US aid for CU research in trafficking (STATESMAN APRIL 18 2006)

Arunima Ghosh
KOLKATA, April 17: The Law department of Calcutta University has undertaken a research project on legal management of human trafficking in the state. A team of 12 research scholars will work on this project.
Daywalka Foundation, a human rights organisation based in USA has sanctioned Rs 4 lakh for the project.
A detailed study will be done on the human trafficking cases that came up in courts in the past five years.
The project will study the legal management system of human trafficking in the state in three phases.
The first phase of the project will be done in Kolkata, North and South 24 Parganas and Howrah for a period of one year.
In the second phase it will work in the sensitive areas of north Bengal and border areas. The remaining districts will be reviewed in the final phase.
The project head and reader in the law department of the university, Prof. Nirmal Kanti Chakraborti, said: �This is for the first time that the legal perspective of human trafficking cases is being studied. Research will be done on the legal process starting with the method of policing and prosecution and finally the sentence.
�The delay in cases involving human trafficking and the large chunk of pending cases makes the system weak.�
Being the most human trafficking prone state in the eastern region, West Bengal needs maximum attention.
Mr Christopher Carey, executive director of Daywalka Foundation. said after Bengal similar research projects will be done in Assam, Bihar and Meghalaya.
�Human trafficking remains a problem because the root cause is not tackled properly. The offenders have to be tracked not victims,� said Mr Carey.
The results and suggestions will be submitted to the foundation. Prof. Chakraborti said that certain aspects in our judicial system have to be modified and the study will help to single out the aspects.