Dr. Pravin Patkar’s Comments on the Various Anti-Human Trafficking Bill Drafts by GOI

A Bill to prevent trafficking in person, to provide care, protection and rehabilitation to the victims of trafficking, to prosecute offenders and to create a legal, economic, and social environment against trafficking of persons and for matters connected therewith or incidental.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development, Govt. of India has released a Draft Bill claiming to introduce a new comprehensive and single national anti-human trafficking law. The article argues that the proposed law completely fails to introduce a single comprehensive law against human trafficking. It only dilutes ITPA (Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act) – the existing progressive and pro-victim women law on prostitution and leads to making the organised sex trade open. This will lead to gross trafficking of girls and women for the sex trade.

It makes no provisions whatsoever against criminal organ trade, criminal surrogacy, organized beggary, trafficking of brides. It removes some of the powerful and clear provisions of the existing laws against procuring persons for prostitution, detaining victims, seducing persons for prostitution, brothel keeping, pimping on other women’s prostitution, soliciting in public places by pimps, closure of brothels, booking the sex customers.

Please find below Dr. Pravin Patkar’s Comments on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 10th Drafts of the Bill:

1. Introduction: Comments on Government of India Draft- Trafficking of Persons Bill.
2. Comments on the First Draft
3. Comments on the Second Draft
4. Comments on the Third Draft
5. Brief Note on the dreadful effects of the Third Draft
6. Comments on the Fourth Draft
7. Comments on the 9th or the 10th Draft

Dr. Pravin Patkar – The author is the Co-Founder & Director of Prerana (India’s leading and pioneering anti-trafficking civil society organization, Retired Faculty TISS, Ex. Professor-Amrita University, ex Vice Chairperson ECPAT International, and Fulbright Scholar (Fulbright Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellow 2015-2016, in residence at University of Rhode Island, USA).