The Andhra Pradesh government had launched concrete measures in 2003 to combat the menace of trafficking of women and children, raising hopes among the survivors to live with dignity. However, the hopes remained dashed in the wake of the lackadaisical implementation of welfare measures aimed at improving their living conditions and prevent the trafficking of the children of the survivors .
The sorry state of affairs has come to light after petitions were filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by the Vimukthi Survivor Leaders’ Collective and HELP, an organisation working for the cause of trafficking survivors in the State, to understand the effectiveness of implementation of the G.O. Ms.1 of 2003 between January 2015 and August 2020.
“The government has put in place coordination committees at the State and district levels to facilitate rehabilitation of the survivors and integrate them with the social mainstream by addressing the root cause of the social menace including poverty and illiteracy. The panels are supposed to provide the child survivors with residential transit schools to prevent second-generation trafficking. However, the meetings of the panels were not held periodically in all the districts. Even when meetings were held, no concrete steps were taken to provide succour to the survivors,” laments HELP Director N.V.S. Rammohan Rao.
The HELP is a member of the committee in Prakasam district, where eight meetings were held during the period to discuss ‘strengthening of community vigilant groups conducting awareness camps for women and girls in vulnerable areas’ . It was found that the government had failed to provide children of survivors with residential transit schools, said Mr. Rammohan Rao.
‘No scholarship’
“No child survivors of trafficking received scholarships during the period. Only six children received tuition services. Only two survivors were declared as orphans and provided benefits during the period. Poverty alleviation and child welfare programmes were conducted in highly rare cases,” Mr. Rammohan Rao told The Hindu.
As per National Crime Record Bureau CRB reports, 1,669 survivors of trafficking were rescued between 2016 and 2020, under the provisions of the IPC, while 550 survivors were rescued under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1955 in the State.
“Only a meagre ₹20,000 was provided to a small percentage of the survivors. As a result, the rescued survivors fell prey to trafficking again,” said Rammohan Rao, adding that even as the law mandates confiscating assets of the exploiters and compensating survivors, there were zero cases in the State, which utilised these provisions.
There is a huge disparity between the number of survivors rescued and distribution of benefits to rescued survivors in the State, with several Anti-Trafficking Squads seeming to be inactive, said Mr. Rammohan Rao.
Medical services
He said 60% of rescued survivors had still not received immediate relief and support. Medical services were highly sparse as well, with health cards provided to survivors in Prakasam district only. Free medical services were available to survivors only in Kurnool, Krishna and Prakasam districts. HIV positive survivors of trafficking were provided with care only in Guntur and Prakasam districts, he said, citing the findings through the RTI petitions.
