Human Trafficking Crisis in India

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 04 Sep 2013 08:45

Thanks
Lilo this is great

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 04 Sep 2013 14:31

^ Jarita ji,

No problem,
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing

This is the Google drive folder link to the feed where the raw data is dumped . Each tweet is stored as a row. Each spread sheet has capacity of 2000 rows. New spread sheets get automatically created after the old ones fill up. The data in the sheets can be useful for attempting serious analysis.

And finally my thanks for doing what you are doing.

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 05 Sep 2013 08:11

Grooming in India

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-co ... invitation

To:
Her Excellency Ms. Mamata Banerjee, Hon. Chief Minister, Government of West Bengal
Shri M. K. Narayanan, His Excellency, Hon. Governor of West Bengal
Sri. Sanjoy Mitra, IAS, Hon. Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal
Mrs. Bandana Bandhopadhyay, IAS, Hon. Home Secretary, Government of West Bengal
Mr. Naparajit Mukherjee, IPS, Hon. Director General of Police, West Bengal
Mr. Kuldiep Singh, IPS, Hon. Additional Director General & Inspector General of Police (O), West Bengal
National Human Rights Commission
Print Media and TV Media, (State, National and International)
National Commission for Scheduled Castes
National Commission for Women
Amnesty International
Dr. Surjya Kanta Mishra, Leader of the Opposition, West Bengal Legislative Assembly
Honourable Madam / Sir,

This is an urgent petition, requesting the Government of West Bengal (Paschim Banga), India to take strong action against the Corrupt Police Officials of Malda district, who are Selling my Teenaged Daughter into Sexual Slavery.

I respectfully urge the Honourable Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee to help release my daughter Payel (kidnapped when she was an underaged minor girl) from the clutches of her criminal kidnappers who have bribed the following local police officials with large sums of money.

1) Superintendent of Police, Malda District – Kalyan Mukhopadhyay
2) Additional Superintendent of Police, Malda District – Shyam Singh
3) Officer-in-Charge of Kaliachak Police Station – Subhabrata Ghosh
4) Investigating Officer of the case - Pradip Sarkar

With anguish and unbearable pain, I am forced to point out that sad reality of Malda today - Not a Single Police Officer, CID Officer, or Court Police of Malda District is honest.

Every police officer in Malda district, from the Superintendent of Police to the Additional SP and down to the Investigating Officer and the Officer-in-Charge of Kaliachak Police Station, has received his “share” of the “bribe money” paid by my daughter’s kidnappers in return for official collusion with these criminals who are bent upon inflicting unbearable pain on my minor-aged daughter.

My precious daughter Payel was kidnapped when she was 17 years old, still a minor girl. My husband Sujay Mandal and I are only one among many such hapless parents of kidnapped girls in the Sujapur Kaliachak area of Malda district. Ultimately, we too could not save my beloved daughter Payel from the clutches of her kidnapper Usman Ghani and his criminal family. Usman Ghani is the son of notorious fanatic criminal Ashraful Sheikh.

As my husband and I were desperately running from pillar-to-post to recover our daughter, the aforementioned police officers of Malda district told us nonchalantly that Payel will return as soon as she will be of 18 years of age (which is the legal age of conversion/marriage). It is very clear that the police is well aware of Payel’s whereabouts and has been bribed by Usman's family.

The greed, apathy and indifference of these unlawful police officials makes us wonder if West Bengal is a part of India (where Indian law is upheld) or a part of East Pakistan (where Shariah is upheld).

This year, Payel was to appear for her Higher Secondary examination. In fact, Payel was afraid of being abducted on the street by Usman and his family who had set their lustful eyes on her. Hence, out of fear, she had stopped going to school for 5 months. She did not even appear for her preparatory test exam of Higher Secondary school out of fear of being kidnapped.

For her own safety, we (her parents) relocated her to her maternal uncle’s house in Maheshtola village of Samsherganj PS in the neighbouring Murshidabad district. All our efforts went in vain. And, Payel was kidnapped from Maheshtola by Usman and his 2 fanatic criminal cohorts on 27 November 2012 evening. I fear that my daughter Payel has been sexually brutalized, violently gang-raped and psychologically traumatised during her ongoing captivity in Usman’s den. Since then, these 9 months of frantic search efforts by us (Payel’s) parents didn’t yield any results. We have now become almost bankrupt by this time as we have been spending all that we had saved (for Payel’s education and marriage) to search for our missing daughter. And, in the meantime, her father (my husband) has lost his job, as he had to search for our abducted daughter full-time.

After the first 5 months of searching in vain, seeing no success in our quest, we tearfully submitted a detailed petition to West Bengal State Women Commission in April 2013. Simultaneously, proceedings in Malda Court proceedings have been started by the legal team of human rights activists (Hindu Samhati) on our behalf. The human right activists led by Sri. Tapan Ghosh have put pressure on the police to act immediately. Due to their active efforts and pressure, Ashraful Sheikh's house was raided by police in April 2013. Before the raid, our daughter Payel was surreptitiously removed from Ashraful's house with the connivance of the aforementioned corrupt police officials. It is clear that the corrupt Malda police leaked the raid information to the criminal kidnappers in advance. However, as an eye-wash, Ashraful had been briefly arrested only to show that some action has been taken. Ashraful had been denied bail by the court, and was granted 3 day police custody for investigation/interrogation. We think it is sheer eye-wash, because the Malda police appealed for police custody only because their superior officers/higher-ups from Kolkata intervened.

The corrupt police kept us waiting and did not return Payel back to us. The police let Payel stay with her kidnappers until she turned 18 (on 12 August 2013). Afterwards, on 20 August 2013, the police finally produced Payel to Malda court. But the corrupt Malda Police did not even inform us (Payel’s parents) about her production in court. The corrupt Malda Police informed us (Payel's parents) only after Section 164 statement before Judicial Magistrate given by Payel was over.

That is why Payel's 164 Statement before Judge is important. Faced with no way out, Payel was forced (under immense duress and psychological pressure) to tell the Judge that she went to Usman, the criminal rapist, according to her own wish. This is a complete farce and travesty of justice, as my teenaged daughter Payel is suffering from post-kidnap trauma disorder (a.k.a. "Stockholm Syndrome").

All sorts of terrorising tactics have been applied by the kidnappers (Usman, Israful & others) on us (Payel’s parents). Over 100 fundamentalist-criminal goons of our locality were present in the court on that day. They were inside the court room whereas I (Payel's mother) was being denied entry inside the courtroom by the corrupt police and goons.

While in court, my hapless daughter Payel tried in vain to tell something to me (her mother.) But Payel was prevented from doing so as Usman's mother grabbed her. When in the court lock up, I (Payel's mother) was finally able to meet my daughter Payel for only 2 minutes. Payel signaled to me that something is dropped on ground. Alas, in my tear-filled anxiety, I could not understand Payel’s indication. Surely, Payel had dropped a piece of paper on the ground. But I (Payel’s mother) was forced to ignore the signal because I was simultaneously compelled to cajole and plead with folded arms with the corrupt police and Usman's mother to be able to talk to my own daughter.

Now Payel has been kept forcibly in Usman's house. Usman is currently in jail. Shortly, Usman will be released on bail, and then will forcibly marry Payel as soon as he is released from jail. Given his criminal background, we are highly apprehensive that Usman may use Payel to satisfy his sexual lust and then discard her by selling her to a cross-border sex-trafficking ring.

Even today, even Usman's other relatives and neighbours are not allowed to enter his house. WHY? Because - Payel is struggling there for freedom. My daughter Payel is suffering this unbearable pain caused by the weakness of the society of West Bengal to prevent such atrocities against its own daughters.

