NCW chairperson Mamta Sharma said there is an urgent need to create awareness among the public about human trafficking.

"Media can also play a very effective role here. Poverty alleviation measures too will help in combating it in the long run," she said.

She was speaking at a National Seminar on “Preventing and Combating Human Trafficking in India “ on Thursday here jointly organized by NCW and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

The Seminar was attended by senior government officials, State Commissions for Women and representatives of NGOs.

Sharma also mentioned that NCW has entered into partnership with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly work on the issue of combating trafficking in women and girls.

In the Memorandum it is proposed to combat this menace by addressing the problem at the source itself, from where the women are trafficked.

The project was initially taken up in six states to mobilize community action for stopping trafficking. And this can be handled by mapping of the source area through studies and creating awareness through seminars, she said.

Vulnerability, Mapping has been conducted in Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, she informed.

NHRC secretary general Rajiv Sharma emphasized on drawing of a complete Action Plan.

Some of the important recommendations of the Seminar were Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Repatriation of Trafficked Victims with Special Focus on Child Victims, Witness Protection and Support to Victims, Training, Sensitization, Education and Awareness, Need of Convergence with various stakeholders, Need for Inter-State investigation and need for a National nodal agency.

Along with these recommendations several important observations made by the seminar were the lowering of age of the victims as trafficking has become a high profit and low risk business with enormous earnings for the traffickers and brothel- keepers.

The Draft Integrated Plan of Action also observed that trafficking of human beings does not get that much attention as that of drugs and arms as the information is lacking at different stakeholders level and there are no policies available to provide that information.

It said regional initiatives are also required to establish a central database and regional seminars at vulnerable areas to assess the nature of the problem.