Vijayawada, Sep 26 (PTI) Andhra Pradesh Home Minister Vangalapudi Anitha on Thursday said here that legislations, law enforcement and awareness have failed to keep up with the negative use of technology to foster organised crimes such as human trafficking.
Addressing the National Consultation on Countering Cyber-Enabled Human Trafficking (CEHT), she highlighted that it is a global problem, which requires harmonised responses from the international community.
“While some tools exist to combat this issue, they often focus on child sexual abuse images and are not used to combat human trafficking for various purposes,” she said, speaking at the two-day event organised by Prajwala, a civil society organisation, in association with Andhra Pradesh government and the US Consulate, Hyderabad.
Calling for an urgent need to kickstart a concerted and comprehensive response, Anitha said the issue requires closer understanding to develop an adequate mechanism, especially for monitoring and investigating cyber-enabled human trafficking.
Listing out various initiatives by the Government of India, she mentioned the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, which enables victims to report cyber crime complaints related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and sexually explicit content such as rapes and others.
Furthermore, Anitha noted that the Ministry of Home Affairs constituted an expert group to study the gaps and challenges, prepare a roadmap for effectively tackling cybercrime in the country and give suitable recommendations on all facets.
The expert group recommended the creation of Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) to strengthen the overall security apparatus to fight against Cybercrime, she said.
I4C is an initiative of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, to deal with cybercrime in the country in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
State Women and Child Welfare Minister Sandhya Rani observed that cyber space cuts across global boundaries and handling cybercrime requires coordination among different stakeholders in different jurisdictions at all levels.
“Cybercrime is one of the fastest growing forms of transnational crime. With the spurt in internet usage and fast changing technologies, an exponential increase in varied forms and dimensions of cyber enabled human trafficking is being reported globally,” Rani added.
Later, the ministers released the National Action Research Report on CEHT, which was done by Prajwala in association with the US Consulate, Hyderabad.
It offers several findings on how cyber technology is enabling all forms of human trafficking, along with newer methods of this crime such as recruitment to war zones, child trafficking and others.
Jennifer Larson, US Consul General, Hyderabad and representatives from 27 states and various departments attended the event, and they will create an actionable draft to serve as a roadmap for states to implement robust measures, and the final recommendations will be presented to the Government of India for adoption. PTI STH SA
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