Court gets draft Delhi bill on trafficking of kids

New Delhi - The government Monday submitted in the Delhi High Court a draft of a bill aimed at preventing trafficking of children through unregulated placement agencies.

The court was given the draft of the Delhi Private Placement Agencies (Regulation) Bill, 2012 during a hearing on NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan's plea alleging that some of the placement agencies were indulging in the trafficking of children.

The government told a division bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice R.S. Endlaw that "the bill is already in a process of consultation between various government departments and stake-holders and is scheduled to be tabled in the next session of the Delhi assembly".

The NGO sought the immediate registration of all placement agencies operating in the capital to prevent alleged trafficking of women and minors.

The court directed the government to file by July 30 a status report on the action taken by it.

Labour department official Piyush Sharma said: "We are trying to provide protection to thousands of domestic workers to ensure that no abuse takes place."

"These unregistered and unregulated placement agencies have mushroomed in the capital, leading to lot of exploitation of the underprivileged," he said.

Senior Advocate H.S. Phoolka, appearing for the NGO, said: "We are very happy that the Delhi government has taken this extremely progressive step."

The bill plans to take effective steps to regulate the functioning of the placement agencies that have allegedly become a hub of child labour and trafficking.

On another petition, filed by Save the Childhood Foundation, seeking protection of child labourers, the court said that it was imperative to recover a fine of Rs.20,000 from the employers of child labourers for their rehabilitation as well as the minimum wages earned by the child during employment.