Women's Status

It is important to recognise that women are more vulnerable to human trafficking because of their overall status within society. Their lack of status is demonstrated by the skewed sex ratio of 933 women per 1000 men (the world average is 990 women per 1000 men).

Unequal status between men and women is an international problem and is not confined to India, although socio, economic and cultural inequalities between men and women are more acute in some countries than in others.

Women's education:

Figures from the 2001 Census suggest that only 54% of Indian women can read and write. This means that 245 million Indian women cannot read and write. The average Indian female has 1.2 years of schooling.

Women's employment:

Women constitute 90% of the total marginal workers of the country; only 4% of women are employed in the organised sector. Women get on average 30% lower wages then men. A study by the Self Employed Women's Association showed that 85% of women earned only 50% of the official poverty level income.

These statistics demonstrate that actions to tackle human trafficking have to take into account broader structural inequalities if the vulnerability of women and girls to human trafficking is to be reduced.



Contact us

Related articles

Related links

PO Box 58265, London N1P 1EX

 

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