Muristek
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, April 10
Rajasthan and Kerala have dominated the national child trafficking charts since 2018, reveal government data on the crime trend.
Out of 2,222 children trafficked in 2020, the highest 815 (36.6 per cent) were from Rajasthan, followed by Kerala (184) and Odisha (159). Bihar with 123 trafficked children and Jharkhand with 114 follow.
Anti-human trafficking unit data accessed by The Tribune further reveals that overall child trafficking trends declined marginally between 2018 and 2020 from 2,772 children to 2,222 after rising in 2019 to 2,863.
Rajasthan and Kerala, however, bucked national trends to report a rising graph between 2018 and 2020.
The number of children trafficked from Rajasthan more than doubled between 2018 and 2020 (373 to 815).
Likewise in Kerala the numbers went up from 145 in 2018 to 184 in 2020.
Uttar Pradesh too showed an increase in the numbers of children trafficked from 41 in 2018 to 61 in 2020.
Some major source states, however, reported declines over the same period — Bihar from 539 children trafficked in 2018 to 123 in 2020; Jharkhand from 218 to 114; West Bengal from 159 to 53.
Among UTs, Delhi reported the highest burden of child trafficking. Out of 214 children reported trafficked by all UTs, Delhi accounted for 202. It reported a decline in numbers from 531 in 2018 to 202 in 2020.
The northern states, which are mainly destination states in the child trafficking landscape, accounted for lower proportions of trafficked children in 2020 — seven children were trafficked from Haryana in 2020, 2 from Himachal Pradesh, 65 from Punjab (Punjab reported a rise in the number of trafficked children from 20 in 2018 to 65 in 2020) and two from Jamp;K.
Overall, the child trafficking trends remain worrying with the National Commission for Women last week launching an anti-trafficking helpline.
Besides, the government has been tweaking policies to arrest the trend. Though the responsibility to maintain law and order, investigation and prosecution of crimes, including the crime of human trafficking, vests with state governments, the Ministry of Home Affairs recently began supplementing the efforts of states.
In 2020, the MHA released Rs 100 crore to states and UTs for strengthening the existing Anti-Human Trafficking Units and setting up new ones covering all districts.
The National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, was also amended in recent times to authorise the NIA to investigate cases of human trafficking under Sections 370 and 370A of the IPC.
To address transnational issues of human trafficking, bilateral Memorandums of Understanding were recently signed with Bangladesh, UAE, Cambodia and Myanmar besides some multilateral instruments.