Fighting against human trafficking
The writer is a social activist who has been at the forefront of the fight against human trafficking and has led NGOs that have helped rescue hundreds of victims across India.
In a significant development towards containing the heinous cases pertaining to human trafficking – a centuries-old menace of Indian society – the Allahabad High Court has accepted a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the establishment of special courts to tackle such cases speedily.
A bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Piyush Agrawal has slated the matter for next hearing on January 18.
The petition was filed on Monday by Varanasi-based Guria Swayam Sevi Sansthan, an NGO which claims to work to eliminate the ‘second-generation prostitution’.
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The NGO also works to empower women in prostitution to end their dependence on the criminal nexus that enslaves them, and also advocates for improvements in government policy and law enforcement pertaining to trafficking and prostitution.
In the petition, the NGO alleged that human trafficking in Uttar Pradesh is on the rise but due to lack of courts to try cases under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, no adequate steps have been taken to combat the malady.
The submission was supported by placing on record several official documents as well as the studies made by different NGOs.
Representing the NGO, senior advocate Raj Kumar Kesari argued that even during the Covid lockdown there were rampant cases of human trafficking in the state.
The court has issued a notice to the government on the plea filed by the civil society.
It is to be noted that the petitioner had also annexed with the petition an elaborate study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) on human trafficking and its impact in different states of the country.
“This is a big milestone for us in our battle against human trafficking as special courts will fast-track the process of bringing judicial remedy to the victims,” said Gopal Krishna, the legal representative of Guria.
“Pioneered in the year 1993 by Ajeet Singh, Guria, a 36 member NGO in India, works towards fighting the sexual exploitation of women & children, especially forced prostitution & sex trafficking which has further become severe and complex due to sex tourism and spread of HIV/AIDS,” the website of Guria Swayam Sevi Sansthan said.
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