We urge the Honourable Chief Minister to ensure 100% enforcement of the law and save my helpless daughter from being gang-raped, forcibly converted and married off to her fanatic kidnappers before being sold into cross-border prostitution.

The hard reality is - we cannot protect, we cannot save our daughter from the clutches of fanatic criminals. They are first class citizens and we are second class citizens of our own country. Even after parting away with two- thirds of our beloved Bengal, we are second class citizens in this remaining one-thirds. We have no human rights here.

Honourable Madam Chief Minister: We voted for you. We support you. We love you as our leader. Please save us. Please save our precious daughter. Please help us get justice for Payel.

We humbly request you to heed our tearful request.

We sincerely hope that you will help prevent Malda district of West Bengal from turning into East Pakistan, by sacking the aforementioned corrupt officials and urging the local authorities to implement the law by arresting the culprits, returning our daughter Payel to us (her parents) with honour and putting an end to the ongoing criminal-police nexus in Malda district to safeguard our family and other minority Hindu families of Sujapur Kaliachak area.

Thanking You,
Sincerely Yours,

Sincerely,

disha · Post by **disha** » 06 Sep 2013 04:19

Lilo et all,

Thanks a lot for starting this initiative.

How do I subscribe to the twitter feed? I looked at the previous pages, but a little flummoxed.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 06 Sep 2013 10:14

Disha Click on this
End Human Trafficking
https://twitter.com/HumanTrafficIND
If you are logged in then select the follow button.

I just did it.

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 10 Sep 2013 19:05

Anti-trafficking crusader wins global recognition

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-new ... 19920.aspx

She was married off at 12 for fear of getting trafficked and narrowly escaped from getting “sold” by her inlaws.

Nothing could deter this indomitable woman’s fight against human trafficking. Finally, she has won international recognition.

While the West Bengal Women’s Commission has feted her as an anti-trafficking crusader, Monika Sarkar, 32, will now rub shoulders with leaders from various fields at the International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the US next year.

“I’m happy my efforts have got international recognition. I am happier still to see the smiling faces of parents who have got back their daughters,” says Sarkar.

Sarkar, who grew up amid constant fear of trafficking, began her crusade almost a decade ago, joining some NGOs in North 24-Parganas district.

The mother of two started her fight collecting data about missing girls from in and around her village, Sayestanagar. She discovered a startling fact - more than 5,000 minor girls had been missing in the past few years and yet hardly any police complaint was filed.

“Police would refuse to register missing complaints saying the girls have willingly gone out for work. It was difficult, but we continued our fight. As more women joined the fight, police had to relent,” said Sarkar, whose efforts have now brought down trafficking cases.

Her efforts at educating families against traffickers - mostly local youths - soon took the shape of a movement.

With the help of a citybased NGO, she now runs her own Samya Shramajibi Samity.

NGO Prantakatha has guided her efforts to end trafficking in the district.

It has not been an easy path for the woman who now lives with her two daughters and works as an artisan. She left her husband some years ago after he and her in-laws almost sold her off when she failed to bring dowry.

“The lure of a job for their daughters is too tempting an offer for the poverty-stricken population here. Moreover, the traffickers are often powerful and it is very difficult to fight them,” says Sarkar, who has been attacked several times.

While her efforts have forced the administration to act - nabbing traffickers and rescuing the trafficked girls in the district - her battle postrescue is no less challenging. She tries to get the families and society accept the girls, most of them having been pushed into the flesh trade.

Counselling the families and the rescued girls are an integral part of her campaign. Social pressure is a big obstacle.

“While some rescued girls are living a new life, have got married and have families, others had no option but to return to the flesh trade as their families refused to accept a girl who was a sex worker,” said Sarkar.

Some girls have voluntarily returned to the sex trade preferring a more “affluent life” to the daily struggle for meals. Sarkar has not forgotten the importance of education.

Having dropped out of school after her forced marriage, she later resumed her studies. She is currently pursuing her graduation.

Garooda · Post by **Garooda** » 10 Sep 2013 19:36

Jarita wrote:
panduranghari wrote:Human Organ trafficking is a curious issue.

How can a doctor do this to another human? The problem is not restricted to Nepalis trafficked into India, for organs, mainly to Chennai and Bangalore BUT is widespread all over the globe.

Indian doctors are very highly skilled but in the drive to earn money, the service to fellow human is taking a serious backseat.

Having a organ donation register or something similar will ensure organs will be donated to those who need, rather than relying on this illicit trade.

Actually an organ donation register can also create problems. If I am not mistaken in Sri Lanka cornea donation after death is mandatory leading to an over supply which is the real solution to the problem.

Perhaps for every Indian citizen it must be obligatory to donate atleast 2/3 organs of choice upon death. This will create an oversupply situation and do away with the heinous crimes done to steal organs.

Or promote positive stem cell research for organ harvesting based on the DNA which will drive the demand down (mostly from western countries)

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 11 Sep 2013 11:13

Garooda wrote:
Or promote positive stem cell research for organ harvesting based on the DNA which will drive the demand down (mostly from western countries)

Garooda ji,

Any precursors to such policy anywhere in the globe. If not, how complicated can it be? The ethical issues regarding collecting DNA samples is very controversial. Have you any clues how this could evolve?

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 12 Sep 2013 03:26

jarita, Do we have enough datat to create a mind map of the nodes that influence/control human trafficking in India?

I think this is a key activity which if shut down will bring many criminals down.

Anand K · Post by **Anand K** » 12 Sep 2013 14:13

Siddharth Kara's book identifies certain areas of India where bonded labor and caste repression is still rampant. There is a place in Bihar which supplied IIRC 12000 women per year. Mischa Glenny's McMafia has some good details on the Balkan/E. European human trafficking also.

Apparently there are certain regions in the world where there is an existing "infrastructure" and "tradition" of human trafficking- Sindhupalchok in Nepal, certain districts in Bihar, Indramayu in Indonesia, Chiapas in Mexico etc. Some have a history going back a couple of centuries! The East European and Balkan women have been trafficked (or entered the meat-grinder voluntarily) to all corners of the world (including a budding 19th century Bombay, as per Kara) since antiquity. Apparently kidnapping the women of enemies, raping them and trafficking them is not a new thing for the mardsof those regions. It has more to do with politics, economics and social relations than the "qualities" of the women traded. However, due to their attractive features, the Helambu women of Sindhupalchok were preyed upon by Nepalese royalty since the early 19th century. The tradition has continued down the years, except that the consumers this time range from the hoi polloi of India to Qatari Sheikhs.

BTW, one thing to note that a majority of the women trafficked from India are Nepalis.... India is a transit hub for this sort of Do Numbri too.

The numbers are astounding - one can understand the angst of the Nepalese sometimes....

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 13 Sep 2013 08:07

the area around the black sea and balkans was a favourite hunting ground of slave traders wanting fresh bodies to supply the markets in N.africa, judaea, istanbul, damascus, baghdad and the arab peninsula.
apparently fair skin, blond hair etc were a fetish with the islamic world even back then.

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 13 Sep 2013 09:25

ramana wrote:jarita, Do we have enough datat to create a mind map of the nodes that influence/control human trafficking in India?

I think this is a key activity which if shut down will bring many criminals down.

You mean areas of dense traffic. Lilo had put something together on incidents

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 13 Sep 2013 09:27

Anand K wrote:Siddharth Kara's book identifies certain areas of India where bonded labor and caste repression is still rampant. There is a place in Bihar which supplied IIRC 12000 women per year. Mischa Glenny's McMafia has some good details on the Balkan/E. European human trafficking also.

