COVER HINDI - Ministry of Women and Child Development

— The ministry has requested the Ministry of Home
Affairs for recruiting women to fill at least 30% of
the police force. It has also suggested the setting up
of Women’s Help desk in every police station.
— The MHA has also been requested to prepare a
comprehensive Witness Protection program which
will enable the victims of trafficking to be protected
and secure till such time, the trafficker is prosecuted.
(iv) Legislation
— Certain amendments are proposed to Immoral
Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 to widen its scope,
focus on traffickers, prevent re- victimisation of
victims and to make its implementation more
effective. The major amendments include deletion
of section 8 which provides punishment for seducing
or soliciting for purpose of prostitution and section
20 that relates to removal of a prostitute from any
place. Deletion of these sections have been proposed
in view of the fact that women and children involved
in prostitution are victims of trafficking and booking
under these sections re- victimises them. The other
major amendments include insertion of new sections
defining the offence of “Trafficking in Persons” on
lines of definition of trafficking as available in
optional protocols on trafficking to UN Convention
on Transnational Organized Crime, punishment for
persons involved in “Trafficking in Persons” and
punishment for a person who visits or is found in a
brothel for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The
other amendments include constitution of a Central
Authority as well as State Authority for the purpose
of effectively combating the offence of the
“Trafficking in Persons” at Central and State level.
The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Bill 2006 was
introduced in Lok Sabha on 22 nd May 2006.The Bill
has been examined by the Parliamentary Standing
Committee (PSC) and the Report submitted on 23 rd
November 2006.
— The PSC in its Report has recommended that
definitions of ‘sexual exploitation’ ‘prostitution’ etc
be more clearly defined to avoid ambiguity. The
Committee also recommended that rehabilitative
facilities for sex workers should be expanded and
upgraded; and that instead of punitive measures in
correction homes, these victims of trafficking should
be provided with protection and rehabilitation
facilities. A strong recommendation was made for
the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)
to work in tandem with the Ministry of Women and
Child Development to develop diverse strategies for
prevention of HIV/ AIDS amongst sex workers in
different physical settings, such as brothels
prostitution, street based workers, mobile brothels,
highway based prostitution, child sex tourism, sex
tourism etc. The recommendations of the PSC are
being processed by the Ministry.
(v) Schemes
— The Ministry runs Shelter based homes, such as Short
Stay Homes, Swadhar Homes for women in difficult
circumstances. They cater to trafficked women/girls
rescued or runaway from brothels or other places,
for women/girls victims of sexual crimes who are
disowned by family or who do not want to go back
to respective family for various reasons. The Scheme
provides for shelter, food, and clothing for women
and children below the age of 18 years; counseling,
clinical, medical, legal and other support, training
and economic rehabilitation and helpline facilities.
— Three pilot projects are being implemented viz (i) to
combat trafficking of women and children for
commercial sexual exploitation under the sanction
of tradition (ii) Pilot project to combat trafficking of
women and children for commercial, sexual
exploitation in source areas and iii) pilot project to
combat trafficking of women and children for
commercial sexual exploitation in destination areas.
So far about 39 projects have been sanctioned
benefiting 1950 women and girls.
— Based on the favorable feedback on the
implementation of the pilot projects, it has been
decided to convert these three projects into a
comprehensive scheme in the Eleventh plan. The
Working Group for Children in the Eleventh Plan
has recommended that the proposed scheme should
have focused interventions on comprehensive
rehabilitation specially designed for victims of
trafficking as also address issues like child
trafficking ,children of sex workers etc.
— The proposed new scheme which is under
formulation consists of various components – one,
for preventive activities to be undertaken through
32 Annual Report 2006-07