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O 141217Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI
TO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI IMMEDIATE 5414
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA IMMEDIATE 4629
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI IMMEDIATE 4437
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8896

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NEW DELHI 002492 
 
SIPDIS 
 
G/TIP: MARK TAYLOR; G: LAURA PENA, DAVID YOUNG; SCA/RA: JMAZZONE; 
S/GWI: SABA GHORI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL PTER SOCI KTIP IN
SUBJECT: INDIA: TIP INTERIM ASSESSMENT 
 
Ref A: State 114330 
    B: New Delhi 2373 
    C: New Delhi 2385 
    D: Chennai 338 
 
NEW DELHI 00002492  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
Per request in Reftel A, below is post's submission for the 
TIP interim assessment: 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary. India has made continuing progress since April 2009 
in combating human trafficking.  The Ministry of Home Affairs has 
designated trafficking in persons a top priority and demonstrated 
renewed efforts in tackling the problem.  India enhanced efforts to 
expand law enforcement capacity, deepen interstate coordination, 
improve protection and compensation programs, and increase public 
awareness.  Although convictions against traffickers and corrupt 
officials tend to lag, some Indian states have done better than 
others through the use of fast-track courts.   Secretary Clinton has 
stressed the importance of partnering with governments to help them 
overcome the TIP challenge.  Post strongly believes this approach 
will lead to progress in working with India to tackle TIP issues and 
is consistent with one of our top foreign policy objectives of 
cementing the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership. End Summary. 
 
EXPANDING LAW ENFORCEMENT CAPACITY 
----- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The GOI continued expanding central and state law 
enforcement capacity to combat human trafficking.  In an October 
meeting, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Director Dr. Praveen Singh 
stressed to Poloffs that sensitizing police officers to TIP issues 
remains critical since police generally lack training and are 
preoccupied with competing priorities.  The MHA, Bureau of Police 
Research and Development, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes 
(UNODC) conducted 18 training workshops during 2008-2009 to enhance 
the anti-TIP capabilities of 5,419 police officers in several states. 
 The GOI held three national/regional level TIP workshops that 
trained 107 law enforcement personnel, and conducted six 
"Training-of-Trainers" TIP awareness programs for 207 law enforcement 
officers in Punjab, Assam, Delhi, Pune, Chennai, and Moradabad. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) 
conducted 18 one-day workshops in states in 2008-2009, a fifty 
percent increase from 2007-2008 year. 
The (BPRD) also prepared a "Training Manual on Human Trafficking" 
handbook for investigators, which has been translated and transmitted 
to states for use in police training institutes.  MHA Minister P. 
Chidambaram will inaugurate a National Seminar on Combating 
Trafficking in Persons with UNODC in January 2010, where 
representatives from central ministries, the police, UN agencies, 
NGOs, and state anti-human trafficking officers will review existing 
GOI strategy and discuss the way forward, including examining the 
need for a comprehensive law on human trafficking. 
 
¶4. (SBU) These center-led efforts at strengthening capacity and 
awareness are being matched by some states.  Haryana state government 
continued funding sensitivity workshops for police at its police 
academy.  Poloffs came away impressed by a workshop on child rights 
and trafficking they attended which was conducted in November by 
anti-TIP NGO, Shakti Vahini (Ref C).  The approximately 40 
participants included Investigation Officers, who are the police 
officials responsible for verifying First Information Reports (which 
form the basis for beginning and conducting criminal investigations 
in India).  Shakti Vahini has conducted eight sensitivity workshops 
and trained over 600 officers at the Haryana Police Academy over the 
past year.  Shakti Vahini also conducts similar workshops for police 
from Punjab, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. 
 
¶5. (SBU) In November, a police inspector from a small Andhra Pradesh 
village, who had received training on human trafficking, alerted the 
state's anti-human trafficking unit to a potential trafficking case. 
The Andhra Pradesh unit then partnered with NGO Prajwala in 
Maharashtra and the Mumbai police to successfully rescue 19 girls 
from Mumbai's red light district and arrest five traffickers on 
November 27.  Within 48 hours of the rescue, the district collector 
provided approximately USD 230 to each victim along with assurances 
of housing and ration cards as part of a rehabilitation package. 
 
