India to introduce most-stringent anti-trafficking law: Smriti Irani

Union Minister for Textiles and Women & Child Development Smriti Irani announced about the law while speaking in the 3rd Laureates and Leaders 'Fair Share for Children' Summit. This 3rd Laureates and Leaders for Children Summit were organised in response to the pandemic and the resulting economic impacts that are exacerbating systemic inequalities and creating an unprecedented child rights crisis. Previous Summits were held in 2016 (New Delhi, India) and 2018 (Dead Sea, Jordan).

“In the Ministry of Women and Child Development, we are undertaking an exercise to present to Parliament the most stringent law possible on Trafficking of Women and Children. To address child labour, action needs to begin now, and I say this on behalf of the organisations that I lead and I serve, especially in the Textile Sector. There is an understanding that the Indian government and the Indian Parliament has banned child labour and that punishments will be the strictest faced by a corporate entity or by a manufacturing unit,” said, Smriti Irani. 

With necessary urgency, Nobel Laureates, world, and youth leaders joined in common cause to demand US$1 trillion to protect the world’s most marginalised children in the wake of COVID-19 at the culmination of the Laureates and Leaders ‘Fair Share for Children’ Summit. Held over the past two days the Summit discussed the rapidly emerging global child rights crisis resulting from COVID-19 and put forward united solutions.

Making a statement at the Laureates and Leaders 'Fair Share for Children' Summit, its founder Kailash Satyarthi said, “The moral commitment and compassion demonstrated by the speakers at the Summit has emboldened the call for a Fair Share for Children in the COVID crisis-relief measures. The global response has been disgracefully unequal, unjust, and immoral: the Fair Share Report issued by the Laureates and Leaders for Children has revealed that only 0.13% of the $8 trillion global COVID response has been allocated to the most vulnerable.”

The Summit shined a spotlight on a comprehensive set of challenges facing the world’s children resulting from the devastating economic and social impacts of the global pandemic. As stated in the Fair Share for Children report, released during the Summit, child poverty, children out of school, child marriage, child labour, and slavery are all set to increase as direct results of the pandemic. If the futures of the most marginalised children do not become a priority for governments, millions of lives will remain in jeopardy.

Child rights activist and former child labourer, Kinsu Kumar said, “Are you all working at the best of your potential when our children need you the most? I question governments and their lack of accountability for children – I question their conscience today, I question the death of morality, and I question your political will that values the economy much more than the lives of children!”

Lalita Duhariya, President, India National Children’s Parliament urging adults to take their responsibility towards Child protection more seriously, said, “If we as children can think of protecting the entire community from Coronavirus, do adults like you have NO responsibility towards our protection?”

Nobel laureate concluded by stating that the call for a 'Fair Share for Children' is no longer a standalone call for justice, but a universal resolve for justice by moral leaders around the world. We refuse to fail our children. We are here to declare that we are not going to tolerate business as usual in dealing with the COVID and post-COVID crisis. We are not going to accept more child labour, child trafficking and slavery of children as the new normal. We don’t have a choice but to act, and to act now. For our children, their rights, their freedom, their future - their fair share."

Demonstrating the critical nature of the issues and the gravity and expertise of the speakers, over 9,500 people have watched the Summit so far, with 5,000 participating live over the two days, including government representatives from over 40 countries.

The Summit concluded by providing a path forward for the world to ensure that an entire generation of children is not lost. A call to action was issued specifically demanding US$1 trillion to address the urgent needs of the world’s 20% most marginalised children and communities. The call to action includes an open call for signatories that will be collected and presented during the United Nations General Assembly later this month.