New Delhi, May 11: Raising concern over increasing
sex tourism, CBI Director Ashwani Kumar on Sunday said even
religious places of the country are not spared by the menace.
"Most serious part is that some of the religious places
in India and tourist destinations are getting affected by this
crime (sex tourism and prostitution) which is a very serious
thing," Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of a two-day
seminar on Organised Crime and Human Trafficking here.
"The alarming trend is that in the last few years sex
tourism, especially child sex tourism, paedophilia and
prostitution have emerged as the areas of crime," the CBI
chief said.
Terming human trafficking as the world`s third largest
organised crime after narcotics trade and illicit arms
trafficking, Kumar said India occupies a unique position in
this illicit trade as it is a "source, transit and
destination" of human trafficking groups.
"It (India) is therefore both a supplier and a consumer
of this trade and this differentiates human trafficking in
India from other countries. 85 percent of the people
trafficked in India are trafficked for domestic market
itself," he said.
Kumar said the shutting down of dance bars goes a long
way towards shutting an important avenue of consumption of
trafficked children and women.
"Many of the intellectuals have questioned whether it
(shutting down of dance bars) is justified. We in CBI think it
is," he said.
Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta, who inaugurated the
seminar, said human trafficking is one of the gravest problems
facing the country and it has to be dealt with extreme
seriousness.
"The root cause of the problem is poverty, under
development, unemployment among others. Therefore, we have to
address the problem both socially and by enforcing law," he
said.
Gupta asked concerned government agencies, NGOs and
corporate houses to extend their helping hand in eradicating
the menace of human trafficking.
He said there was a great need to sensitise the society
about the gravity of the problem and police should give more
attention in investigations of any such cases.
The seminar was also addressed by United Nations Office
on Drugs and Crime representative Cristina Albertin and
Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child
Development Vijay Lakshmi Gupta.
Bureau Report