EXPANDING MHA's ANTI-HUMAN TRAFFICKING CELL 
----- 
 
¶6. (SBU) The MHA expanded its Anti-Human Trafficking Cell (AHTC) from 
a staff of six officials to ten, headed by a Joint Secretary, a 
Deputy Secretary, (from the Indian Police Service), a Director, 
section officers, and support staff.  India's Planning Commission 
quickly committed additional funding for the AHTC this year, and the 
AHTC should become fully staffed by January.  With a budget expected 
to exceed USD 14 million and a 24-hour control room, the AHTC will 
 
NEW DELHI 00002492  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
serve as a central point for the MHA to communicate with its 
anti-human trafficking officers located in each Indian state.  The 
AHTC's responsibility includes the monitoring of actions taken by 
state governments regarding both human trafficking and crimes against 
women.  States are required to submit quarterly reports to the AHTC. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Committed to further enhancing law enforcement coordination 
among states, the central government has earmarked an unprecedented 
USD 440 million in funds for states to establish a computerized 
tracking and network system called the Crime and Criminal Tracking 
Network System.  The ambitious project will modernize the police 
force and connect all 14,000 of India's linguistically diverse and 
geographically dispersed police stations to improve interstate 
coordination and investigation of crimes, including TIP. 
 
EFFORTS TO DECREASE OFFICIAL COMPLICITY 
----- 
 
¶8. (SBU) More rapid progress in tackling corruption and complicity in 
trafficking by government officials in India remains a challenge for 
myriad reasons.  Police are underpaid and spread thin, while the 
judicial system is simply overburdened with a shortage of courts and 
judges and a gargantuan backlog of cases of all types.  States have 
primary responsibility for law-and-order under the Indian 
constitution and federal structure; thus the central government has 
limited tools to elicit more rapid case adjudications in the legal 
system.  However, the use of fast-track courts in some Indian states 
is beginning to make a significant dent into the legal backlog. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Nevertheless, India continued to make progress in its law 
enforcement efforts.  According to the Ministry of Labor and 
Employment (MOLE), it has launched 12,244 prosecutions against forced 
child labor between April 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009; the MOLE 
obtained 566 convictions.  In August, Haryana police detained a Delhi 
magistrate and arrested three others under the Prevention of Immoral 
Trafficking Act after raiding a house where they were caught with an 
alleged prostitute.  In November, a team from the National Commission 
for Women exposed a large trafficking racket in Uttar Pradesh, 
through which traffickers sent women from areas along the border with 
Nepal to the Middle East, with the collusion of corrupt police 
officials.  In December, Goa police submitted a report on three 
constables for sexually abusing a commercial sex worker earlier in 
the year. 
 
CONTINUING EFFORTS AGAINST SEX TRAFFICKERS 
----- 
 
¶10. (SBU) India's linguistically diverse states have made significant 
progress in cooperating with each other on human trafficking.  Last 
summer, the Delhi police discovered a 10-year old Sikkim girl who was 
being sold for approximately USD 1,000.  The police worked with the 
NGO, Shakti Vahini, to rescue her and notify her parents.  The girl's 
parents provided the trafficker's name to Sikkim police, who quickly 
arrested him upon his return to Sikkim.  The next day the Sikkim 
police arrested eight additional traffickers from this tip. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Chennai police rescued seven Bangladeshi women between 
February and October 2009 (Ref D).  International trafficking cases 
are unusual for Chennai, and these cases are some of the first 
instances of trafficking from Bangladesh to the southern city.  The 
police arrested several customers during brothel raids but released 
them on bail per Indian law after a few days.  The police filed cases 
and treated the women as victims.  The police is now working with the 
Bangladesh High Commission and a Bangladeshi NGO to repatriate the 
women. 
 
