Trafficking issue: chief secretary to hold meet today

New Delhi: With the capital becoming a hub of trafficking cases, the Delhi government has called a meeting of a state-level coordination committee under the chairmanship of the chief secretary on Monday.
The committee, set up on the orders of Supreme Court, was reconstituted in 2012 and will meet for the first time since then to plan the course of action to combat trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of women and children.
The committee was set up in 1998 and reconstituted during the third term of Congress-led state government.
All stakeholders, including departments like women and child development, health, labour, social welfare, and law and justice will attend the meet. Corporations, Delhi Police and voluntary organisations working on the issue, too, will attend. In a first, the Delhi Commission for Women will be a special invitee to to monitor the proceedings.
DCW chief, Swati Maliwal, has been repeatedly raising concern over growing cases of trafficking and the attention needed to prevent exploitation of women and children brought to Delhi on the pretext of jobs.
Speaking to TOI, lawyer and founder of NGO Shakti Vahini, Ravi Kant, also a member of the committee, said, "The aim was coordination between departments so that a case can be dealt with smoothly, and to ensure proper rehabilitation by bringing all stakeholders on board. With Delhi being the main destination where these people are brought, convergence is the need of the hour. It needs to extend right up to shelter homes and also encompass the DLSA."