Section 8,of the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, which entails arrest of women who are found to be soliciting , should be changed and omitted, and perhaps a new law needed to be debated and placed before Parliament.
"We want complete omission of section 8 of Immoral traffic Prevention Act, which talks of arresting women who are caught in the act of solicitation. Instead we want strengthening of Section 5, of the Act which talks of punishing the perpetrators of the crime.But in our country, section 5 is not very strong", said Ruchira Gupta, Founder, Director of Apne Aap Women Worldwide in a seminar organized by Rotary International (RI) 3291, on ‘Prevention Of Trafficking in Women and Children’.
This law was scheduled to be tabled in this session of Parliament. The law would prescribe longer prison terms and heftier fines for the perpetrators of the crime. Strengthening Section 5 of the law was of utmost importance.
In countries like Sweden, Norway and Korea, incidence of trafficking came down and punishment of perpetrators went up. Of 1000 red light districts all over the country, prostitutes were mostly minors from Nepal and Bangladesh.
In West Bengal, places like Murshidabad, Sunderbans, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri and city areas like Topsia and Khidderpore reported the highest incidence of human trafficking, and amongst low income groups, said the report.
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) stated that almost 90 per cent of trafficking was from within India, with the age profile coming down alarmingly and the youngest victims ranging between 7 to 10 years of age of the lowest castes, added Gupta.
United Nations Childrens Fund said in a report that about 3 million children were on average brought into trafficking every year.
