Kochi, (PTI): - National Human Rights Commission Chairman, Justice A S Anand, today said that trafficking of women and children was on a rise in India.

India was not only a transit point for trafficked women and children, but was also recipient and a supplier of such persons, Anand said delivering a lecture on 'Human Rights - Challenges of the 21st century'.

The exploitation of women and children for sex, however, was not confined to India alone. With porous borders with Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the problem has global dimensions, he said.

Quoting statistics, he said it was a flourishing trade of eight billion dollars a year. It is almost surpassed the profits from drugs trafficking.

In Asia-Pacific itself, 4.5 lakh people are trafficked every year and out of them 2 lakh were from South Asia, he said.

Pointing out that trafficking had wider dimensions and needs multi-pronged effort to tackle it, he said prostitution was not prohibited under the ammended Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act, 1986.

Despite the ammendment, the legislation falls short of its objectives and has not proved effective to check commercialised flesh trade, he said.

The act does not provide punishment for the client and makes no provision for the sex worker's rehabiltiation.

Sex tourism was on the rise in the country, particularly in Kerala, he said. "We have heard of sex tourism in Thailand, Malaysia and now it is on the rise in India," he said.