Centre to bring anti-trafficking legislation in Parliament soon: Maneka Gandhi

Union minister Maneka Gandhi today said the Centre will soon bring an anti-trafficking legislation in the Parliament, the draft of which is ready.

Addressing the Regional Editors' Conference in Chandigarh today, Gandhi said the government will try to introduce the Bill in the Parliament's winter session and it will cover rescue, relief and reintegration of trafficked persons, and for the first time will make a distinction between those trafficked and the traffickers.

Gandhi further highlighted the steps being taken by the government for the safety and protection of women and children and said the Ministry of Women and Child has launched POCSO e-Box which is a simple and easy facility for children or any adult to register complaints of child sexual abuse or harassment.

81 complaints have already been received on this e-Box, she disclosed.

In another important initiative to track missing children, Gandhi said, the Khoya Paya portal has already reported nearly 6,000 cases of missing/sighted children since its launch last year.

Runaway/Missing children are also being helped under Special Operating Procedures developed in association with Railways.

Gandhi elaborated that 13,000 children have already been helped under this initiative and posters are being pasted at all railway coaches to report children in distress.

Some of the other landmark initiatives taken by the government include decision to install panic buttons on all cell phones for women in distress from 1 January, 2017, setting up of nearly 170 One Stop Centres for women affected by violence by March 2017, Flagship programme Beti Bachao Beti Padhao to reverse the declining child sex ratio, 33% reservation for women in police force, and setting up a large Home for 1,000 widows in Vrindavan, said Gandhi.

Summing up, Gandhi said the government is moving fast on all fronts to change the status of women and children in the country.

--ANI