Chennai: Human trafficking was internationally acknowledged for the first time at the 1921 convention of the league of nations. And almost a century after the landmark movement, the pressing issue of ‘modern-day slavery’ is very much existent and perpetuating with the illicit network raking in $150 billion in annual profit from forced labour alone.
July 30 is observed every year as World Day against Trafficking in Persons to “raise awareness of the situation of victims of human trafficking and for the promotion and protection of their rights”.
As part of efforts to combat trafficking, One-stop crisis team - an initiative to provide legal assistance in preventing and addressing the issues pertaining to all forms of human trafficking - will be launched in the state on Wednesday. Under this scheme, committees and sub-committees will be conceived at district and taluk level headed by secretaries of District Legal Service Authority (DLSA). The team will also include a panel advocate, paralegal volunteer, social worker and police officer from anti-human trafficking unit, nodal officers from the labour department, revenue department, director of industrial safety and health and social welfare department.
An extension of the 2015 NALSA scheme which works towards the welfare of victims of commercial sexual exploitation, the one-stop crisis teams' line of work will focus on all forms of human trafficking. “The team will be working extensively on the prevention and identification of trafficking and rescue, rehabilitation and prosecution of victims,” says Kural Amudhan, IJM.
Amudhan explains, “It is a multi-prolonged approach in dealing with all forms of human trafficking. At the district, the DLSA will facilitate coordination across departments. SLSA and IJM will spearhead the operations at the state level.”
Tamil Nadu also happens to be the first state in the nation to come up with such an initiative. IJM in partnership with Government Railway Police had earlier launched 'anti-human trafficking and safe migration help desk' at Chennai central railway station.
