Meet deliberates on laws to curb women, child trafficking BY HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, FEB 8 - The first day of the training programme on prevention of 'trafficking' of women and children on Wednesday for government officials and representatives of various NGOs in the State served as a platform to the speakers to deliberate on the burning issue and find ways to prevent the same. The two-day programme is being organised by the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development, New Delhi, in collaboration with Caritas Goa in the conference hall of Caritas Holiday Home at St Inez. The same hall was a venue for consultations on the same subject on December 17-18 last year. Giving his situational analysis about the problem, Fr Desmond D'Souza, pointed out that the Church already had two consultations on the topic and had identified that abuse of domestic workers was an issue of concern. This, he said, had stemmed from trafficking of children into the state from Jharkhand and Orissa. He said seminars and training programmes on the subject do help in sharpening minds. But the need was to take a practical stand on the issue and work at the grassroots level. "The problem can't be approached from a legal perspective; there has to be a societal awakening," he observed. Agreeing with what Fr Desmond said, Director Prosecution, Shobha Dhumaskar, said many child traffickers manage to escape from the clutches of the law because bail was easily granted and without conditions. She said a stringent law was required to bring traffickers to book. Focusing on prevention of tourism-related paedophilia, Nishtha Desai of Children's Rights in Goa (CRG), lamented that even after Goa Children's Act came into force, the much-needed Victim Assistance Units are yet to be established by the authorities concerned. These units are provided for in the Act. Untill now two child traffickers - Freddy Peats (dead) and Duncan Grant - have been convicted; the rest have vanished, she said, adding, "Lack of coordinated communication between police, immigration, foreign consulates and embassies was the reason." Earlier, in his keynote address, Director Women and Child Development, T S Sawant, informed that under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956, about 150 cases had been booked in Goa since 2000. Nearly 38 women and children have been rescued under IPTA in the last three years, he said.
