PITA Act Full Form

What is the full form of PITA Act?

The full form of PITA is The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. The International Convention for the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of Prostitution of Others was ratified by the Government of India in 1950. The Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956, was enacted in India in 1956. The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, popularly known as PITA, is the consequence of additional changes made to the original law in 1986. 1986 Immoral Trafficking,(PITA) Act only addresses trafficking in relation to prostitution and not in relation to other purposes of trafficking like domestic work, child labor, organ harvesting, etc. The guidelines in this law that apply to young people under the age of 18 are outlined in the section below.

This Story also Contains

1. What is the full form of PITA Act?
2. Details About the Act
3. Trafficking Vs Prostitution
4. The Victim of Trafficking
5. Child Exploitation

Details About the Act

• Any person who has reached the age of eighteen is considered a kid under the statute. A description of the illegality of prostitution and the penalties for owning a brothel or other similar business, as well as for living off the proceeds of prostitution, as in the case of a pimp, are provided in the act's first section. According to Section 5 of the law, the minimum prison term for procuring, inducing, or taking a kid for prostitution is seven years, although it can be increased to life in prison.

• The act includes a provision that says anyone participating in the hiring, transporting, transferring, harbouring, or receiving of people for prostitution is guilty of trafficking. This is done to make sure that everyone involved in the chain of trafficking is likewise held accountable. Additionally, anyone caught in a brothel or caught trying to enter one is subject to prosecution under this provision.

• If a person is discovered with a child, it is presumed that he has kept the child there in order to engage in sexual activity. As a result, he might face a maximum fine of Rs. 1 lakh, seven years in prison, or perhaps life in prison. It is assumed that a youngster has been held for prostitution if they are found in a brothel and a medical test reveals that they have been sexually assaulted.

• Anyone found guilty of prostitution in public when a kid is present faces a maximum fine of Rs. 1 lakh, seven years in prison, or a period that may extended to period to ten years.If child prostitution is carried out with the knowledge of the owner of a business, such as a hotel, the hotel's licence will likely be revoked,it may also receive a prison sentence and/or fines.

• An amendment bill that was submitted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2006 has not yet been passed. Although the modification doesn't truly affect any child-related rules, it has significant implications for the rights of women who work in the sex industry.

Trafficking Vs Prostitution

Prostitution is not considered to be trafficking. These terms do not interchange. One should disentangle prostitution from trafficking in order to comprehend it. As per the current legislation, the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act of 1956 (ITPA), prostitution is considered an offence when a person is used for profit. It is considered commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) when a woman or child is sexually exploited and someone benefits from it. CSE is a legal offence, and all perpetrators are held accountable. Recruitment, contracting, obtaining, or hiring of a person for CSE is considered trafficking.Consequently, CSE is a result of the process of trafficking. As a result of CSE, trafficking is created, encouraged, and sustained.

This is a destructive cycle. Other types of crimes,like creating pornographic material, promoting sex tourism,hiding, sexual exploitation behind bartending, massage parlors, etc., or even exploitative labour where sexual abuse may or may not coexist, could all be committed through trafficking.

The ITPA only considers CSE trafficking. Commercial activity need not take place in a brothel; it can happen elsewhere, such as in a home, a car, etc. Because of this, a police officer acting under the ITPA is authorised to intervene in any situation where trafficking results in or is likely to result in CSE in any form, including those hidden behind the fronts of massage parlours,bars, the "tourist circuit," "escort services," "friendship clubs," etc.

The Victim of Trafficking

Any male or female of any age who has been trafficked for CSE in a brothel or any setting where CSE occurs is considered to be a trafficked person under the ITPA, particularly section 5 of the ITPA and other laws that apply to it. Even trying to traffic in someone is punishable under the ITPA. As a result, the law is in effect even before the victim is physically trafficked.

• Those under the age of 18 are considered children. According to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2000, a "person in need of care and protection" is any child who is at risk of becoming a victim of human trafficking.

• It is the responsibility of law enforcement to rescue such children, bring them before the Child Welfare Committee, and provide them with the best care possible.

• The risk of adult trafficking is not eliminated by the person's simple consent. All of these situations amount to trafficking if the permission was gained under duress, coercion, fear, or any other form of pressure. In this case, the consent has no legal significance. As a result, even if an adult woman is "picked up" from a brothel on the suspicion that she was "soliciting," her guilt cannot be assumed until the "mens rea" (i.e., the purpose) is looked into. The victim of CSE, not the accuser, is a woman who has been exploited for CSE.

Child Exploitation

The third-highest revenue-generating sector in the world is human trafficking. Unlike many other problems, child trafficking affects both developed and developing countries. Children who have been trafficked are coerced into marriage, used as prostitutes, illegally adopted, used as slaves or as cheap labour, used for sport, and even harvested for their organs. Some kids are enlisted by armed organisations. Children who are victims of trafficking are exposed to abuse, neglect, and violence. "Any person under 18 who is recruited, transported, transferred, harbored or accepted for the purpose of exploitation, either within or outside a country," according to UNICEF, is a child victim of trafficking. Data is difficult to come by because trafficking is one of the most difficult crimes to track down and investigate. According to the most recent statistics, 1.2 million kids are thought to be trafficked every year. The largest market for children who have been trafficked is child prostitution.

According to NGOs, 12,000–50,000 women and children are brought into the nation every year for the sex trade from neighbouring states. Migrants from Bangladesh and Nepal traffic thousands of women.In India, 200,000 Nepalese girls under the age of 16 are engaged in prostitution. Every year, between 1,000 and 1,500 Indian youngsters are trafficked to Saudi Arabia to beg for food during the Hajj. The states with the highest trafficking rates are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu. Rajasthan, Assam, Meghalaya, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra have significant rates of intrastate and interdistrict trafficking. The two biggest receiving states are Delhi and Goa. Although prevalent, trafficking from the northeastern states is frequently ignored.