Women's Organisation in Rural Development (WORD) organised the Consultation meeting with NGOs working in 6 Districts ( Trichy, Karur, Salem, Namakkal, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri) on Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016 @ Hotel NALA in Namakkal on 30th March 2017.
This program was organised by WORD for Tamilnadu Interim Working Group (IWG) in partnership with Donbosco Anbu Illam- Rasipuram and WORD-Pothanur.
Fr. Albert, Deputy Director, Donbosco Anbu Illam delivered the welcome address.
Mrs. M. Renida Sarala, Director, WORD also a member of the Interim Working Group (IWG) spoke on the role & activities of IWG at the National level and highlighted the activities in Tamilnadu to create greater awareness on the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016. The Tamilnadu IWG organised two state level meetings in Chennai so far. It has also been decided to organise regional consultation workshops for NGOs by the members of IWG in Tamilnadu. Accordingly the regional consultation workshops were organised in Erode on 10 March 2017; in Virudhunagar on 28th March 2017 and in Dindigul on 29th March 2017. This meeting is the fourth of its kind involving NGOs working in Trichy, Karur, Salem, Namakkal, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri Districts in Tamilnadu. The main purpose of this workshop is to create great awareness and understanding about this draft bill, create consensus on this bill and to get feed backs from the NGOs to send it to the Ministry to get a stronger bill.
Dr. Balamurugan, Program Advisor, Geneva Global explained in detail about this draft bill.
The key recommendations
that were taken during the consultation meeting
- Specific
draft to ensure victims’ rights has to be drawn separately with appropriate
clauses- like child labour, child marriage etc.,
- Reception
homes and observation home has to be constructed in every district in Tamilnadu
so as to accommodate the victims of trafficking booked under this law.
- More
awareness/ provisions have to be given to the police officials on this law as
this would be entry point in registering the cases.
- There
are many difficulties during the Implementation of many laws in country. While
framing the rules for this draft having after passed the bill, the standard
operation procedures have to be given with more clarity.
It has also been decided to crate an E forum would be created to facilitate the discussions and updates further for this bill.
During the consultation Program, Mr. A. B. Antony Jennitt, Project Director, National Child Labour Program-Namakkal District; Mr. P. Prabhu, District Child Protection Officer- Namakkal; Mrs. R. Sivagamavalli, Chairperson, Child Welfare Committee-Namakkal District; Mr. M. Thillai Sivakumar, Member, Juvenile Justice Board-Namakkal District, Mrs. T. Tamizhselvi, Sub Inspector, Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU), Namakkal District also participated.
Mr. M. Rajmohan, Program Manager, WORD delivered the vote of thanks. 62 NGOs were participated in the consultation meeting.
