India shows the way for rehabilitating child trafficking survivors, claims NCPCR chief

By A Representative 

The child rights group Just Rights for Children Alliance (JRCA) has come up with Tech Initiative to Combat Child Trafficking (TACT), calling it a new way to battle child trafficking and ensure safe migration. Announced in New Delhi at a National Consultation on World Day against Trafficking in Persons, the five-point initiative seeks to combat trafficking, even as promoting safe migration  for "rehabilitation and actionable intelligence inputs for the prosecution of traffickers."

The five key areas that the TACT initiative focuses on are: intelligence sharing via  global database of traffickers; tracing illegal payments through banks and financial institutions; partnering with tech firms to identify technology-driven trafficking patterns; strengthening global portals for safe migration and ensuring access to government schemes; and providing psychological first aid to survivors to enhance information flow about traffickers.

Participated by over 250 persons from 16 states, mostly from the border states, government and semi-government functionaries, including the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, States Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Railway Protection Force, the Police Department, dominated those who spoke.

The consultation took place amidst 

alarming statistics on trafficking, which revealed it as the third largest organized crime after drugs and arms. The annual global profits from forced labour and forced sexual exploitation are estimated at $236 billion, with 27.6 million victims of human trafficking at any given time, one-third of whom are children.

Government of India records show that 450 million people migrate within the country, and according to the National Crime Records Bureau data from 2022, every day 8 children are trafficked in the country. However, there are no data on Indian share in global profits from forced labour and forced sexual exploitation.

Painting a rosy picture of India, speaking at the opening of the consultation, Priyank Kanoongo, Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), claimed, “India has shown the way for ensuring the rehabilitation of survivors and to bring them back into the mainstream is through education. The last 10 years have seen significant development in the field of infrastructure and digital monitoring in India, and today we are well-positioned to monitor every movement."

He added, "All we now need is the active support of all the state governments for safe migration and for ensuring that all children, irrespective of their place of birth, are admitted to schools. Besides rescuing children and prosecuting the culprits, society needs to collectively take preventive measures to combat trafficking."

JRCA founder Bhuwan Ribhu said, “Even one child trafficked is a child too many. Victims of trafficking ought to be at the core of our strategies in fighting this global organised and economic crime. The first step to transform a victim into a survivor is through psychological first aid. We have to involve survivors at all levels in combatting trafficking."

He added, "No one can provide clues to the approach of traffickers and the scale of the issue better than survivors. Their participation in intelligence gathering, identifying the money trail and patterns of technology-driven trafficking is crucial in fighting this global organised and economic crime.” 

He insisted on tracking the emerging digitally-enabled and cyber-enabled trafficking through social media, stressing that India needs a comprehensive anti-trafficking law for prevention, rehabilitation, and repatriation of the survivors while ensuring the prosecution of traffickers. 

Shikha Goel (IPS), Additional Director General of Police, CID, Telangana, said, “Migration is the engine to progress and safe migration is the key. Migrants are the nation builders and ensuring their dignity and welfare is our collective responsibility and need. However, with new dimensions of trafficking that have emerged, we need to urgently address them."

She added, "To begin with, we can have a national helpline number for migrant workers so that they can immediately seek help, information in case of any need. Besides, we need targeted awareness in every district, every state so that while the migrant workers are well aware of their rights, their employers know their responsibilities and there is no exploitation of the workers or their families.”