More anti-human trafficking units for UP districts

Lucknow, Nov 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Uttar Pradesh government has notified the Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTU) as police stations in the state.

The state has AHTU in 35 districts, including Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Lucknow.

Last month, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avanish Awasthi, had issued an order for setting up AHTUs in the remaining 40 districts.

All these units will be developed as separate police stations which will facilitate rescue and rehabilitation of children and other persons.

At present, the police and Childline rescue people face problems in jurisdiction issues. Sometimes, two police stations pass the buck in registration of FIR over jurisdiction. The AHTUs will be able to register FIRs in cases which will facilitate the process, a police official in Lucknow said.

"This will facilitate the process and the team will be able to help the victims efficiently. The AHTU in most districts have eight persons, including one inspector and two sub-inspectors. We hope the team size will be increased and infrastructure will be augmented after the new initiative," he said.

The government has sanctioned Rs 12 lakh for each existing AHTU and Rs 15 lakh to set up the new units in the state.

The Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines state that the trafficking of human beings is a crime committed in order to target/drive a human being into an exploitative situation, with the aim to make profits. Such exploitation may take many forms, for example commercial sexual exploitation, child labour, forced labour, bonded labour.

Source: IANS