Delhi: Trafficking survivors seek shield in law

NEW DELHI: Even five years after her rescue, Nasima is wary when she steps out, fearing that her traffickers will recapture her and push her back into prostitution. She has struggled to start life anew because there is no official rehabilitation scheme for freed victims of trafficking.
That is why 25 such victims were there to talk of their plight at the Constitution Club in New Delhi on Friday at a national consultation on human trafficking organised by NGO Prayas Juvenile Aid Centre.
The victims demanded the passing of the Trafficking of Persons Bill, 2018, at the earliest by Parliament. The legislation has been passed by the Lok Sabha but has yet to be cleared in the Rajya Sabha. The men and women, who survived trafficking for prostitution, organ trade, etc, hoped that once the bill is enacted, rescued people will not go through a lengthy, unassisted return to normalcy.
Ranjan, survivor of an organ trafficking gang, disclosed that over 1 lakh postcards have been sent to the Prime Minister’s Office in support of the trafficking bill, which provides for designated courts for fast-tracking trials and repatriation of foreign victims from places like Nepal and Sri Lanka within a year of taking to cognisance.
Zohra, 30, told TOI of how she was sold for Rs 1 lakh by her husband seven years ago. “We married out of love against the wishes of my family but he treated me badly and even got his friends to rape me now and again,” Zohra said. “After four years of such treatment, he declared he wanted to mend things and we shifted to Pune to start life anew. But there, he sold me to a brothel. Life was a nightmare until I managed to escape with the help of a customer.”
Zohra, who today leads an NGO to help rehabilitate victims of trafficking, took the help of police and NGOs after her escape to rescue seven others from that brothel. But her ordeal did not end there. Police in Pune and West Bengal kept passing on the onus of registering her case to the other and eventually no case was filed.
This experience has made her realise that a national law is required to help victims. She is optimistic of the trafficking bill becoming law because it provides for the formation of the National Anti-Trafficking Bureau to coordinate internationally and with Indian states on the transfer of evidence.
The National Crime Records Bureau reported 15,379 victims of human trafficking in 2016, almost 60% of them minors. NCRB estimated that 1,11,569 people had gone missing till 2016, with 55,625 of them still untraced.
D Raja, CPI Rajya Sabha member, hoped that discussion on the trafficking bill was taken up in the winter session and assured the support of his party. Congress MP Akhilesh Prasad Singh agreed that all national parties had to come together and pass the legislation. “It is sad that lust of money and lead people to even shame humanity,” Singh said.
(Names of victims have been changed)