Revised Comments on the 3rd Draft of the Anti-Human Trafficking Bill 2016, India

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. 

Comments on the 3rd Draft of Anti-Human Trafficking Bill - Prof. (Dr.) Pravin Patkar

Supreme Court Lifts the Fresh Ban on Dance Bars and Other Issues

If the legal battle on Dance bars ends in a decision that will seem to favor traffickers and pimps, the Maharashtra State Government must blame its own arrogance, non consultative and over confident style of handling this battle and operational and intellectual isolation and a its singular obsession with obscenity. The State Government’s Legal Amendment of June 2014 which enforced the ban on dance bars has been stayed by the Supreme Court of India on 15th October 2015. Although the interim order has kept the hearing for November, the law has little chance of survival as the State government has failed to do its their homework and build evidence to back its premise.

Despite the fact that it has been the anti-human trafficking organizations who had sought the ban, facilitated a conducive public opinion across party lines and actively supported the government, the state on its part has reciprocated with a non-inclusive, non-consultative stance viz a viz the anti human trafficking organizations. The resulting debacle is now for everyone to see.