AIDWA’s fact-finding team report on Ulundurpet sex trafficking released in Dharmapuri
The All India Democratic Women’s Association released a fact-finding report on the Ulundurpet sex trafficking case, where girls and children were allegedly pushed into commercial sexual exploitation in Kallakurichi district.
The girls were lured on the promise of jobs in beauty parlours and were deceived and trapped into sex-trafficking. The fact-finding team has flagged the layers of failures, both State and societal and has called for both, statutory and remedial measures to deal with sex trafficking. The report was released at Pennagaram at the State conference of the AIDWA on Thursday.
Ulundurpet police had busted the trafficking ring by arresting the main accused Kalpana and 17 others and rescued 16 girls from Ulundurpet and Kallakurichi. The accused had circulated the girls’ photographs through Whatsapp groups and pushed them into prostitution after luring them on the promise of employment.
According to AIDWA’s fact-finding team, the exploitation of the young girls was being carried out in the middle of a housing society..
The report also expressed shock that the traffickers approached the girls through private employment opportunity programmes. It demanded that the District Collector conduct an inquiry and police investigation into such programmes conducted in educational institutions and other places and find out whether the traffickers infiltrated into such programmes.
The team also called for renaming the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act. Advocate Nirmala Rani, who headed the fact-finding team, told The Hindu that the word ‘Immoral’ in ‘Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act’ denotes the character of the women who should be viewed as victims as per the objectives of the Act. This should be viewed as a crime against women punishable under the Act and not something related to the morality of the victims. Hence the name of the Act may be changed as ‘Prohibition of trafficking in women and children (Protection, Prevention and Redressal) Act.
Similarly the name of the police unit called ‘Anti-Vice Squad’ in each district which dealt with prostitution and gambling should be changed as “Anti-Trafficking Squad” and it should function as an exclusive unit to deal with sex trafficking considering the seriousness of the offence.
AIDWA has also demanded that the police appeal against the bail order to the accused; provide counselling to an underage victim and re-record her statement and registration of a case under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, where one of the victims belonged to the Scheduled Tribe. AIDWA had also demanded a special task force (excluding the local police) in all districts to crack down on sex trafficking.
The Anti-trafficking committee at the State and district level should be reconstructed. The representatives of the organisations who worked in the field of crime against women and children should be nominated to the Anti-Trafficking Committee.
The team also outlined a slew of recommendations including model homes with all facilities for the victims of trafficking instead of placing them in “vigilance homes”. The fact-finding team has also demanded registering of case against the Deputy Superintendent of Police, who was found involved and later suspended from service.
The scheme formulated by Justice A.P. Shah and Justice Prabha Sridevan in W.P.No.36801/2006 in the case of Director State Judicial Academy vs. State of Tamil Nadu should be scrupulously followed by the government by sending circulars to the revenue and police departments of all the districts, the report added.
Published - September 19, 2024 10:08 pm IST
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