Anti-Human Trafficking Units notified as police stations in Uttar Pradesh

Noida: The Uttar Pradesh government has notified the Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTU) as police stations in the state. UP has AHTU’s in 35 districts, including

Noida: The Uttar Pradesh government has notified the Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTU) as police stations in the state. UP has AHTU’s in 35 districts, including Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Lucknow. On October 20, Awnish Awasthi, the state additional chief secretary, issued an order for setting up AHTUs in the rest of the 40 districts in UP. All these units will be developed as separate police stations which will facilitate rescue and rehabilitation of children and other persons.

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The ministry of home affairs guidelines state that the trafficking of human beings is a crime committed in order to target/drive a human being into an exploitative situation, with the aim to make profits; such exploitation may take many forms, for example commercial sexual exploitation, child labour, forced labour, bonded labour.

Devendra Kumar, inspector at AHTU, Gautam Budh Nagar, said he has received the information about government notification making the unit a police station. “This will facilitate the process and the team will be able to help the victims efficiently. There are eight persons in the unit including one inspector and two sub-inspectors, at Noida. We hope the team size will be increased and infrastructure will be augmented after the new initiative,” he said.

The government has sanctioned ₹12 lakh to each existing AHTU and ₹15 lakh to set up the new units in the state.

As of now the unit operates from the Noida Police office in Sector 14 A. Love Kumar, additional commissioner of police, Gautam Budh Nagar, said he will go through the government order and take necessary measures.

Satya Prakash, programme manager of FXB India Suraksha – Childline, an NGO that works towards child rights, said that the government order notifying AHTUs as police stations will definitely help in the rescue and rehabilitation of these people. “At present, the police and Childline rescue people but sometimes face problems in jurisdiction issues. Sometimes, two police stations pass the buck in registration of FIR over jurisdiction. The AHTUs will be able to register FIRs in cases which will facilitate the process,” he said.

Prakash said that sometimes, a missing child from one district is found in the neighbouring district. “In such cases AHTUs in one district can swiftly contact their counterparts in other districts” he said.