Apparently there are certain regions in the world where there is an existing "infrastructure" and "tradition" of human trafficking- Sindhupalchok in Nepal, certain districts in Bihar, Indramayu in Indonesia, Chiapas in Mexico etc. Some have a history going back a couple of centuries! The East European and Balkan women have been trafficked (or entered the meat-grinder voluntarily) to all corners of the world (including a budding 19th century Bombay, as per Kara) since antiquity. Apparently kidnapping the women of enemies, raping them and trafficking them is not a new thing for the mardsof those regions. It has more to do with politics, economics and social relations than the "qualities" of the women traded. However, due to their attractive features, the Helambu women of Sindhupalchok were preyed upon by Nepalese royalty since the early 19th century. The tradition has continued down the years, except that the consumers this time range from the hoi polloi of India to Qatari Sheikhs.

BTW, one thing to note that a majority of the women trafficked from India are Nepalis.... India is a transit hub for this sort of Do Numbri too.
The numbers are astounding - one can understand the angst of the Nepalese sometimes....

Much of the trafficking is done by Nepali gangs. Gang members could be uncles and cousins who traffic their female relatives on the pretext of jobs. It's a mess

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 13 Sep 2013 09:33

“The red light district in Bombay generates at least $400 million per annum in revenue, with 100000 prostitutes serving 365 days a year, at the average rate of 6 customers per day at $2 each.” - 1996

http://acontrarioicl.com/2012/11/02/hum ... -in-india/

When Robert Friedman, wrote this in 1996, he must not have though that the industry was there to survive and flourish with even more vigour, crime and torture and become the largest in Asia. For ages, the commercial sex trade has been the chief destination for trafficked girls in India.[ii]Sex tourism involving underage girls still remains a highly profitable business, a billion-a-year industry in 2009, with a 30 percent increase from previous years.

India is listed in the Tier II list of the United Nations which includes countries which have failed to combat human trafficking. India continues to be a source, destination and transit country for forced labor and sex trafficking. According to a report by the Ministry for Women and Child Development, India has nearly 2.5 million prostitutes in nearly 300,000 brothels in 1,100 red-light areas across the country. 90% or more estimated as in-country and 5 to 10% to cross-border trafficking, reported mainly from Bangladesh and Nepal. The routes of trafficking do not exclude Europe and specifically to UK and United States.[iii] Around 1.2 million children are involved in prostitution in India.

The trafficking of girls from Nepal into India for forced prostitution is perhaps one of the busiest slave sex trafficking routes anywhere in the world; with estimated 5,000-10,000 Nepali women and girls trafficked to India each year.[iv] An estimated 100,000-200,000 Nepali trafficked persons are in India. [v] In addition to being a destination, India is also a transit country for Nepalese and Bangladeshi women trafficked to Pakistan, Western Asia, and the Middle East and for women trafficked from the Russian Federation to Thailand. [vi] Asia –Pacific therefore, has seen ‘feminization of migration’-with more population movement being that of women. The feminization of migration gives rise to specific problematic forms of migration, such as the commercialized migration of women and girls as domestic workers and caregivers, often resulting in the trafficking of women for labor and sexual exploitation.[vii]

Much of the attention on human trafficking focuses on those who are trafficked across national borders every year, and, in many cases, forced to work as prostitutes or virtual slaves. But those numbers don’t include victims trafficked within India — a country so large and diverse that victims taken hundreds of miles away where a different language is spoken have little chance of finding their way home. There are increasing reports of females from northeastern states and Odisha subjected to servile marriages in states with low female-to-male child sex ratios, including Haryana and Punjab. Maoist armed groups known as the Naxalites forcibly recruited children into their ranks. Establishments of sex trafficking are moving from more traditional locations – such as brothels – to locations that are harder to find, and are also shifting from urban areas to rural areas, where there is less detection.[viii] Not to hide, the rise of HIV/AIDS patients and vulnerable groups. Anyone who has watched ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ the Oscar-winning movie would have seen tiny speck of this dark side of India.

This remains, despite the fact that India has a fairly wide framework of laws enacted by the Parliament as well as some State legislatures, apart from the Constitutional provisions.[ix]Poor implementation along with low conviction rates, and serious corruption adds to the problem. But all is not lost, efforts from social activists, educated citizenry and international support towards combating this modern slavery, has started showing some impact.

(A Birds eye view of the problem and efforts can be seen in the video created by the UNODC Regional Office for South Asia at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yJWvphsa3A)

Robert I. Friedman, “India’s Shame: Sexual Slavery and Political Corruption leading to an AIDS catastrophe, The Nation, 8th April 1996

[ii] P. M. Nair, Sankar Sen, Trafficking In Women And Children In India( Orient Blackswan) 2005

[iii] India, Trafficking in Persons Report 2008. U.S. Department of State (June 4, 2008)

[iv] Koirala A, Banskota HK, Khadka BR: Cross border interception – A strategy of prevention of trafficking women from Nepal. Int Conf AIDS :15. 2004, Jul 11–16

[v] Mukherji KK, Muherjee S. (2007): Girls and women in prostitution in India Department of Women and Child Development, New Delhi, India

[vi] Joffres, C., Mills, E., Joffres, M., Khanna, T., Walia, H., & Grund, D. (2008). Sexual slavery without borders: trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation in India. International Journal for Equity in Health, 7, Pg.1–11.

[vii] The Female Face of Migration, Background Paper available at http://www.caritas.org/includes/pdf/bac ... ration.pdf

[viii] Trafficking in Persons Report 2012, at http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2012/index.htm

[ix] Article 23 – Article 39 of the Constitution of India The inherent provisions of these articles has been incorporated under suppression immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act of 1956(SITA) and Traffic in persons (prevention)Act 1986(PITA)an amendment to (SITA). There are 25 provisions relevant to fight trafficking Indian Penal Code, 1860!
Share this:

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 13 Sep 2013 09:39

[quote][/quote]http://web.archive.org/web/200710141958 ... SA&Topic=0

The pilgrim town of Puri is a haven for child prostitution and rampant paedophilia. A recent study conducted by the Institute of Socio Economic Development with support from United Nations Development Fund for Women says that Puri is the heart of child trafficking and accounts for over 43 percent of the cases.

But the State Administration and Police make no attempt to move because the holy town also happens to be a tourist hotspot.

But the real cause of concern lies elsewhere. Domestic abuse continues unabated and even in the face of newer and stringent legislation. Having children as domestic helps is a common practice and they are the major victims of abuse.

Sadly, only a meagre number comes to the fore.

The sensational incident of child torture by royals of Khariar in 2004 had amply revealed the magnitude of the problem. The Crime Branch of Orissa Police arrested the former royal BP Singh Deo and his wife Pushpalata Singh Deo who allegedly branded their 8-year-old domestic help.

Last year, weeks after the amended Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act came into force during October, an NGO activist was arrested on similar charges.

The new and stringent legislation has not been able to rein in the menace. Children are not only afraid of reporting the abuse in fear of retribution, loss of livelihood also deters them to disclose.

The State Government virtually has no idea about the gravity of the situation. According to official statistics, the total number of child labourers in Orissa stand a little above 3.77 lakh, a figure which is labelled as highly deflated by the organisations working in the sector.

The NCRB record also points at a lowly 28 cases of rape and another 16 kidnappings of children in the State. The reality is something else.

