Keralam moots prevention component in SOP for missing children, human trafficking

The Kerala government has proposed that standard operating procedures (SOPs) for handling missing children and human trafficking should include a prevention component. This component would cover identifying vulnerable families and children, providing community-level emotional and social support, training frontline workers such as teachers and anganwadi workers, raising awareness, and counseling for repatriation.

The government argues that enforcement alone is insufficient because emotional, social, and economic factors often drive disappearances. The proposal emphasizes that the prevention strategy should be adaptable to each state's unique conditions, as what works for Kerala may not be suitable for others.

The Women and Child Development department suggests that the SOP should clearly identify the reasons for trafficking to ensure that investigation, rescue, and rehabilitation protocols are tailored to each situation, such as illegal adoption, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, forced labor, organ removal, and begging. Enforcement should target the entire trafficking chain, from recruiters and transporters at the source to buyers and placement agencies, rather than stopping at victim rescue.

The proposal also includes measures like establishing anonymous pregnancy care centers in government hospitals, ensuring mothers are linked to records of live births within an hour of delivery, and flagging stillbirths or neonatal deaths for audit. Additionally, it recommends making domestic work an organized sector with proper worker registration, recording details of adolescent workers, and mandating registration and monitoring of placement agencies.

Unregistered agencies should be investigated as trafficking offenses, and their properties seized to compensate victims.