Human Trafficking Crisis in India

[Jarita]

I would really like to solicit advice and inputs from people on this forum. I will be posting this same question/ point elsewhere on other threads.

To date we keep talking about the demand side evil driving human trafficking in India - the traffickers, pimps and those who transact.
However on the supply side much of the supply is not through abduction but where families actually sell their children. It is not that these families do not know what may happen to the child. It is just that abject poverty and need has created apathy. Sometimes, the drinking father needs money for the booze. The children become another thing to sell.

I want to understand the feasibility of something like this -

Those parents who sell their children for any form of labour will be
- Sterilized since they have proven themselves incapable
- Have their children seized and put in the care of the state or a reliable NGO since they will likely try and sell them again and again

Both have to go together to be a sufficient deterence in some cases and in others actually take the kids out of harms way. This may remediate the supply side problem. In the long run we have to remove poverty etc etc etc but we need this in the interim.

So my question to BRFites is
- Is this feasible within the construct of the Indian law?
- What are the issues that you see coming up?
- What could be possible modifications to address these issues?

[Sachin]

Is this feasible within the construct of the Indian law?

I don't think forced sterilization etc. would work in India. One thing, it is a very sensitive subject and people would be up in arms against it. People have every right to fear of a Sanjay Gandhi II, getting carried away with this plan and getting every one sterilized (like what happened in the Emergency declared by IG).

Rounding up kids found begging/working and move them to certified orphanages is a do-able idea. But at present many of the orphanages (especially managed by Govts.) are mismanaged, and children suffer more at these institutions. So if kids are rounded up and sent there, it should certainly ensure that some good comes to them. And in cases the parents are clearly identified (i.e they don't run away once they know their children have been rounded up), they should be given stiff punishment including prison term. It would be better to have orphanages, boys/girls homes which are NOT managed by any organisation which has targets for religious conversions. I say this, as I have seen a case in Kerala. An organisation which went over-board and identified the young daughter of a Tamil vegetable seller woman as an orphan, forcibly took her away stating that no one was taking care of her. And this chap had the audacity to demand police protection for this raid. Luckily the other shop keepers (it was a market area) supported this vegetable seller, and they got the police to back out first and got the kid back to her mother. Or else the next day the very same organisation would have got a news paper report placed highlighting their "noble deed".

CBI ready to probe trafficking of children to Kerala
The IUML and their stooges in Kerala, would have some thing to worry for some time...

[RamaY]

To put things in perspective and how much the system needs to be corrected, a news item I came across yesterday.

The husband of a woman wanted money so he sold his wife for Rs50,000 and bought a bike.

The woman's family visited her house to find out she wasn't there. Upon inquiry, the husband told them that he sold their daughter for a bike. When they went searching for her, they found that she was changed hands three times already.

The fourth guy who bought her married her and she is happy with him.

[Jarita]

EU strategies to combat Human Trafficking. A couple are relevant to us

http://ec.europa.eu/news/justice/120619_en.htm


helping victims, especially children – developing a cross-border approach so countries can assist each other in tracking and protecting victims; providing clearer information to victims about their EU rights

more prevention, less demand – funding research to better understand the economics of trafficking and provide solutions; establishing a pan-European business coalition against human trafficking

catching and prosecuting traffickers – establishing specialised national investigation units to conduct more joint investigations with EU agencies such as Europol

more coordination and cooperation – within the EU, with international organisations and with other countries, creating EU-wide networks for NGOs and others working to protect victims here and abroad

responding effectively to emerging trends – developing an EU-wide system for sharing information and supporting research on Internet and social networks used to recruit victims.

[Jarita]

Childline Report on Trafficking in India

http://www.childlineindia.org.in/child- ... -india.htm

The latest figures estimate that 1.2 million children are trafficked worldwide every year. Child prostitution has the highest supply of trafficked children.

India is a source, destination, and transit country for trafficking for many purposes such as commercial sexual exploitation. Majority of the trafficking is within the country but there are also a large number trafficked from Nepal and Bangladesh. Children are trafficked to Middle Eastern countries for sport such as camel racing. There are no national or regional estimates for the number of children trafficked every year. But 40% of prostitutes are children, and there is a growing demand for young girls in the industry.