Post 1999 super cyclone, the number of cases has gone up alarmingly because the economic deprivation has allowed them to be further exploited in the coastal pockets of Orissa.

A study by Utkal University found that nearly 90 percent of female domestic helps started work even before attaining 12 years. Most of them were unaware of their maturing sexuality and increasingly became targets of sexual abuse.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 16 Sep 2013 21:29

Jarita wrote:
Prem Kumar wrote:
quote="Singha"
'Some girls have been married 60 times by the time they turn 18
/quote

Must be voted "best whore-house accounting system ever". What do they use - SAP or Oracle?

You missed a crucial point in that article

Child sex tourism is difficult to track, but the United Nations estimates that it affects two million children every year, often in countries that are poor but have preexisting tourism infrastructure, such as Thailand, India, Costa Rica and others
.

What are the areas driving this in India? Perhaps not a topic for this thread but another thread

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 17 Sep 2013 01:34

^^^ That is a topic for this thread
Beyond the brothels where minor girls at 8-10 years are exploited..
Not surprisingly it is tourist hubs with Goa as a leading haven and the pilgrim towns as close seconds.
The second driver is the middle east demand and bacchabazi practised by certain segments of Indian society

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 27 Sep 2013 15:12

Hopefully with time as organs will be grown in labs, the organ trafficking will stop.

http://www.wakehealth.edu/Research/WFIR ... he-Lab.htm

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 29 Sep 2013 08:01

I ran into an activist couple in US on the same subject:

http://www.endhumantraffickingnow.com/

They were saying in US its $9B industry and about 100k kids under 13 being lured into the trade.

Its verily the foundation stone of criminal enterprises.

http://www.endhumantraffickingnow.com/posters

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 01 Oct 2013 02:39

The joint family system is one potential way to stemming Human Trafficking in India. This may sound off-tangent but it really is not. The key drivers of human trafficking
- Voluntary - where parents and family members sell off - driven by grotesque poverty; Joint family does increase wealth and preserve social capital; plus it provides an added layer of supervision and security for the women and children
- Involuntary - streets, kidnapping etc; Again an extended family may be able to prevent this

Of course there are huge exceptions but it is my belief that the breakdown in the joint family system has significantly increased child trafficking and abuse in all forms.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 16 Oct 2013 02:30

From the Strat forum. Original post by Jhujar...

India’s NGO racket of human trafficking
Rajiv Malhotra

http://www.niticentral.com/2013/10/15/m ... 46233.html

Dramatic scandals routinely fill India’s media headlines about some poor victim from a remote area being exploited by upper strata Delhi elites. Yet there is no investigative journalism to uncover the inconvenient facts about certain NGOs that operate what amounts to a human trafficking industry. One reason for this conspiracy of silence is that the traffickers are linked with some politically connected NGOs that make noises in the metros ostensibly on behalf of the victims. In reality the noise made serves to cover up the sinister role of NGOs in this industry that brings Christianity to the remote villages in exchange for maids to Delhi.The elaborate scheme works as follows. Christian missionaries in adivasi (indigenous, “tribal”) areas offer poor families an inducement that is hard to resist: If the family converts to Christianity, one of its young daughters will be sent as a domestic servant to Delhi or another metro.The affiliated “agencies” in the metros collect placement fees up to Rs 50,000 per maid from the household that hires them. In between the point of “recruitment” and the point of placement there are intermediaries that “sell”, transfer and move the young, vulnerable person through the supply chain. Money is exchanged at each stage.
The agencies keep relocating the same girl from one employer to another every few months in order to collect their placement fee repeatedly. This disruption adds to the trauma of the young girl. The agency becomes, by default, her only hope of security, and in the process she becomes even more vulnerable to the agency’s exploitation. Delhi alone is estimated to have several thousands of such girls being brought every year.The cultural gap between India’s adivasis and its metro elites is larger in many ways than the gap between people living in Delhi and New York. The victim often gets duped into thinking that she is headed for the good life of an Indian metro, and her parents are often hand in glove in selling her into such a scheme. The money given to the parents is a “down payment” to convert them, their daughter’s placement as maid being part of the transaction. Many churches also provide safe transfer of the girl’s monthly salary back to her parents, with a certain “donation” charged by the church for its services. All this is a package deal for “being saved”.

This end-to-end system functions like the old slave trade from Africa to America and other continents — in which the church had also played a major role. Today’s racket hides behind the mask of helping the downtrodden by finding them employment in a faraway place. By no means do I wish to imply that all abuses of maids from villages are the result of this system, but that fact that such a system exists outside the bounds of investigative scrutiny is noteworthy.In the most recent episode of this tragedy, a woman executive working for a French multinational in Delhi has been arrested on charges of committing atrocities against a girl from the Santhal tribe of Jharkhand state. The maid comes from Sahibgunj, one of India’s poorest districts. The media is having a field day sensationalising this as child labour, even after the police confirmed that documents in her village show her to be over the age of 18. The girl had worked for this executive for only 3 months, prior to which she had worked in numerous other households in Delhi since age 15. So the child labour stage of her exploitation was done under several previous employers. But there is no investigation of the previous employers. Why?The reason for authorities not pursuing the earlier employers is that the girl is a Christian convert from a very poor family; and uncovering the entire chain of events and parties involved would expose the nexus of the Jharkhand church, the political parties that use these poor folks as their vote bank, and various NGOs involved in so-called “human rights” programs. The placement agency in Delhi is run by a Christian woman with likely links to the Jharkhand Church. The media sensationalises the matter as an isolated, localised episode when in fact it deserves to be investigated as a system of mafia-like underground network.

Brinda Karat, the rabid voice of the Communist Party of India, swung into rapid action targeting the maid’s employer, but not wanting a broader inquiry into the supply network that originates in the remote villages where her party seeks support from the church and NGOs.Many other political leaders also saw opportunity in this scandal to show support for dalit communities whose votes can swing elections. These remote villages are also infested with Maoists seeking to topple the Indian state. The political stakes are high and NGOs compete to prove their worth by claiming to champion the plight of the poor. The same NGOs also raise funds under various “noble” pretexts.The media ought to act more responsibly than selling us Bollywood-style action drama. To expose the large criminal networks and attack the roots of the problem, they should emphasize some systemic changes. First and foremost, it should be declared illegal to offer employment or other material inducements for religious conversion of poor and vulnerable persons. In particular, the church, parents and agencies that are involved in peddling the labor of a person under age 18 should be prosecuted. This is the nexus where the focus of prosecution should be targeted when incidents of abuse are discovered.I have anticipated such NGO-backed crimes within India since the 1990s when I first became aware of foreign nexuses intervening in India’s so-called tribal areas. It was a Harvard Roundtable Conference on Indology sponsored by Infinity foundation where I found that Western scholars had become very interested in Indian communities belonging to the “Munda” family of languages. The thesis formulated was that the Munda people were the only indigenous peoples of India. They were first invaded by the “foreign Dravidians” coming from the Middle East, and later on both the Munda and the Dravidians got invaded by the “foreign Aryans”. Thus, Indians were classified into layers with the intention of empowering one group against the others. In my earlier book, Breaking India, I mention some important US based interventions through this type of anthropology and linguistics work.

