COVER HINDI - Ministry of Women and Child Development

exploitation is interlinked with traditional cultural
practices of communities like Bedias, Bacchdra, Sansi,
Kanjar, Nats and the Devadasis and Jogin tradition which
have the tacit support of family and society and is still
prevalent in certain parts of the country. The matter of
concern is the prevalence of child sex tourism, tourism
sex, pedophilia in different parts of the country.
2.26 The following major initiatives taken by the Ministry
to combat trafficking include:
(i) Policies and Plan of Action
— Ministry of Women and Child Development has
formulated a National Plan of Action to Combat
Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Women and Children in 1998, with the objective to
mainstream and to reintegrate the women and child
victims of commercial sexual exploitation in society.
The Ministry has issued guidelines to the States for
the implementation of National Plan of Action.
— The Ministry constituted a Central Advisory
Committee (CAC) which functions under the
chairpersonship of Secretary, Ministry of Women
and Child Development, Government of India with
members from Central Ministries like Ministry of
Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry
of Tourism, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Information
Technology, Ministry of Law and Justice, State
Governments which are important source, transit
or destination for trafficking; prominent NGOs
working in this area, international organizations
working in this field, National Commission on
Women (NCW), Central Social Welfare Board
(CSWB) and National Institute of Public
Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD),
Director, National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB);
Director General, Border Security Force (BSF);
Director, Intelligence Bureau (IB); Director, Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) etc. and some of the
Director Generals of Police of important States
where the magnitude of the problem is stated to be
acute, are being nominated on the Advisory
Committee as special invitees. The CAC holds
meetings at three months intervals.
— The Ministry formulated a protocol for Pre-rescue,
Rescue and Post-rescue operations of child victims
of trafficking for the purpose of Commercial Sexual
Exploitation.
— State Secretaries, Department of Women and Child
Development have been requested for holding
regular meetings of State Advisory Committee
constituted under National Plan of Action to Combat
Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
women and children, 1998 and to monitor initiatives
being undertaken for prevention, rescue,
rehabilitation, reintegration and repatriation of
victims of trafficking in their respective States.
— Trafficking in human beings are for various purposes
– sexual exploitation, prostitution, domestic labor,
child labor, bonded labour, slavery, organ trade,
camel jockeying etc. The need for perceiving
trafficking in a much more comprehensive way has
been felt for quite some time, especially as India
has adopted the definition of trafficking as per the
UN convention against Transnational Organized
Crime with its protocol to prevent, suppress and
punish trafficking in persons especially women and
children. The trafficking definition as per the UN
protocol states that ‘trafficking in persons shall mean
the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring
or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of
force or other forms of coercion of abduction of
fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or a
position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving
of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a
person having control over another person for the
purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include
at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution
of others, or other forms of sexual exploitation,
forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar
to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.’
— To formulate a more holistic policy and program
for trafficking in persons which will incorporate all
the above forms of trafficking and enable an
integrated approach to tackle the problem, the
Ministry of Women and Child Development in
collaboration with Ministry of Home Affairs
(MHA). National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) and National Commission for Women
(NCW) is organizing regional and nation wide
consultations with a view to update the existing Plan
of Action to combat trafficking and commercial
sexual exploitation of women and children and make
30 Annual Report 2006-07