NGOs estimate that 12,000 - 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the country annually from neighbouring states for the sex trade. Thousands of girls are trafficked from Bangladesh and Nepal. 200,000 Nepalese girls under 16 years are in prostitution in India. An estimated 1,000 to 1,500 Indian children are smuggled out of the country every year to Saudi Arabia for begging during the Hajj. Child Trafficking Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have the largest number of people trafficked. Intra state/inter district trafficking is high in Rajasthan, Assam, Meghalaya, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Delhi and Goa are the major receiver states. Trafficking from north eastern states is high but often over looked. In 2008, 529 girls were trafficked from Assam alone

There is a rising demand for live-in maids in urban areas. This has resulted in trafficking of girls from villages in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to live under extremely poor conditions first in "placement agencies" and later in the employers homes. Placement agents keep the girls in small unhygienic rooms packed together. They are often made to do the placement agent's household work and subjected to sexual abuse. Smita a sixteen year old girl was taken from her village in Jharkhand and subjected to various forms of sexual abuse and exploitation at the hand of her employers including rape. When rescued her parents refused to take her back since she had been tainted by rape.

[Jarita]

Perhaps it is time to assess the colonial impact on Human Trafficking. Trafficking (slavery, forced labor etc) was a big part of colonialism. Are the colonised nations more predisposed to this disease. Trafficking first took root in India under the Muslim attacks and the British perpetuated it through indentured labor and laws.
Perhaps the answer to solving Indias trafficking crisis is to look at her colonial history and identify those drivers both in terms of mindset and laws. Perhaps solving those may solve this problem largely



http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130213/j ... 7WcMrHrx24

The proposed definition of trafficking decriminalises the woman and shifts the blame from the victim to the perpetrator — the person who recruits, harbours, receives, transfers and transports. By doing so, the laws will correct a historical wrong initiated by British colonial authorities. The British had made laws to make disease-free women sexually available for British soldiers and clerks by setting up licensed brothels through the Contagious Diseases Act. This Act did not have a definition of trafficking, and therefore no punishment for traffickers at all.

It had very light punishments against clients and pimps and made sure to keep prostitutes invisible and off the streets by punishing them for soliciting in a public place

.

T

heir Act served as the model for our own anti-trafficking law, the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, which too punished women for soliciting, did not define trafficking or the trafficker and had very light punishments against end-users.

Now trafficking will no longer be a victimless crime, but will highlight that prostitution is a system in which marginalised girls, boys and women are controlled by pimps, brothel owners and customers.

The proposed amendments have a much stricter and surer punishment for traffickers and end-users, including life imprisonment for repeat offenders, or traffickers of more than one person and higher penalties for first-time offenders. It also has proposed life imprisonment for “the remainder of that person’s natural life” for public servants such as police officers, who are involved in any way in the exploitation. This strict liability of public servants will help prevent senior public officials, including police officers, from covering up the crime of trafficking if they themselves take pay-offs, buy sex or even anonymously own brothels.

The sterner punishments will also deter the demand for trafficked people by holding end-users and traffickers legally accountable. In Sweden and Norway, similar laws have made the purchase of sex illegal while

removing all culpability from women for selling sex,

recognising their gender inequality. In both countries the demand for purchased sex and trafficking has come down.

Justice Verma’s recommendations establish zero tolerance for violence against women by ending male impunity on all forms of rape and sexual exploitation, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes. In a great act of social justice, the recommendations make unacceptable the rape of poor, low-caste and marginalised women, even for commercial reimbursement, by recognising that it is a violation of her bodily integrity. Prostituted women and children are seen as victims of male violence who do not risk legal penalties. Instead, they have a right to assistance to escape prostitution.

The definition proposed by the Verma Committee holds accountable the pimps, traffickers and prostitution buyers who, knowingly, exploit the vulnerability of the females caused by high rates of poverty, unemployment, discriminatory labour practices, gender inequalities and violence against women and children.