The Santhal community where the maid in the latest scandal comes from is one of the largest communities in what is called India’s “tribal belt”. Most anthropological studies on them were done by Christian missionaries since British times. The colonial-evangelical lens used was the same as for other non-Christian peoples that were encountered outside Europe, and many of its prejudices have become accepted by modern Indians. The “tribals” are considered “pagans” because they believe in “animism”, meaning that they consider all of nature as inhabited with divine spirit. (Ironically, the latest trend among Western thinkers is to appropriate these very ideas into Judeo-Christianity, using fancy new terms like “panentheism” and “immanence” after studying Hindu philosophy on which such ideas are based.) These villages have been a hotbed for missionary activities for the past few centuries, and this intensified in 1914 when the first complete translation of the Bible into the Santali language was finished by a Norwegian missionary.Clearly, the battle for fragmenting Indians has entered a new phase. “Tribal” Indians will be increasingly exploited in various ways in the guise of bringing them human rights. The media’s framing of such episodes as “secular” crimes of an isolated kind is a shallow and inadequate treatment of what is much deeper and multilayered. This issue has far reaching implications.

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 16 Oct 2013 19:18

Code: Select all

http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6777:human-trafficking-will-not-end-until-it-ends-in-india&catid=61&Itemid=56

Another Breaking India stuff under the guise of preventing trafficking.
Brent Martz

For generations, 300 million Dalits—the poorest of the poor in India—have been taught that they are worthless.

Less than human.

Excluded from society, they have limited access to education or justice.

They are used, cheated, and abused freely by others.

They are given no protection by law enforcement; no access to the courts; no political voice; no hope of upward mobility.

With no resources and no hope, many Dalit women and children succumb to India's thriving human-trafficking industry.

But with 27 million modern-day slaves around the world, 100,000 of which are child prostitutes in the United States, why do the Dalits matter?

The Dalits matter because human trafficking will not come to an end around the world, until it comes to an end in India.

Didn't the End It Movement already raise enough awareness of human trafficking to make a mark for 2013? Do we really need another organization shouting their anti-trafficking cause from the rooftops?

Yes, we do. And here's why:

- Buying and selling human beings is larger now than any other time in history, and it includes a global industry built on forcing children into sex.

- India is the epicenter of human trafficking—including 100 million people, with 1.2 million child prostitutes. It tops the list of countries when it comes to transit, destination and source of human trafficking victims. According to the United Nations, the most dangerous place in the world to a girl or woman is India.

- Two hundred thousand Indian children a year are sold into slavery, many by their parents for a mere $17 dollars.

- Dalits are uneducated and illiterate, and have been taught for hundreds of years that they are worthless. They have no idea the caste system, in which they are the bottom of the proverbial food chain, has been outlawed. They have no idea they have rights. They have no idea they are human.

The Indian government prefers it this way. Elected officials and local police are members of the "outlawed" upper caste, so why would they want to protect the Dalits and eliminate India's slave labor force? They don't.

Awareness is huge, and great progress has been made on that front. But in addition to shouting, we need people doing.

But what can be done to end such a massive problem? What can be done to reverse the endless generations living life as Dalits with no self worth?

Education.

And by education, I don't mean scholarships. I mean holistic education: the purchase of land, construction of a permanent facility and the employment of permanent teachers.

Dalits need schools where they can learn. Where they can exercise the brain they don't know they have. Where they can discover self worth. Where their hunger to be known, to learn, to grow and to live can be fed.

Dalits need teachers who believe in them. Teachers who show them love, patience, kindness, and tenderness they've never experienced. Teachers who make sure their students feel valued and worthy of life.

Dalits need community. A community budding with hope and pride, stemming from the newfound self worth children are discovering each day in school. A village transformed into a community by sports, arts and community events held at school.

The Dalits desperately need another organization committed to the prevention of human trafficking through education.

Enter the Not Today Coalition.

Born out of more than 10 years of work by the members Friends Church in Yorba Linda, Calif., Not Today Coalition is working to prevent the exploitation of the Dalits of India by transforming lives through education and restoration for Dalit families and villages.

Hundreds of Friends Church members have travelled to India to see and experience the work first hand, built 40 schools, funded many adult vocational training centers, and sponsored 1,500 children.

But now it's time to grow. Now it's time to show the Dalits they're not forgotten. Now it's time for you to act.

By educating the Dalits, we can help bring an end to human trafficking in India. By bringing an end to human trafficking in the number one source and destination for human trafficking victims in the world, we can end trafficking across the globe.

It is our goal to fund 1,000 schools, affecting 25,000 Dalit communities, impacting 500,000 Dalit children per year.

And we can't do it without you.

Brent Martz is the producer of "Not Today – The Movie." For more information about the Not Today Coalition, visit NotTodayCoalition.org

[Courtesy: Fox News, July 22, 2013]

vishvak · Post by **vishvak** » 16 Oct 2013 19:40

The Dalits matter because human trafficking will not come to an end around the world, until it comes to an end in India.

what is this other than insane statements to justify not focusing on crimes in USA.

The state of natives in US itself is bloody saga of genocide and denial of justice by very same people preaching others.
87% of rapes within native reservation regions committed by outsiders out of 13% reported, natives have no rights to prosecute
this in 2013. In war torn countries 12% of women report of rape while in USA- most industrialozes and the most powerful country- it is 33% that too within reserves for natives.

When you make that first phone call and there is one officer for the entire tribal community and he can't respond or take evidence, and then a woman experiences racism at the hospital
..
rape and abuse have always stemmed from outsiders. It is well documented through oral tradition that prior to the European invasion, sexual and domestic violence was not accepted and virtually did not exist in indigenous society.
..
provisions that would finally allow tribal courts to prosecute non-Native people in domestic violence cases – although the House decided to write their own bill that excluded these provisions.
..
For too many Native women, rape is not a question of "if", it's simply a matter of "when"

Shows state of human rights in USA wrt natives. These people preaching others doesn't make sense when there are shortages of officers for well paying law enforcement jobs and crimes ongoing in USA against natives.

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 16 Oct 2013 19:45

^^ Another factor is development on Indian reservations. Only those whose ancestors were native Americans can undertake development on native land. However, there have been attempts to prove relation to native Americans by many just to exploit this loop hole. Just like Ombaba tries to become O'Bama when he went to Ireland.

vishvak · Post by **vishvak** » 16 Oct 2013 20:36

As far as USA is concerned, it is colonial times in Indian reserves under whatever excuses. People can't be prosecuted and it is an open secret. link
There is no looking back once right of natives to prosecution is taken away and modifications and improvements are not done under same excuse- can't go against law passed! Notice how increase in crime, including human trafficking, is reported with increase in industrial activities.

TSJones · Post by **TSJones** » 16 Oct 2013 23:12

Do the Dalits have their own reservations and police force?

vishvak · Post by **vishvak** » 16 Oct 2013 23:25

India has universal voting rights from day 1. It is not a colonial enterprise after independence selectively for any Indians post end of barbaric colonial times.

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 17 Oct 2013 02:51

TSJones wrote:Do the Dalits have their own reservations and police force?

The assorted anti nationals tried and implemented the mandal commission recommendations to create reservations not in lands but in academia and employment.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 18 Oct 2013 00:55

Modern Slavery widespread in India

Looks like BRF was ahead of the curve for looking into the subject even before it became a big topic.

Indira Gandhi made a big show of how she abolished bonded labor etc etc.
Looks like it was all humbug...

...
Many of India’s enslaved have not been moved from one place to another – they are enslaved in their own villages. Earlier this year, the Trafficking in Persons(TIP) report released by the US State department had put the number of people in some sort of forced labour at an estimated 20 to 65 million : men, women, and children mainly in debt bondage to a local landowner, forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories.The TIP report cites instances where women and girls from the northeastern states and Odisha have been sold or coerced into forced marriages in states with low female-to-male gender ratios, including Haryana and Punjab and forced into prostitution.

