Kerala government pushes prevention strategy alongside enforcement in child trafficking cases

The Keralam government has called for standard operating procedures on missing children and human trafficking to include a comprehensive prevention strategy, arguing that enforcement measures alone cannot address the emotional, social and economic factors that drive most child disappearances.

The State's Women and Child Development department made the proposals at a Supreme Court-mandated zonal consultation for southern States, emphasising that prevention frameworks should be tailored to local conditions rather than imposed uniformly. Keralam's near-universal institutional systems, for instance, may not be replicable in other States.

Trafficking-specific investigation protocols

The WCD department has recommended that the SOP explicitly recognise six distinct purposes for which persons are trafficked—illegal adoption of newborns, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, forced and cheap labour, organ removal, and begging—with investigation, rescue and rehabilitation protocols designed for each category.

For every case, enforcement should trace the "full chain" from recruiters, transporters and source locations to placement agencies, employers, brothels or buyers at the destination, rather than stopping at victim rescue. Awareness campaigns in schools, source communities, migrant families and transit points such as railway stations, along with victim-centred rehabilitation, can be integrated into the SOP.

Infant trafficking safeguards

Keralam has stressed that traceability systems, demand-side liability and reunification infrastructure must be established before the infant trafficking market becomes entrenched. The State has proposed a uniform national framework for anonymous pregnancy care centres attached to government hospitals or women welfare institutions.

Every institutional live birth should be linked to the mother within one hour of delivery, while every stillbirth or neonatal death should be certified by a second doctor not involved in the delivery and automatically flagged for audit. Private hospitals and nursing homes should reconcile every newborn exit against a registered birth, while abandoned and surrendered children should be declared legally free for adoption within statutory periods. Prosecution of every intermediary and buyer in infant trafficking cases has also been recommended.

Labour registration and agency oversight

Among other suggestions, the department has called for domestic work to be declared an organised sector with registration of workers and employers through local bodies. Every adolescent worker should be registered with verified identity, recorded employer and recorded wages to prevent fraudulent agencies from faking documents and placing children beyond government reach.

All placement agencies and recruitment consultants should face mandatory registration and monitoring, with verifiable records of every person placed. Operation of unregistered agencies should be investigated as a trafficking offence, and all illegal agencies should be shut down with their properties seized and applied as compensation to victims.

Source: The Hindu