 8.72 crore. The primary job of these units will be to investigate the cases related to missing children or complaints of organized human trafficking. Already, the Central Bureau of Investigation has identified over 1,000 gangs across India involved in trafficking of women and children.

Chidambaram also informed the house that the National Human Rights Commission had received 1,917 complaints of crimes against children between April 2007 and end of February 2011, out of which 1,779 cases were disposed off. The commission also recommended monetary relief of Rs 54,27,000 in 19 cases of proven violation of human rights.

The NHRC had registered 23,608 complaints regarding violation of human rights or crime against women, including trafficking between April 2007 and 1 March, 2011. Of them, 23,254 cases have been disposed off and had recommended compensation of Rs 35,35,000 in 39 cases.

Members cutting across party lines expressed their displeasure over poor enforcement of anti trafficking law in the country. "Over 25,000 Nepalese girls are trafficked into India every year," said Jay Panda of BJD. Another member, Kabindra Purakayastha of BJP said the Centre was not serious about checking trafficking as it just issues advisories and not any directions to strictly impose the law.

The home minister said the Central government does not want to undermine the responsibility of the state governments in a federal structure but have been guiding the states in enforcing the law to protect women and children through advisories. "All of us respect and zealously guard the rights of the states," he said.

Chidambaram said crime against women in Delhi was a serious issue but maintained that the number of incidents have witnessed a decline in the last few months.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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