New Delhi: From too long repatriation timelines to the burden of proof being shifted to the accused at the bail stage and seeking gender neutral language, the Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights has now sent a list of 13 suggestions to the WCD Ministry to amend the draft Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021.
While examining the draft, the DCPCR found that neither it nor the National Commission For Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had not been included in drafting the law. Since children are vulnerable to trafficking, the child rights statutory bodies must be included in the national and state anti-human trafficking committees, it noted.
"Similarly, the commission recommends inclusion of Childline within the national and state-level committees considering their crucial role for protecting children," an official said.
The draft states that intra-state repatriation of victims must be completed in six weeks, inter-state in three months and inter-country in six months — from the date of production of a victim to the point they are reunited with dependents. The commission noted that these are incredibly long timelines.
Anurag Kundu, DCPCR, chairperson, said the proposed bill also erodes key provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act 2015 particularly with respect to rehabilitation of the children in need of care and protection. The bill needs to be suitably amended to harmonise the two laws, he said.
DCPCR pointed out that the proposed bill also reverses the presumption of innocence into presumption of guilt of the accused at the stage of bail. "Provisions imposing reverse burden, however, must not only be required to be strictly complied with but also may be subject to proof of some basic facts as envisaged under the statute in question," It added.
According to officials, there was no rationale as to why courts cannot be trusted to exercise a disciplined and judicial mind to decide the case appropriately.
The section makes it a draconian law open to abuse and misuse without any judicial scrutiny and the proposed bill does not provide for remedy of revision even though a provision for filing appeal was there, the child rights body said, adding that this is a usual miss and deserves attention.
"Given the nature of offences and the categories of the victims mentioned under this Act, another suggestion that the commission would like to highlight is that the act should be gender neutral," Kundu wrote in the suggestions.
Typically all laws provide for a monitoring and evaluation mechanism. However, this bill does not provide for any such provision. Thus the DCPCR sought that such an evaluation here be done by National and state human rights commissions and child rights bodies and women's rights bodies.