The National Human Rights Commission, in a report last year, highlighted other cases. For Example, in Meghalaya, extraction of coal in private coal mines in the Jaintia Hills region is exclusively undertaken by bonded manual labourers who have come to work in the mines from neighbouring states to beat acute poverty.

Some of the reasons for high numbers caught in slavery in India are the difficulty in accessing protections and government entitlements, such as the food rations card, corruption or non-performance of safety nets (such as the National Employment Guarantee, primary health care and pensions) and practices of land grabbing and asset domination by high caste groups. Some of those affected by slavery in India do not officially exist – they have no birth registration or ID so it can be hard for them to access protective entitlements.

And MMSji contributed to the mess by derailing the economic growth story in his quest for igNobel prize.
He let the INC loot and scoot with abandon while he was pursuing peace measures.

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 20 Oct 2013 21:31

http://www.niticentral.com/2013/10/15/m ... 46233.html

India’s NGO racket of human trafficking

By Rajiv Malhotra on October 15, 2013

inShare3
26 Print
email

Tags: Jharkhand, Church, Human Trafficking, NGOs, missionary activity

India's NGO racket of human trafficking

Dramatic scandals routinely fill India’s media headlines about some poor victim from a remote area being exploited by upper strata Delhi elites. Yet there is no investigative journalism to uncover the inconvenient facts about certain NGOs that operate what amounts to a human trafficking industry. One reason for this conspiracy of silence is that the traffickers are linked with some politically connected NGOs that make noises in the metros ostensibly on behalf of the victims. In reality the noise made serves to cover up the sinister role of NGOs in this industry that brings Christianity to the remote villages in exchange for maids to Delhi.

The elaborate scheme works as follows. Christian missionaries in adivasi (indigenous, “tribal”) areas offer poor families an inducement that is hard to resist: If the family converts to Christianity, one of its young daughters will be sent as a domestic servant to Delhi or another metro.

The affiliated “agencies” in the metros collect placement fees up to Rs 50,000 per maid from the household that hires them. In between the point of “recruitment” and the point of placement there are intermediaries that “sell”, transfer and move the young, vulnerable person through the supply chain. Money is exchanged at each stage.

The agencies keep relocating the same girl from one employer to another every few months in order to collect their placement fee repeatedly. This disruption adds to the trauma of the young girl. The agency becomes, by default, her only hope of security, and in the process she becomes even more vulnerable to the agency’s exploitation. Delhi alone is estimated to have several thousands of such girls being brought every year.

The cultural gap between India’s adivasis and its metro elites is larger in many ways than the gap between people living in Delhi and New York. The victim often gets duped into thinking that she is headed for the good life of an Indian metro, and her parents are often hand in glove in selling her into such a scheme. The money given to the parents is a “down payment” to convert them, their daughter’s placement as maid being part of the transaction. Many churches also provide safe transfer of the girl’s monthly salary back to her parents, with a certain “donation” charged by the church for its services. All this is a package deal for “being saved”.

This end-to-end system functions like the old slave trade from Africa to America and other continents — in which the church had also played a major role. Today’s racket hides behind the mask of helping the downtrodden by finding them employment in a faraway place. By no means do I wish to imply that all abuses of maids from villages are the result of this system, but that fact that such a system exists outside the bounds of investigative scrutiny is noteworthy.

In the most recent episode of this tragedy, a woman executive working for a French multinational in Delhi has been arrested on charges of committing atrocities against a girl from the Santhal tribe of Jharkhand state. The maid comes from Sahibgunj, one of India’s poorest districts. The media is having a field day sensationalising this as child labour, even after the police confirmed that documents in her village show her to be over the age of 18. The girl had worked for this executive for only 3 months, prior to which she had worked in numerous other households in Delhi since age 15. So the child labour stage of her exploitation was done under several previous employers. But there is no investigation of the previous employers. Why?

The reason for authorities not pursuing the earlier employers is that the girl is a Christian convert from a very poor family; and uncovering the entire chain of events and parties involved would expose the nexus of the Jharkhand church, the political parties that use these poor folks as their vote bank, and various NGOs involved in so-called “human rights” programs. The placement agency in Delhi is run by a Christian woman with likely links to the Jharkhand Church. The media sensationalises the matter as an isolated, localised episode when in fact it deserves to be investigated as a system of mafia-like underground network.

Brinda Karat, the rabid voice of the Communist Party of India, swung into rapid action targeting the maid’s employer, but not wanting a broader inquiry into the supply network that originates in the remote villages where her party seeks support from the church and NGOs.

Many other political leaders also saw opportunity in this scandal to show support for dalit communities whose votes can swing elections. These remote villages are also infested with Maoists seeking to topple the Indian state. The political stakes are high and NGOs compete to prove their worth by claiming to champion the plight of the poor. The same NGOs also raise funds under various “noble” pretexts.

The media ought to act more responsibly than selling us Bollywood-style action drama. To expose the large criminal networks and attack the roots of the problem, they should emphasize some systemic changes. First and foremost, it should be declared illegal to offer employment or other material inducements for religious conversion of poor and vulnerable persons. In particular, the church, parents and agencies that are involved in peddling the labor of a person under age 18 should be prosecuted. This is the nexus where the focus of prosecution should be targeted when incidents of abuse are discovered.

At the same time, one should recognise the legitimate need for domestic servants in Indian metros. To serve this demand, agencies should have to be certified periodically that they are in compliance with all laws. This must include transparency of disclosure of the full details concerning every employee and employer served. There must be a mechanism by which the legal age of a potential maid can be formally ascertained and the agency must bear this burden prior to offering her as a candidate. All commissions and salary payments must be legalised.

The media must start educating the metro employers about the laws concerning minimum wages and others aspects. Right now most Delhi households lack such awareness, as the media has focused on sensationalism without its shouldering social responsibility or due diligence.

There are also many instances of exploitation in the reverse direction that should be noted: Elderly persons in Delhi are too often being criminally attacked by their domestic servants who threaten legal action with the help of NGOs, and thereby prevent the crime from being reported. I know of cases where a youth gang has repeatedly burglarised the house of an elderly woman living alone. The police have been reluctant to file charges because of the threat by NGOs that these youth criminals are protected as “minors”. This means tougher juvenile crime laws need to be enacted and enforced.

I have anticipated such NGO-backed crimes within India since the 1990s when I first became aware of foreign nexuses intervening in India’s so-called tribal areas. It was a Harvard Roundtable Conference on Indology sponsored by Infinity foundation where I found that Western scholars had become very interested in Indian communities belonging to the “Munda” family of languages. The thesis formulated was that the Munda people were the only indigenous peoples of India. They were first invaded by the “foreign Dravidians” coming from the Middle East, and later on both the Munda and the Dravidians got invaded by the “foreign Aryans”. Thus, Indians were classified into layers with the intention of empowering one group against the others. In my earlier book, Breaking India, I mention some important US based interventions through this type of anthropology and linguistics work.

The Santhal community where the maid in the latest scandal comes from is one of the largest communities in what is called India’s “tribal belt”. Most anthropological studies on them were done by Christian missionaries since British times. The colonial-evangelical lens used was the same as for other non-Christian peoples that were encountered outside Europe, and many of its prejudices have become accepted by modern Indians. The “tribals” are considered “pagans” because they believe in “animism”, meaning that they consider all of nature as inhabited with divine spirit. (Ironically, the latest trend among Western thinkers is to appropriate these very ideas into Judeo-Christianity, using fancy new terms like “panentheism” and “immanence” after studying Hindu philosophy on which such ideas are based.) These villages have been a hotbed for missionary activities for the past few centuries, and this intensified in 1914 when the first complete translation of the Bible into the Santali language was finished by a Norwegian missionary.

