Directorate of women and Child Development Uttar Pradesh is very much focused to control Human Trafficking in the state. In the first wave of Covid-19, the Ministry of home affairs guidelines state that the trafficking of a human being is a crime committed to targeting a human being into an exploitative situation, with the aim to make profits. Therefore, an advisory was issued by MHA to all the states in India to set up the Anti Human Trafficking Unit to control the menace of Human Trafficking. The Uttar Pradesh government has notified the Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) as police stations in the state where 35 districts have AHTUs and an order is issued to set up the AHTU in 40 districts in UP. The Pandemic Outbreak was not only fatal for several lives but also evoked crimes like Human Trafficking in different forms.

Recently women and child Directorate coordinated with UNICEF and National Law University, Patna, Bihar and had proposed a study related to Child trafficking and the unsafe migration of children. The objective of the study was to develop a child-centric, and child sensitize Standard Operating Procedure on child trafficking, Child labour and Unsafe migration which will be useful for different stakeholders including law enforcement agencies. Caritas India and its partner DEHAT got the opportunity to attend the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with other like-minded NGOs where Caritas India was invited because of its Swaraksha Anti Human Trafficking (AHT) Program interventions and major outcomes of the last four years to curb in the Info-Nepal Human Trafficking. This second round of study was accompanied by Mr. S Umapati, 1976 IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh as an expert having rich and ground experience on child and human Trafficking. Caritas India came up with several suggestions and feedbacks where Child welfare committee members, Childline head, Plan India, Bachpan Bachao Andolan and DALSA were also invited to the FGD. 

Mr. Mansoor, Child Protection Specialist from UNICEF welcomed all participants and shared the purpose of the study. He said, UNICEF is always ready to talk on child protection issues and during Covid-19 all of us must have a concern about the child well being so that vulnerable children can be prevented from being Trafficked or other forms of abuse like child labour or child marriage which ends up with child Trafficking. After the introduction and objective of the Study UNICEF representative assigned the Women and Child welfare Directorate representative to share the department plan on the child protection issue. He said that the Govt. is ready for its extended support with all like-minded agencies engaged in addressing the Human Trafficking issue in the state.

Some of the key points in the FGD was from the prevention component wherein the supply side the challenges in preventing child labour and unsafe migration and child trafficking in the source area were discussed. As a response from participants, poverty, education and lack of coordination and services among the different govt. agencies were highlighted which were suggested as the major challenges in preventing child labour. Caritas representative shared about the prevention component in the Swaraksha AHT program where mass awareness is done to sensitize the communities and stakeholders so that they can save themselves from Human Trafficking. He also shared some case studies of the actions taken to prevent human trafficking by the empowered groups. Dr. Sangeeta Sharma former Child Welfare Committee member shared how CWC has come across different challenges where the rescued children are unable to get the entitlements and support from the Govt. agencies entrusted due to lack of accountability and coordination. The biggest Challenge shared by the DEHAT representative during the discussion was the lack of shelter homes in the cities due to which it becomes very difficult to shelter the rescued children before they could be sent to the family or any rehabilitation centres. He also shared a case study of a differently-abled child who was rescued by DEHAT then and they had undergone several challenges in the repatriation of that child to Nepal, due to the child weak response. There was an in-depth discussion on the lack of shelter homes in the state which leads to the threat for the lives of rescued children from Child labour or bonded labour during campaigns and the need to involve in the post-rescue process with the labour department and other child protection related agencies. The discussion was also done on the community level, Block level and District level mechanism to curb Human trafficking. How at different levels Child Protection committees can play their role for more actions so that these different child protection agencies can serve as effective safety nets for the most vulnerable children. Caritas India representative shared the Swaraksha Program Community level mechanism like Child Parliament, Village and Block level child protection and committees developed and involved in monitoring the child safety in their villages. Maintaining the Migration Register at the Panchayat level for migrants is one of the good initiatives taken by Swaraksha AHT Program Partners.

Another important point of discussion was the challenges faced by the families in accessing the social protection schemes and different compensations entitled for children rescued from child labour. ChildLine and CWC representative expressed their disappointment on the negligence and failure of the Scheme entitlement for the victims rescued and suggested the compensation of Child labour or bonded labour must be disseminated into the account of the real beneficiary.

The discussion also took place on the aggravated situation after the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic for the vulnerable children and what action plan for these children was in place who were under the threat of being trafficked.

A representative from Women welfare Directorate also shared the initiatives of the State Police through Child Labor and bonded labour Rescue Campaigns, where several children were rescued but the number of cases registered and follow up for the compensation was very weak due to lack of coordination.

The Role of Civil Society and Media was also discussed to know their level of engagement in addressing the issue of Human trafficking.

Harm and Risk Assessment related to the sufferings of the victims was also included in the discussion along with their challenges. Rehabilitation, Repatriation, Reintegration and restoration Process, and coordination among all like-minded agencies involved in this process was also discussed to know and to incorporate in the study. The FGD was done for the study by the 

The research team of the Child Rights Center from the Chanakya National Law University of Patna conducted the FGD on various dimensions related to Child Trafficking such as Pre-Rescue, Rescue, Post Rescue, Investigation and Charge sheeting, Trial, Appeal, Rehabilitation and Reintegration. The objective of this research was done to explore the ground challenges and work on filling the gaps in effective implementation and prosecution of policy related to child labour, child trafficking and human trafficking. Caritas India and its partners DEHAT got the platform through this FGD to share the intervention taken to curb human trafficking under the Swaraksha AHT program together with the gaps and challenges which need to be addressed at the Policy level and this kind of research will assist the likeminded NGOs to take their concern at the policymakers for the suggested reforms.