Ministry to set up shelters for trafficked minors, young women in border states

The government has provided funding to all states and union territories under the Nirbhaya Fund to set up and strengthen anti-human trafficking units in every district. Apart from this, funding has also been provided for AHTUs in Border Guarding Forces such as BSF and SSB. As on date, 788 AHTUs, including 30 in Border Guarding Forces, are functional.

According to the NCRB data, 6,533 victims of human trafficking in the 2,189 cases were filed last year under anti-human trafficking units – out of these 4,062 victims were female and 2,471 were male. As many as 2,877 victims were minors. While more underage boys (1,570) were trafficked in 2021 than girls (1,307) in 2021, this trend reversed in
case adult victims of human trafficking with women outstripping men.

In 2021, the highest number of the cases have been registered in AHTUs of Telangana (347 cases), Maharashtra (320 cases), and Assam (203 cases).

India is a source as well as destination for human trafficking. Other source countries are Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar — from where women and girls are trafficked under the pretext of providing employment or an improved standard of living. Ministry officials point out that a majority of these trafficked victims are minors who are forced into commercial sex work who reach major Indian cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. From there, they are taken out of the country to the Middle East and South East Asia, said the ministry officials.

“Cross border trafficking between India and its neighbours, particularly Nepal and Bangladesh have been a persistent problem. The proposal of such shelters, for care and protection of trafficked girls, intercepted at the border, is a need often voiced by the BSF as well as community-based anti-trafficking organisations at these borders,” said Executive Director Sanjog, a non-profit that deals in human trafficking, Uma Chatterjee.

Chatterjee points to a need for shelters for boys who are trafficked across these borders, as well as for youth –- women and men between the ages of 19-25 years, whom Chatterjee said forms a sizeable portion of trafficking victims.