Clearly, the battle for fragmenting Indians has entered a new phase. “Tribal” Indians will be increasingly exploited in various ways in the guise of bringing them human rights. The media’s framing of such episodes as “secular” crimes of an isolated kind is a shallow and inadequate treatment of what is much deeper and multilayered. This issue has far reaching implications.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 18 Nov 2013 21:41

X-post....

Pratyush wrote:
prahaar wrote: Bji, not doubting your claims, but would you be able to elaborate a little bit on how extensive and deep is the problem of flesh-trade. Most BRFites (numerically) would not have seen or known up-close details about this aspect of life in our society. Is this a huge number and actively encouraged by some powers in India? I was under the impression that such activities are very much under control due to the high sensitivity of police to these activities. What part of our society is the biggest victim of this? The calls for legalizing prostitution seems to suggest that a majority of the participants in this profession do it voluntarily. I was under the impression that such things in mass scale have stopped or become rare - due to the non-presence of news on this.
OT for this thread,

Human trafficking in India is a huge problem. Effecting both men and women. Ever year, thousands of women & are sold into Prostitution & Slavery. Mostly from the economically weaker parts of the country. Along with import's from Nepal & BD.

The annual report of the Woman & Child welfare dept GOI will give you an accurate picture.

Annual Report WCD 2013 Warning, that it is a 56 MB file.

The magnitude of the problem is such that a Chaiwala I know, on an intimate basis, went into depression because of the utter helplessness of the situation, he faced.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 04 Dec 2013 22:40

X-post....

brihaspati wrote:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... ttarget=no

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There has been a rapid increase in the number of boys engaging in sex work in Malappuram district in Kerala, a study has found.

KP Jayaraj, a PhD student at Jamia Millia Islamia in the national capital made the revelation during a seminar here Wednesday.

The report of the research project found that even though some boys only earn Rs 10- Rs 20 for each sexual encounter, there were others who earned about Rs 800 a day.

"These are boys who belong to the age group of 16 to 18 and come from well-to-do families; they are used mostly by those in the age group 20 to 30 years," Jayaraj, himself a native of Malappuram district, said. He added that he had been noticing the sexual activity of the boys since the time he was a student there.

The seminar was held under the title "sexual violence against children", and organised by the National Alliance of Grassroots NGOs (NAGN), Shreyas Social Service Centre and Butterflies.

Jayaraj also pointed out that a pimp in his early 40s has been pushing more and more children into the trade in the past two decades. More than 2,000 children are estimated to be involved in the trade in the district at present.

State labour minister Shibu Baby John, who inaugurated the seminar, admitted to the sorry state of affairs and rued that children were falling to prey in the state's northern districts.
I know this is a women's issues thread - so if mods feel these "abuses" do not fit, remove to an appropriate thread. [Boys/men are not abused/raped - even if they do, it must be attention seeking/victimhood and an attempt to draw attention away from casteist patriarchal mass rape perpetrated primarily on minority and dalit women onlee].

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 11 Dec 2013 01:21

Goa, kerala and other tourist destinations seeing the same. I have seen seedy foreigners hover around Rishikesh's gurukuls. They did not look like do gooders

[quote][/quote]Phenomena in the caribbean which is likely in India's tourist hotspots too

http://www.nycaribnews.com/news.php?viewStory=2150
Caribbean Children in Peril: U.S. State Department blames child sex tourism
Posted: Thursday, July 5, 2012 4:13 pm
Print

By: Tony Best

It’s a nightmare that’s being fueled by a mix of poverty; the rampaging desires of North American and European tourists for sex with Caribbean boys and girls; the connivance of parents; and the masterminds behind human trafficking across the English, French, Dutch and Spanish-speaking countries in the region.

In almost every case, from the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, and Haiti to the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname, the picture sketched by the U.S. State Department in its human trafficking report is on of children under the age of 18 years being thrust into prostitution.

Belize offers a depressing look into the perils faced by children.

“A common form of human trafficking in Belize is the coerced prostitution of children, often occurring through poor parents pushing their children to provide sexual favors to older men in exchange for school fees, money and gifts,” the State Department complained. “Child sex tourism, involving primarily U.S. citizens has been identified as an emerging trend in Belize. Additionally sex trafficking and forced labor of Belizeans and foreign women and girls – primarily from Central America ---occur in bars, nightclubs, and brothers throughout the country.”

The situation in Jamaica isn’t much better according to the State Department. The difference between the two countries is that child sex tourism doesn’t flourish in Jamaica as it does in Belize.

“The exploitation of children in the sex trade, a form of sex trafficking, remains a problem,” was the way Washington outlined it in a report on Jamaica. “The media has reported that pimps are luring Jamaican children under age 18 into prostitution, especially in urban areas in Jamaica. NGOs and the government remain alarmed at the high number of missing children and are concerned that some of these children are falling prey to sex trafficking. Sex trafficking of children and adults likely occur on the street, in night clubs, bars and private homes.”

But sex isn’t the lone driving force behind the situation in Jamaica. According to Washington and a Jamaican NGO, children were being forced to be vendors on the street to earn a living. The “forced labor of children in street vending is prevalent.”

The Bahamas, one of the Caribbean’s most prosperous island-nations, must also contend with a situation, in which poverty and sex are placing children in harms ways,

The State Department reported that local Bahamian children were at risk because many of them were “engaging in sex with men for basics, such as food, transportation or material goods.”

The problem in Barbados may not be as severe as in some of its neighbors but it exists nevertheless. The report stated quite bluntly that “the prostitution of children is known to exist in Barbados” and a high risk group comprises Barbadian and immigrant children engaging in transactional sex with older men for material goods.”

Interestingly, Jamaica, the Bahamas and Barbados have been placed on the human trafficking watch list, which is reserved for countries not doing enough to crack down on the “modern day form of slavery,” as Washington and the United Nations describe it.

As for Trinidad and Tobago its strong economy hasn’t enabled its children to live without having to confront the economic and social problems affecting youngsters elsewhere in the Caribbean. As a matter of fact, they have the addition peril of being forced into crime.

“A high risk group for sex trafficking and forced criminal activity within Trinidad and Tobago are Trinibagonian homeless children or children from difficult family circumstances,” Washington stated.

Next is Guyana where the media regularly reports on women and girls being forced into prostitution. As if that wasn’t enough, children are often compelled to work in the mining industry, agriculture and forestry sector.

What abets the poor conditions facing Guyanese children is a common practice there of “poor, rural families sending children to live with higher income family members or acquaintances in more populated” areas. That’s tailor-made for conditions “conducive to domestic servitude,” the report charged.

That’s also a practice in Haiti that goes against the best interest of children. It’s directly responsible for at least 150,000 or as many as 500,000 poor children in the Creole-speaking nation who are now “restaveks,” youngsters forced into domestic labor conditions.

“The majority of children that become restaveks do so when recruiters arrange for them to live with families in other cities and towns in the hope of going to school,” explained the report. “Restaveks are often treated differently from other non –biological children living in households. In addition to involuntary servitude, these children are particularly vulnerable to beatings, sexual assaults and other abuses by family members in the homes in which they are residing.”

The abuse is often so serious that the children run away from home and live on the street, often becoming members of youth gangs or prostitutes.

Next door in the Dominican Republic, “child sex tourism” is hard fact of everyday life, especially in coastal areas. It is encouraged by American and European tourists who go to the Caribbean looking for children, according to the report.

