Curbing sex trade: Panel of experts to submit recommendations to Devendra Fadnavis soon

Recommendations include charging traffickers and clients under MCOCA and POCSO Act, setting up helpline.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis

A group of doctors and experts, along with BJP spokesperson Shaina N C, are set to submit recommendations to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to help curb sexual exploitation of children. The BJP leader, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) professor Dr P M Nair, former Bombay High Court Judge Roshan Dalvi and gynaecologist Dr Nikhil Datar have drawn up ten recommendations for the State Action Plan.

The recommendations include charging agents and customers of flesh trade under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, creating an anti-predator squad with anti-trafficking units and deploying a helpline number.

Shaina N C also raised concern at an increase in child trafficking incidents and in the demand for commercial sexual exploitation of children.

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Calling it a demand-driven business, the BJP leader said: “It is a business that exploits kids, teenagers and mostly young girls. This forms an unholy nexus of clients, enablers and traffickers. Demand needs to be choked by punishing these criminals.”

An online petition against child trafficking has garnered over 1 lakh signatures from across India in the past one week. “We victimise the victims, instead, we should shift the focus to the perpetrators,” said TISS professor Nair.
Retired judge Dalvi said trafficking was a “violation of a fundamental right”, and stressed the importance of resisting bail to the perpetrator.

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Devendra Fadnavis