'India becoming hub for child prostitution'
NEW DELHI: Expressing apprehension that India could soon have the dubious distinction of being a hub of child prostitution, Supreme Court on Friday urged the Centre to weigh the need for creation of a special police force to tackle the problem.
A Bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A K Patnaik appeared to have gone through solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam's report on a mechanism to secure the rights of children. The SG had identified poverty and lack of employment as two major reasons for children being trafficked and pushed into prostitution.
Toughening its stand, the Bench said the time had come for courts to deny bail to those accused of trafficking children and pushing them into prostitution. These observations came during a hearing on a PIL filed by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan.
It also wanted to know from the SG why sex workers were facing prosecution and harassment at the hands of law enforcing agencies, but not those exploiting the children. Could rape charges be not slapped against those exploiting child prostitutes, it asked.
The SG had suggested making village panchayats a key instrument in tracking children and mooted the idea of maintaining a list of children suspected to have been trafficked for sex exploitation or as labourers, child beggars or street vendors. This list must be given to the nearest police station for registration of cases to trace them and bring them back to families, he had said.
Touching on the problems faced by children trafficked from across the border into India, the SG's action plan suggested that "children from neighbouring countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh found in trafficking or working as child labourers shall be first sent to juvenile homes for care and protection through child welfare committees and their embassies must be contacted to make arrangement for repatriation".
In an earlier report, the SG had informed the SC that "about 200 girls and women enter prostitution daily of which 20% are below 15 years of age". " Research on cross-border trafficking has indicated that 5,000-7,000 Nepali girls are trafficked into Indian annually. This research also highlighted that in the last decade, the average age of the trafficked girl has steadily fallen from 14-16 years to 10-14 years," he had said.
Read more: 'India becoming hub for child prostitution' - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-becoming-hub-for-child-prostitution/articleshow/5514551.cms#ixzz0zgF4a7Gp
No comments:
Post a Comment