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 23 Dec 2013 03:34

India is home to 69% of the worlds sexually abused children

http://delhidurbar.in/khobragade-arrest ... gone-awry/

http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/ecostan ... -on-prowl/

To me, the police should be blamed as most victims are not confident that they will act on their complaint, as it did in case of high profile French diplomat Mazurier.

The reason is that most of the victims are from poor socio-economic back-ground with whom the police does not empathize even a bit. In India, the police are the last government organization with whom citizens want to interact.

Families of many child rape victims fear that their harassment will increase if the sexual crime is reported to police. “It is better to forget,” was a claim of a father, whose six year-old daughter was sexually abused in his own house. “Ladki ki badnami hoogi aur pata nahin police kuch karagi ya nahin (Girl will earn disrespect and I don’t know whether police will act or not).”

Fortunately, a NGO volunteer convinced the man to lodge a complaint. Initially, the police discouraged him telling him how his girl will suffer in court proceedings. When the NGO intervened, they registered a case and arrested the accused.

Many victims are not so fortunate in India. Even after disclosing their agony to parents, they are forced to keep mum and bear the trauma. And, research has shown that many victims of sexual abuse at tender age turn into assaulters when they grow up.

Even in cases, where the police finally register the case, conviction is less than 50 percent. When the court proceedings are on, getting a bail for child sexual offenders is not difficult. Several times India law enforced have received a hard slap on their face with foreign pedophiles able to leave the country after getting bail.

Such a lax enforcement of rule and insensitive police makes India a favoured destination for pedophiles. There have been documentation of children being found in improper position with foreigners in Goa but no action has been taken (Srinivasan, Sandhya 2006, ‘Rights: India Off Paedophile Destinations).

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 24 Dec 2013 15:34

X-post

Anindya wrote:***** racket and its ramifications

The gang arrested is not an isolated one and apart from circulating videos and blackmailing innocent victims, their accommplices are also indulging in a full fledged flesh trade which has its ybiggest hub in Alappuzha. 8 persons who formed part of this gang were racket were arrested. The gang members all aged between 21 and 24 hailing from Surathkal, Kasargod and Natekal Manjanady were arrested by the police. The arrested are Shamshuddin, Rauf, Harshad, Shameer, Iqbal, Hussain, Nawaz and Nisar.

....
The police state that such gangs also contribute heavily to the sex trade. Take for instance a major racket at Allapuzza in Kerala. The kingpins of the sex rackets rely heavily on such gangs. These gangs are sent out to lay traps and innocent victims are blackmailed and threatened to join the flesh trade. The Allapuzza police had found that there were nearly 1700 girls who were trapped into this racket. Many of them were exploited due to their financial background and some were forced into this trade as a result of threats and blackmail. Some were kept back in Kerala to contribute to an illegal sex tourism racket while some were sold off to rich people for a sum as low as 30000. Those financially backward women were paid a one time sum of Rs 10000, investigations have revealed.

Another connected racket that was busted was at Thiruvananthapuram. This racket which also forms part of this dirty circle had the head of an institution set up with funds of the social welfare department. This racket was controlled by a nun who ran the institution and the charge levelled against her was that she forced some of the inmates of this charity home to become part of the sex trade.

The police say that the ***** syndicate which is based out of Gulf and also Dubai is the one that controls this racket. It is not directly under the control of the underworld but these groups do have their blessings and protections. The rich Arabs are the ones who form part of a major customer base.

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 8#p1564168

member_20317 · Post by **member_20317** » 19 Mar 2014 18:47

Not strictly concerned with Human Trafficking but still makes the larger point come out well of how the women get treated in India - shown constituency wise

http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/s ... 140319.htm

I did not know how to post the map directly. Would be grateful if somebody could.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 22 Mar 2014 05:23

From RamaY on Twitter

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 22 Mar 2014 05:26

Above Picture Human Traffickinng from India goes to Middle East (the old Islamist meme) and to West (Modern Slavery).

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 05 May 2014 20:38

Spoke to someone who worked on the Gates HIV project in India and Southeast Asia. They said that the level of depravity and atrocity they saw perpetuated on victims of trafficking and sex work in India far outstripped any other country. They are exploited by all facets - police, Government, pimps. The apathy of people around who know of this is even more shocking.

These were not DIE but people who actually worked at the ground level.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 649682.cms

NEW DELHI: Rescued from a wooden box at a brothel in GB Road on April 26, 17-year-old Neeru (name changed), who had been kidnapped from West Bengal's 24 Parganas and dumped in Delhi, has been reunited with her family. The girl had appeared for her Class X exams back home. She returned to her village determined to pursue her education. Her father, who appeared relieved to have found his daughter safe, demanded speedy justice and punishment for the guilty.

The girl's father, a daily wage earner, works as a labourer in farms. He had lodged a missing person report with the local police when his daughter had not returned from school. Neeru is his eldest child. The fact that his daughter was found at GB Road did not deter him from taking her back home. According to social workers from NGO Shakti Vahini, who were tipped-off about the girl's presence at GB Road by the father, this case is an example of how family can help in rehabilitation of a survivor from red-light area.

As she waited to board a train to Kolkata at the New Delhi Railway station on Saturday, Neeru narrated how she was befriended by an unknown boy who would give her missed calls on her mobile phone. One day, when she was going to the bank from school, the boy met her and asked her to accompany him. When she felt suspicious and tried to return, he forced her to board a train and she ended up at GB Road. There were many intermediaries in the chain, thrown in to prevent identification of the traffickers.

Tenacious Neeru managed to inform her father about her whereabouts using the phone of a customer. "When we got a tip-off from the father, we informed the police and a raid was organized on April 17. However, we did not find the girl. Later, a decoy customer found a 20-year-old girl from Midnapore district who was sitting depressed in a corner and it turned out that she, too, had been trafficked by a youth who had promised to marry her. She said the girl was hidden in a wooden box here. A second raid was organized on April 26 and both the girls and six other women were rescued from the box," said Rishikant from Shakti Vahini.

On Saturday, the 20-year-old girl from Midnapore also returned home with her father. She, too, plans to pursue her education now.

The brothel owner, Padma, had been arrested under sections of abduction, rape, illegal confinement and criminal conspiracy. Sections under POCSO, juvenile justice and immoral trafficking were also added. More arrests are likely.

In the last four years, Shakti Vahini has helped rescue 670 victims of human trafficking, including those trafficked for prostitution, forced marriage, domestic slavery, child labour, bonded labour and adoption. Around 75 victims have been rescued from GB Road.

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 07 May 2014 01:07

We are haunted by the horror we have witnessed

http://www.theguardian.com/global-devel ... very-india

Human trafficking: "We are haunted by the horror that we have witnessed"
The leaders of a small antislavery movement in India tell us why they risk their lives and liberty to fight against exploitation

Recent reports indicate millions are involved and affected, and India is a source, destination and transit country for child trafficking. About 7,000 sex workers cross over from Nepal into the country every year, and children from Bangladesh enter via west Bengal, lured by marriage or job offers.

In India, children from poor and rural communities, especially those with emotional, physical and learning difficulties, are particularly vulnerable to inter-country trafficking. They are often kidnapped or bought from their families to be sold to brothels and into beggary or forced labour.

But we are fighters, we don't compromise and we are ready to go to jail or even die for our cause. Why? Because we are haunted by the horror that we have witnessed – the unimaginable treatment that children are subjected to, the picture of old women being forced into prostitutions, and mothers with young babies having sex with one man while another holds her baby in front of her.