HYDERABAD: Victims of human trafficking, who have already been put through multiple adversities, once rescued, often wait for more than a year for compensations, revealed stakeholders present at the Roundtable consultation on Immoral Traffic Prevention Act. As per the law, the victims of trafficking are entitled to compensation under G.O 9 and 28 which are given by the Legal service authorities and Department of Women Development and Child Welfare respectively. While the G.O 9 entitles victim with a compensation of fifty thousand, the G.O 28 entitles them with `1 lakh.
However, when it comes to the actual claiming, procedural delays take up all the time and has been termed complex by experts. “Once the FIR is filed they are given 20 thousand rupees and charge-sheet is filed, another 50 thousand rupees is given and the rest is given after completion of the case. The delay comes in, because the charge sheet and other documents have to be submitted by the police to Department of Women and Child welfare, or legal service authorities who in turn have to collect signatures from the collector,” informs Mamatha Raghuveer of NGO Tharuni.
Child trafficking cases in Hyderabad are generally put under POCSO. Hyderabad in last 6 years saw 720 POCSO cases, which includes child trafficked victims and only 198 of this got compensation.
This inter-departmental delay is so immense that across the 31 districts, that chargesheets take up 6 months to file and then the collectors make delays from their end.