An inside story of trafficking in women

[Guest guest]

An inside story of trafficking in women

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

NEW DELHI: Exploitation of women is not limited to their trafficking for

commercial sex market. The criminal justice system, which arrests more women

than men, is an equally harrowing experience, claims a book on sex trafficking

released in the Capital on Wednesday.

Authors Ruchira Gupta and Ruchi Sinha, in a handbook titled

`Confronting the Demand for Sex Trafficking: A Handbook for Law

Enforcement' point out that while victims of sex trafficking are put

though the criminal justice system, the perpetrators are allowed to go

scot-free.

Making a case for more gender-sensitive law enforcement, the authors

point out how the existing laws can be used to fix legal responsibility on those

who buy trafficked people.

The book also cites examples of countries like Sweden, the Philippines

and South Korea, which have addressed the demand for sex trafficking as an

effective anti-trafficking measure.

" Demand for trafficked people -- from end-users to those who make

profit from the trade -- has become the most immediate cause for

expansion of the trafficking industry, " said Ms. Gupta, who is also

founder-director of Apne Aap Women Worldwide.

Ms. Gupta, who has co-authored the book with Ms. Sinha, an assistant

professor at the Centre of Criminology and Justice Studies, Tata

Institute of Social Sciences, explained: " Providing services and

instituting preventive mechanisms has provided protection to vulnerable people

but not detracted the traffickers. "

Calling for increased vigilance and new laws to prevent traffickers from

sourcing women and children from Nepal to Mumbai and Kolkata, she said: " They

simply shifted areas of operation to Bihar, West Bengal, the hill States of the

Northeast and Jharkhand in India because a demand for trafficked women and

children continued to exist. "

The handbook claims that the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956, which

penalises women for soliciting in public places is used more frequently than the

Section which penalises traffickers, highlighting that trafficking is not a

victimless crime.

The book, which has contributions from several people and a foreword

from UN Special Rapporteur for Human Trafficking Sigma Huda, claims that human

trafficking is an organised and well-structured crime which is operated through

a supply chain.

A panel discussion on the subject moderated by P. M. Nair(IPS)which

included Girija Vyas, Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, and

, Representative Regional Office of South Asia United Nations Office of

Drugs and Crime, and the author Ms. Gupta followed the book release.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/02/stories/2007080250520200.htm