Mahila police station uses the cupboard allocated to anti-human trafficking cell

Acting on Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s suggestion, Gujarat government decided to set up anti-human trafficking cells in five major cities of the state. For

this, it had sanctioned Rs 7.58 lakh for each cell in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Gandhinagar last year. But for top cops, the issue of human trafficking doesn’t seem to be serious as many of them have pleaded ignorance over the non-existent cell in the city, though the government had already released funds and provided basic infrastructure for it.

When Mirror contacted Director General of Police Chitranjan Singh, he said, “I do not know anything about this cell. But I will look into the matter.” Police Commissioner Amitabh Pathak, too, is unaware about the cell which aims at checking rising cases of human trafficking in the city. “I will have to find out what is the status of the cell. But, I do not know anything about it,” said Pathak candidly.

Mirror also attempted to approach Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Mohan Jha, under whom anti-human trafficking cell falls, but he was unavailable for the comment.

CID crime’s proposal

In 2009, CID crime had sent a proposal to the state government for the establishment of the cell in major cities. It got the government nod a year back, following which basic furniture was allotted for the unit in Ahmedabad. While there is no trace of the cell, the government-allocated furniture, in name of infrastructure, is being used by Mahila Police Station in Karanj.

“A chair and two lockers here belong to anti-human trafficking cell. But there is no one to take care of it. So, we are using it,” said a source in the police station. Under the project, each cell was to get a chair, a table, a sofa, cup-boards, four-wheeler, a landline connection, a cellphone and a digital camera.

Rising incidents

According to this year’s records, 201 women went missing till March end. Of them, 57 were found while 144 are still untraceable. In the same duration last year, 140 women went missing of which 55 were found and 85 are still missing.

Going by the data in the book ‘Human trafficking — dimensions, challenges and responses’ written by former CBI official P M Nair, the Chidambaram had said: “The scale of human trafficking in India is not clear, but it is a fair assumption that it is on a very large scale. It is the most grievous and pernicious of crimes. The victims are mostly women and children. There are a variety of reasons for human trafficking but mostly it is sex trade. It is a crime against humanity.”

Anti-human Trafficking cell keeps a tab on the illegal trade in human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, commercial sexual exploitation, forced labour or a modern-day form of slavery. Source