¶12. (SBU) In April, an Andhra Pradesh court convicted seven women and 
three men for human trafficking, sentencing each person to seven 
years in prison.  The head of Andhra Pradesh's anti-human trafficking 
wing, S. Umapati, told Poloffs that the state courts meted out four 
to 14-year prison terms for 55 convicted traffickers in 13 different 
cases, between February 2008 and June 2009.  According to statistics 
from the Anti-Trafficking Court of Maharashtra, government officials 
used the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA) to secure 91 
convictions against human traffickers, since the court's inception in 
August 2008.  The convictions result from 710 filed warrants and 592 
issued summons. (Note: Consulate Mumbai is verifying the conviction 
number and will report in detail Septel. End Note.)  Of 1,302 total 
cases, 689 are pending.  In May, Central Bureau of Investigations 
(CBI) officers rescued 34 girls while exposing a human trafficking 
racket in two Mumbai hotels. Officers arrested eight traffickers. 
The same month, Mumbai prosecutors obtained a conviction and a 
10-year sentence against a trafficker. The Delhi police partnered 
with the NGO, Stop Trafficking and Oppression of Children and Women, 
to rescue 18 minor girls in November from Delhi's red light district. 
 The police arrested three brothel owners and traffickers. 
 
 
NEW DELHI 00002492  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
IMPROVING PROTECTION AND COMPENSATION PROGRAMS 
----- 
 
¶13. (SBU) The Delhi High Court issued a judgment in July that 
resulted in the investigation, rescue, and rehabilitation of 66 
bonded child laborers within five days.  The Delhi police 
investigated the employers and arrested the traffickers under the 
Bonded Labor Act, the Juvenile Justice Act, and the Child Labor Act. 
Officials provided the rescued children release certificates and 
fined the employers approximately USD 425 per child.  The 
certificates also entitled each child to enrollment in the National 
Child Labor Program, a house through the GOI's Indira Awaas Yojana 
Program, and additional benefits through other government welfare 
programs. In August, Delhi police and the Labor Department rescued 94 
bonded child laborers working in northeast Delhi under the Bonded 
Labor Act.  Each child received a rehabilitation package that 
included compensation of approximately USD 425 per child.  The police 
arrested two traffickers under the Bonded Labor, Juvenile Justice, 
and Child Labor Acts along with non-bailable Indian Penal Code 
sections on kidnapping or abducting with intent to confine or place a 
person into slavery. 
 
¶14. (SBU) The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) provided 
ten states (Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, 
Manipur, Nagaland, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh) 43 million 
rupees (approximately USD 952,000) for 96 projects through the 
ministry's Ujjawala program during 2008-2009.  The Ujjawala program 
focuses on the prevention, rescue, rehabilitation, and reintegration 
of trafficking victims.  Since 2007, the MWCD has expended 430 
million rupees (approximately USD 9.3 million) to establish 314 women 
shelter homes through its Swadhar program. 
 
INCREASING PUBLIC AWARENESS 
----- 
 
¶15. (U) TIP issues are now attracting top-level attention in India. 
MHA Minister Chidambaram has pushed his ministry to act to address 
the TIP challenge.  He launched a book, titled "Human Trafficking: 
Dimensions, Challenges and Responses," by acclaimed anti-TIP expert 
P.M. Nair at a lavish public event on December 2.  Supreme Court 
Justice Cyriac Joseph, renowned human rights activist Kiran Bedi, the 
Central Bureau of Investigation Director Ashwani Kumar, Home 
Secretary G.K. Pillai, dozens of senior police officials, and many 
from the media attended the book launch.  In his remarks, Chidambaram 
emphasized the importance of combating human trafficking, labeling it 
"one of the gravest and pernicious crimes against human society ... 
and humanity."  He stated that the problem in India is large and that 
Nair's book is a welcome wake-up call.  Chidambaram strongly urged 
all Indian states to set up anti-human trafficking units in each 
district, in coordination with the MHA. (Comment: Chidambaram also 
holds responsibility for counterterrorism. His release of the book 
demonstrates GOI commitment to combating TIP. End Comment.) 
 
¶16. (SBU) In September, the MHA issued two advisories, one on 
violence against women (the first advisory released on this subject 
since 2004), and another against Trafficking in Persons (the first 
advisory ever released by the Ministry on this subject).  NGO 
contacts who work on TIP in India universally concur that awareness 
of this TIP issue has significantly increased in India in the past 
few years. 
 
