Operation AAHT

Figure 2: No Copyright Infringement Intended

Context:

• The Railway Protection Force has launched a nationwide operation “Operation AAHT” to curb human trafficking.

About Operation AAHT:

• Special teams will be deployed on all long-distance trains/routes with focus on rescuing victims, particularly women and children, from the clutches of traffickers.
• The infrastructure and intelligence network of the force would be utilised to collect, collate and analyse clues on victims, source, route, destination, popular trains used by suspects, identity of carriers/agents, kingpins etc. and shared with other law-enforcing agencies.
• The RPF could act as a bridge cutting across States to assist the local police in the mission to curb the menace.

Data:

• According to the Walk Free Foundation Global Slavery Index 2014, India is home to an estimated 14 million victims of human trafficking, including victims of sex trafficking, bonded labour, child labour, domestic servitude and forced marriage.  

Types of Trafficking:

• Sex trafficking is human trafficking into prostitution. 
• Labor trafficking is when someone is trafficked into work that is non-sexual.
• Organ trafficking is when people are trafficked so their organs can be sold to be used into transplants.

Causes of trafficking:

Push Factors:

• Poor socio-economic conditions of a large number of families, 
• Poverty coupled with frequent, almost annual natural disasters like floods leading to virtual destitution of some people, 
• Lack of education, skill and income opportunities for women (and for their family members) in rural areas, 
• Absence of awareness about the activities of traffickers, 
• Pressure to collect money for dowries which leads to sending daughters to distant places for work, 
• Domestic violence against women
• Low status of girl children  

Pull Factors:

• Lucrative employment propositions in big cities,
• Promise of better pay and a comfortable life by the trafficking touts and agents, 
• Demand of young girls for marriage in other regions, 
• Demand for low-paid and underage sweat shop labour, 
• Growing demand of young kids for adoption, 
• Rise in demand for women in the rapidly expanding sex industry, 
• Demand for young girls in places of military concentration like Kashmir in India in recent times 
• The rampant practice of female feticide in the northern states of Haryana and Punjab has also fuelled internal trafficking.

Laws Preventing Human Trafficking

• Under the new section 370 of the Indian Penal Code, trafficking of persons for “physical exploitation or any form of sexual exploitation, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude and the forced removal of organs” is prohibited.
• The Immoral Traffic in Persons Act 1956 also prohibits the procuring, inducing or taking of a person for the purpose of prostitution. 
• The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 prohibits a range of sexual offences against children under the age of 18.

Way Forward:

• Taking measures to raise levels of social protection and to create employment opportunities. 
• Taking appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on a basis of gender equality, the right to equal pay for equal work and the right to equality in employment opportunities. 
• Developing programmes that offer livelihood options and include basic education, literacy, communication and other skills, and reduce barriers to entrepreneurship. 
• Encouraging gender sensitization and education on equal and respectful relationships between the sexes, thus preventing violence against women. 
• Ensuring that policies are in place that allow women equal access to and control over economic and financial resources.