Human Trafficking In India – An Overview


India is a country of source, destination and transit for trafficking. A 2004 study by the NGO Shakti Vahini, a leading Indian Human Rights NGO, concluded that 10% of Indian trafficking is international whilst 90% is domestic. The 2007 US 'Trafficking in Persons' Report estimates that the problem affects millions .

Profiles of trafficking victims

Men and boys as well as women and girls are trafficked within and into India, although women and girls are most vulnerable to trafficking into the sex trade. The vast majority of trafficked women and girls are poor, many are from landless families, and most come from Dalit (previously known as “untouchables”), Adivasi (indigenous and low status tribals) or other low caste communities.


Profile of TraffickersDue to the clandestine nature of the problem, little is known about those who carry out human trafficking. Studies show that they may be family members or friends, brothel owners and brokers, community leaders, women in sex-work or people in powerful positions such as police and other government employees. Data collected from victims of trafficking for the UNIFEM study, suggests that 50% of traffickers are women (reported in Sen, A. 2005: A Report on Trafficking of Women and Children, UNIFEM).

Purposes for human trafficking

Purposes for human trafficking in India include: forced prostitution, marriage (on the increase as the birth rate of girl babies continues to dwindle, reaching levels of 640 girls to every 1000 boys in some states. It is alleged that many marriage bureaus are fronts for trafficking networks), domestic labour, bonded labour (a bonded person works in conditions of servitude to pay off a debt, all bonded people have three things in common: they are working for nominal wages, in consideration of an advance and they are not free to discontinue their work), agricultural labour, industrial labour, entertainment, begging, adoption, drug smuggling and peddling and organ transplants.

Mechanisms to tackle human trafficking

In spite of the magnitude of the problem, India has not put in place appropriate measures to tackle human trafficking. The Indian constitution prohibits human trafficking and successive governments have formulated laws intended to tackle it, with the primary legislative tool being the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956. However these laws are either weak or inadequately enforced.

The 2007 US Trafficking in Persons report identifies that the lack of co-ordinated national action undermines attempts to combat human trafficking. It recommends the need for an effective national-level body to enforce the law. These problems are made worse by the reported complicity of law enforcement officials in trafficking and related criminal activity.

The combination of the lack of infrastructure and resources, in conjunction with the powerful political and business connections of the traffickers, means that the laws are inadequately enforced. In addition, in practical terms the victims of trafficking suffer disproportionately under the law: four times as many women as men are arrested under the legislation intended to tackle human trafficking, thus effectively criminalising the victims.  

 

 


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Trafficking Facts and Figures


A 2005 study by UNIFEM (Sen, A. 2005: A Report on Trafficking of Women and Children, UNIFEM) which interviewed victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation who had been rescued found that:

They were forced to service an average of seven clients a day. They could not exercise choice with regards to wearing condoms or other safe sex practices. 30% were suffering from a sexually transmitted disease; 8% had contracted HIV

20% were children aged below 18 years of age, the majority of which had been trafficked at a very young age.

57% of them had been previously arrested by the police but were not offered any support or rehabilitation so were forced to return to brothels

60% were also victims of child marriage

45.6% had their first sexual experience under the age of 16

22% had been working in a brothel when they were aged less than 16

68% were lured into brothels with the promise of jobs

50% of the traffickers interviewed for the study focused on rural areas for recruitment, targeting communities which are particularly vulnerable, due to lack of employment, illiteracy, social and gender discrimination