With a view to tackle the menace of human trafficking, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has undertaken a number of measures such as:
Administrative measures and interventions
Anti Trafficking Cell (ATC): Anti-Trafficking Nodal Cell was set up in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) (CS Division in 2006 to act as a focal point for communicating various decisions and follow up on action taken by the State Governments to combat the
crime of Human Trafficking. MHA conducts coordination meetings with the Nodal Officers of Anti Human Trafficking Units nominated in all States/UTs periodically.
Advisories: To improve the effectiveness in tackling the crime of human trafficking and to increase the responsiveness of the law enforcement machinery, MHA has issued following comprehensive advisories to all States/UTs:
These advisories/SOP are available on MHA's Web Portal on Anti Human Trafficking at www.stophumantrafficking-mha.nic.in
Ministry of Home Affairs' scheme : Ministry of Home Affairs under a Comprehensive Scheme “Strengthening law enforcement response in India against Trafficking in Persons through Training and Capacity Building, has released fund for establishment of
Anti Human Trafficking Units for 270 districts of the country.
Strengthening the capacity building: To enhance the capacity building of law enforcement agencies and generate awareness among them, various Training of Trainers (TOT) workshops on “Combating Trafficking in Human Beings for Police officers and for
Prosecutors at Regional level, State level and District level were held throughout the country.
Judicial Colloquium: In order to train and sensitize the trial court judicial officers, Judicial Colloquium on human trafficking are held at the High court level. The aim is to sensitize the judicial officers about the various issues concerning human
trafficking and to ensure speedy court process. So far, eleven Judicial Colloquiums have been held at Chandigarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha.
UN Convention: India has ratified the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime (UNCTOC) which has as one of its Protocols Prevention, Suppression and Punishment of Trafficking in Persons, particularly Women and Children. Various
actions have been taken to implement the convention and as per Protocol, “Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013†has been enacted wherein human trafficking has specifically been defined.
SAARC Convention: India has ratified the SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution. A Regional Task Force was constituted to implement the SAARC Convention. Five meetings of Regional Task Force have
been held so far. Fifth meeting was held at Paro, Bhutan from 11-12 April, 2013. As offered in Fifth Meeting, a study tour for SAARC Member countries was conducted from 18-22 November, 2013 to learn from the experiences of the Anti Human Trafficking Units
(AHTUs) established in various districts of the country. Representatives of Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Afghanistan participated in the study tour.
Bilateral mechanism : For dealing with cross border trafficking and to address the various issues relating to prevention of Trafficking, victim identification and repatriation and make the process speedy and victim-friendly between India and Bangladesh,
a Task Force of India and Bangladesh was constituted. So far five meetings of Task force between India and Bangladesh have been held. Fifth meeting was held on 17-18 August, 2015 at Dhaka, Bangladesh.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Bangladesh on Bi-lateral Cooperation for Prevention of Human Trafficking in Women and Children, Rescue, Recovery, Repatriation and Re-integration of Victims of Trafficking was signed in June, 2015.