New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) Experts Monday called for changing the laws on sex trafficking so the perpetrators of the trade are punished, instead of the victims, and effective measures are taken to ensure rehabilitation.
“Let’s not victimize the victims of sex trafficking further. Change the law, so that perpetrators of the trade can be punished,” said Ruchira Gupta, a former journalist who left her profession to fight against sex trafficking, and has recently won the Clinton Global Citizen award for her work.

Talking at a panel discussion on sex trafficking, Gupta said that she doesn’t believe in rehabilitation simply in terms of providing shelter for the victims of the flesh trade.

“Real rehabilitation means providing a livelihood option to these women who have been forced into the sex trade. This is what I have been working towards ever since I left my career as a journalist to work for the upliftment of victims of sex trafficking,” Gupta, who has been working through her NGO Apne Aap for the last seven years, said.

Besides rehabilitation, a major step in curbing the menace of sex trafficking, according to her, is not legalising prostitution, but penalising the culprits of the trade.

Agreeing with her, Syeda Hameed, member of the Planning Commission, said: “By punishing the prostitutes, we are actually victimising the victims further”.

“Having said that, penalising the culprits alone is not the solution. We must look at the context of the problem. Poverty and migration are all issues which cause trafficking. From the government’s point of view, we are in the process of taking stock of what the state governments are doing for providing health facilities and other services for victims of violence,” she added.

Education, the panelists agreed, is the empowering tool for all women.

“All the victims of trafficking that I have met say the same thing - that they want their daughters to study and become doctors and engineers and not become like them. 824 girls of these victims are going to school now,” Gupta said.