Hyderabad: In 2013, the UN General Assembly designated 30 July as the ‘World Day against Trafficking in Persons’ and declared that it was necessary to observe such a day to raise awareness of the situation of victims of human trafficking and for the promotion and protection of their rights. People are trafficked for sexual exploitation, forced labour, forced begging, forced marriage; for selling children and as child soldiers, as well as for the removal of organs.
Dr Jitender IPS ADG L&O Telangana State Police on Thursday inaugurated the Anti Human Trafficking Unit of the Rachakonda Police Commissionerate.
Speaking on the occasion Dr Jitender said that this is the most befitting way of observing the World Day Against Human Trafficking, the problem of human trafficking is not just a problem of India but all nations across the world face this and the beneficiary countries are the developed ones. In this context, he stated that human trafficking is not like other offenses and is a crime against humanity.
He urged all citizens of the nation to act against the problem and report any such instance to the Police immediately. He stated that earlier there was a flow from Middle Eastern countries for the trade a recent case being from Qatar but due to the stringent and swift action by Telangana Government, the state of Telangana has been freed from this particular model of trade. He wished that with the set up of the unit especially for Anti-Human Trafficking where there will be much more focused and vigorous action on the field in dealing with the menace.
Mahesh Bhagwat Commissioner of Police, Rachakonda reminded that in the year 2007, when the first anti-human trafficking unit in India was established in Telangana CID’s Woman Protection Cell, he was in charge of the unit and during the two years from 2007 to 2009, they have rescued nearly 1,000 victims.
He also stated that since the inception of the Rachakonda Commissionerate, human trafficking has been curtailed in the limits through various operations and programmes.
Several rescue operations by SOT, busting of trafficking racket in Yadadri, work site schools for Odiya children of bricklaying labour are worth mentioning on the occassion. He stated that the Anti Human Trafficking Unit set up at Rachakonda is after the three such units already in Telangana including the Women Safety Wing.
He congratulated the Inspector K.Chandrasekhar who has been appointed in charge of the unit. C.P Sri Mahesh Bhagwat has appealed to citizens that whenever they notice Human Trafficking for sexual exploitation, forced labour or any other form please inform the same to Inspector Anti Human Trafficking Unit 9491039109 Dial 100 and WhatsApp No. 9490617111.
Sudheer Babu IPS, Addl Commissioner of Police, Rachakonda quoted that the International Labour Office suggests that forced labour in the private economy alone generates US$ 150 billion in illegal profits per year. Two-thirds of this figure (US$ 99 billion) comes from commercial sexual exploitation, while another US$ 51 billion are a result of forced economic exploitation, including domestic work, agriculture and other economic activities. With the COVID situation pulling people into a web of poverty, the risk of trafficking is very high.
He said that through the Unit Today Rachakonda Police equipped itself with awareness, vigilance and redoubled vigor to save the children and women from being trafficked.
Since then, the sole responsibility of this task is falling on the law enforcement agency; the following initiatives have been adopted in the Rachakonda Commissionerate:
HUMAN TRAFFICKING CASES FROM 2016 TO 2020 (TILL DATE) IN RACHAKONDA
| S.No | Year | No. of cases registered | Traffickers | Customers | Victims rescued | ||
| Male | Female | Majors | Minors | ||||
| 1 | 2016 | 64 | 38 | 47 | 92 | 101 | 3 |
| 2 | 2017 | 88 | 87 | 55 | 75 | 121 | 0 |
| 3 | 2018 | 72 | 102 | 150 | 59 | 78 | 37 |
| 4 | 2019 | 47 | 20 | 33 | 186 | 116 | 61 |
| 5 | 2020 | 19 | 11 | 14 | 28 | 30 | 0 |
| T O T A L | 290 | 258 | 299 | 440 | 446 | 101 |
Yadadri Human Trafficking Racket busted: She Teams and the Yadagirgutta Police conducted raids on the houses of Trafficking Organizers and rescued 34 minor girl children and 12 major girls and they were shifted to Prajwala Rescue Home and Shishu Gruha.
Seizure of brothel houses: As many as 144 brothel houses were seized in the Commissionerate (three in 2017, 27 in 2018 and 86 in 2019 after obtaining orders from the concerned MROs and RDOs).
PD Act: A total of 50 PD Act cases were invoked against 35 persons in 2018, 12 persons in 2019 and three persons this year so far.
CHILDREN RESCUED IN OPERATION SMILE & MUSKAAN
| OPERATION | YEAR | WITHIN STATE | OUTSIDE STATE | TOTAL | ||
| BOY | GIRL | BOY | GIRL | |||
| SMILE-III | 2017 | 109 | 5 | 197 | 187 | 498 |
| MUSKAN-IV | 190 | 17 | 89 | 18 | 314 | |
| SMILE-IV | 2018 | 136 | 22 | 49 | 3 | 210 |
| MUSKAN-III | 147 | 82 | 89 | 2 | 320 | |
| SMILE-V | 2019 | 80 | 37 | 117 | 21 | 255 |
| MUSKAN-V | 73 | 23 | 184 | 4 | 284 | |
| SMILE-VI | 2020 | 79 | 21 | 136 | 23 | 259 |
| MUSKAN-VI | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |
| GRAND TOTAL | 820 | 207 | 861 | 258 | 2146 |
Worksite Schools: During the Operation Smile-IV, ‘Worksite Schools’ were started by C.P Rachakonda with a total strength of 980 students in 1) Peddakonduru Village, Choutuppal, 2) Ravirala Village, Adibatla 3) Bommalaramaram, Yadadri Bhongir District of Rachakonda Commissionerate. These Oriya language schools helped children of migrant Odisha Labourers to continue the education in their mother tongue. The project received the international award from IACP USA for civil and human rights. So far 3,000 Odisha children taken advantage.