[Jarita]

In India trafficking is a bailable offense. That is a huge problem since these people just abscond.

https://traffickingnews.wordpress.com/c ... eme-court/

A senior government official noted that while trafficking rescues and registration of cases have increased,

convictions remain low

. However, conviction rates were low across the penal system.

Some NGOs continued to criticize the categorization of trafficking crimes as bailable offenses, which in some cases resulted in the accused absconding after receiving bail.

Enforcement of trafficking laws, particularly labor trafficking laws such as the BLSA, remained a challenge

.

Corrupt law enforcement officers reportedly continued to facilitate the movement of sex trafficking victims, protect suspected traffickers and brothel keepers from enforcement of the law, and receive bribes from sex trafficking establishments and sexual services from victims.

Some police allegedly continued to tip-off sex and labor traffickers to impede rescue efforts. Some owners of brothels, rice mills, brick kilns, and stone quarries are reportedly politically connected. The Indian government reported no prosecutions or convictions of government officials for trafficking-related offenses during the reporting period;

NGOs said this was due to a lack of sufficient evidence. In September 2011, the police arrested a member of the border security force for trafficking. He was released on bail as of December 2011, but there is no further information on that case. There was no information on the status of an arrest of a former member of parliament or an investigation on an Indian Administrative Services officer – as noted in the 2011 TIP Report – for his involvement in human trafficking.

There were some reports of trafficking victims being penalized for acts committed as a result of being trafficked. Section 8 of the ITPA (solicitation) and Section 294 of the IPC (obscenity in public places) continued to be used to criminalize sex trafficking victims.

Reports indicated that some victims are punished for being undocumented migrants or for document fraud. Foreign trafficking victims were not offered special immigration benefits such as temporary or permanent residency status, although some NGOs reported that foreign victims had the same access to care as domestic victims. Foreign victims are not offered legal alternatives to their removal to countries where they may face hardship or retribution. In most cases, NGOs assisted rescued victims in providing evidence to prosecute suspected traffickers. Many victims declined to testify against their traffickers due to the fear of retribution by traffickers, who were sometimes acquaintances. Some NGOs continued to report the government was increasingly sensitized against not treating victims as perpetrators, and law enforcement activities against victims decreased. There were some reports of police treating victims as perpetrators, not using victim-centric policies, and not improving victim-witness security, which hindered victim testimony and prosecutions.

There were some reports of trafficking victims being penalized for acts committed as a result of being trafficked. Section 8 of the ITPA (solicitation) and Section 294 of the IPC (obscenity in public places) continued to be used to criminalize sex trafficking victims. Reports indicated that some victims are punished for being undocumented migrants or for document fraud. Foreign trafficking victims were not offered special immigration benefits such as temporary or permanent residency status, although some NGOs reported that foreign victims had the same access to care as domestic victims. Foreign victims are not offered legal alternatives to their removal to countries where they may face hardship or retribution. In most cases, NGOs assisted rescued victims in providing evidence to prosecute suspected traffickers. Many victims declined to testify against their traffickers due to the fear of retribution by traffickers, who were sometimes acquaintances. Some NGOs continued to report the government was increasingly sensitized against not treating victims as perpetrators, and law enforcement activities against victims decreased.

There were some reports of police treating victims as perpetrators, not using victim-centric policies, and not improving victim-witness security, which hindered victim testimony and prosecutions

.

[Jarita]

Look at this and wait for this to happen in India. Surrogacy is no different than organ trade. India should outright ban this nonsense where women are surrogates for economic reasons.

Australian couple 'leave disabled baby with Thai surrogate'

http://news.yahoo.com/australian-couple ... 56001.html

[Jarita]

Original human traffickers of the world

http://www.religiousfreedomcoalition.or ... ern-times/

[Jarita]

What do you think is the scale in Indian orphanages

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sout ... e-28939089

Rotherham child abuse scandal: 1,400 children exploited, report finds
Jump media player
Media player help

[ramana]

UP.

Use this to discuss all aspects of Human Trafficking including violence against women and children.

[ramana]

This topic has hit the headlines today. Assam Govt has setup task force on the subject.