¶17. (SBU) The Delhi High Court's July judgment also reinvigorated 
Delhi's Action Plan for Total Abolition of Child Labor by providing 
additional clarity regarding the proper roles and responsibilities of 
various government entities in the rescue and rehabilitation of child 
and bonded laborers in the capital region.  The court made clear that 
the action plan gives police, not the Labor Department, 
responsibility for lodging complaints against employers using child 
labor.  It also ordered that authorities could recover the fine from 
the employer on-the-spot rather than waiting for a conviction order 
against the employer.  Senior child welfare advocate, H.S. Phoolka, 
said the judgment will go a long way in eliminating child labor not 
only in Delhi but would be used as a precedent nationwide. 
 
¶18. (SBU) In November, the West Bengal state police and the Kolkata 
city police jointly screened a UNODC produced documentary on 
trafficking titled "One Life, No Price" at the 15th Kolkata Film 
Festival.  The film, starring top Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan 
and Preity Zinta, is a UNODC pilot project in five states that seeks 
to create awareness about trafficking victims while empowering the 
public, media, police officers, prosecutors, and victims.  The 
festival's audience included senior state and city police officers 
who plan to screen the film across the state to raise TIP awareness. 
Last spring, the Bihar state government hired Contact Base, an NGO 
that uses community theater programs, to educate villagers about the 
dangers of human trafficking and to train local women's groups. 
Contact Base deployed 35 theater groups throughout the countryside. 
 
NEW DELHI 00002492  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶19. (SBU) MHA is helping to design a new six-month course on human 
trafficking at Indira Gandhi National Open University.  The course, 
expected to start in 2010, will be open to post-graduates interested 
in studying UN protocols and Indian legislation on trafficking.  The 
Delhi Commission on Women organized a one-day consultation in October 
with local police, hospitals, the tourism industry, and relevant NGOs 
to discuss establishing a "Gender Helpdesk" during the 2010 
Commonwealth Games in New Delhi next October.  State officials want 
to ensure women who are drawn to the area as migrant workers do not 
fall prey to traffickers. 
 
OTHER SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS 
----- 
 
¶20.  (SBU) In July the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) 
drafted proposed legislation on immigration that would provide 
additional powers to state police in handling cases related to 
"migration agents."  Seeking to protect Indians from exploitation by 
dubious employment agents, MOIA Minister Vayalar Ravi stressed that 
the draft legislation will be progressive, with strict penal 
provisions, and be finalized in the upcoming months.  The MOIA also 
amended immigration rules to improve monitoring of recruitment agents 
by requiring them to pay higher application fees accompanied by the 
company's balance sheet and income tax returns for three consecutive 
years. 
 
¶21. (SBU) India's embassy in Oman introduced several measures this 
year aimed at ensuring the welfare of Indian workers in the Gulf 
state.  In August, it launched monthly "Open House" sessions to 
discuss and address problems faced by Indian workers.  The embassy 
holds free legal counseling sessions twice a week and operates a 
24-hour hotline for workers to air work grievances and receive 
assistance.  Embassy officials also enforced compulsory attestation 
of service agreements for all household workers which include 
mandatory insurance coverage and the provision of mobile phones by 
their employers. 
 
COMMENT:  PARTNERING WITH INDIA ESSENTIAL 
----- 
 
¶22. (SBU) The GOI clearly recognizes India's human trafficking 
challenge and has made significant efforts to overcome it, as 
demonstrated by the MHA's recent expansion of its Anti-Human 
Trafficking Cell.  Results of government efforts are uneven because 
of several factors, including India's federal structure, competing 
priorities (healthcare, poverty, counterterrorism, sanitation, 
literacy, healthcare), and the sheer diversity of the nation.  We 
must acknowledge this complex environment and that progress toward 
eradicating human trafficking in India will proceed at a steady pace 
rather than through rapid top-driven efforts.  As TIP awareness 
continues to grow, the pace will quicken. 
(Comment continued) 
¶23. (SBU) Building on Secretary Clinton's emphasis on partnership, 
Post believes that reframing the TIP discourse---under the umbrella 
of partnering to expand political, economic, and social opportunities 
for women---will bring us closer to achieving our TIP objectives with 
India.  Post will continue to persuade GOI interlocutors to partner 
with us on human trafficking, and looks forward to a visit by 
Ambassador Luis CdeBaca to India early next year.