TOPIC : THE ISSUE OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN INDIA

THE CONTEXT: Human trafficking is still having a serious presence in India. It is one of the most distressing problems faced by many countries worldwide. It is a serious crime against human beings and violates their fundamental or basic human rights. It inhibits the free movement of the citizens through coercion or commercial exploitation in their own country. Thus, it can occur within a country or even out of the country i.e. transnationally. In the present article, we will discuss the issue of human trafficking in detail.

WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?

• Human trafficking is a trade among all people, especially children and women.
• According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Human Trafficking is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, to exploit them for profit”.

DATA RELATED TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN INDIA

• According to the MHA, In 2020, a total of 4,966 registered cases of Human trafficking from across India, and 3661 people were charge-sheeted.
• It has led to 101 convictions and 715 acquittals, while the other cases are still pending, as per the crimes in India 2020 report by the National Crime Records Bureau.
• According to the central government, as many as seven states — Assam, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Punjab — did not see a single conviction in such cases in 2020.
• As per India’s National Crime Record Bureau, 2278, 2208, and 1714 cases of trafficking were reported in 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively. 85.2% of the cases have been charge-sheeted.
• In 2020, 4,709 persons were victimized, out of which 2,222 were children, including 1,377 boys and 845 girls. It also projects that 2151 children were rescued, out of which 801 were girls. Among adult victims, 535 were males, and 1952 were females.

HOW SERIOUS HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN INDIA

• It is considered the second largest organized crime in India.
• Human trafficking is still a major issue in India, despite the fact that it is banned under Indian law.
• People are trafficked for sexual exploitation, forced labour, forced begging, forced marriage, selling children, as well as for the removal of organs.
• Sexual exploitation is the most common form of exploitation, followed by forced labour.
• Most victims are trafficked within their countries’ borders – those trafficked abroad are moved to the richest countries.

REASON FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Several factors contribute to the trade in human beings, particularly women and children. The factors of trafficking in women and children can be divided into two categories: push and pull factors.

THE PUSH FACTORS INCLUDE:

• Poor socio-economic conditions of a large number of families, poverty coupled with frequent, almost annual natural disasters like floods leading to virtual poverty of some people, lack of education, skill and income opportunities for women in rural areas, absence of awareness about the activities of traffickers, pressure to collect money for dowries which leads to sending daughters to distant places for work, dysfunctional family life, domestic violence against women, low status of girl children, etc.
• It appears from the case studies that extreme poverty and other causes of deprivation not only push people to fall on the traffickers’ tripod but also create an incentive for trafficking. Often the prostitutes, who have no option to come out of the exploitative environment, gradually develop intimate connections with the traffickers and follow in their footsteps.

THE PULL FACTORS ARE:

• Lucrative employment propositions in big cities, easy money, promise of better pay and comfortable life by the trafficking touts and agents, the demand of young girls for marriage in other regions, demand for low-paid and underage sweatshop labour, and growing demand for young kids for adoption, rise in demand for women in the rapidly expanding sex industry, demand for young girls in places of military concentration like Kashmir in India in recent times, demand for young girls for sexual exploitation.
• The rampant practice of female feticide in the northern states of Haryana and Punjab has also fuelled internal trafficking.
• Since there is a shortage of women in these states having a low female to male ratio, they have become fertile ground for the operation of traffickers.
• Traffickers procure girls from faraway states like Assam and Orissa; trick their families into believing they are to be married, only to push them into prostitution later.
• India is also experiencing rapid changes in economic, political, demographic and labour trends as an outcome of globalization; increasing demand for cheap labour and heavy population growth in the region encourages migration, whether legal or illegal.
• The movement of young girls and women from Bangladesh and Nepal into Indian brothels is common. There is further movement of these women and girls to the Middle East and other destinations.

WHAT ARE THE PROVISIONS TO STOP HUMAN TRAFFICKING

• Trafficking in Human Beings or Persons is prohibited under the Constitution of India under Article 23.
• The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA) is the premier legislation to prevent trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.
• Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 is a special law to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation.
• There are other specific legislations enacted relating to trafficking in women and children o Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006
• Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976
• Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986
• State Governments have also enacted specific legislations to deal with the issue. (e.g., The Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act, 2012).

WHY IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING A CAUSE OF CONCERN NOWADAYS?

• The estimated number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is significantly increasing.
• There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year.
• Evolving nature of trafficking is a challenge, like the rise of technology usage and cowardly ways of committing crimes these days.
• Often cases are booked as kidnapping or missing person cases even though there is clear evidence of trafficking.
• Lack of information provided to survivors on victim compensation.
• Low investment on the part of legal aid results in very few survivors having access to compensation.
• Despite many laws present in India, human trafficking remains an unspoken problem in the country.

The conviction rate is falling.

• As per the government data, the conviction rate in Human trafficking cases has been falling over the past few years.
• The conviction rate in 2020 was 10.6%, while it was 22.5% in 2019 and 19.4 in 2018.
• In 2017, the conviction rate was 24.5% and 27.8 % in 2016.
• According to activists and NGOs working with human trafficking survivors, getting convictions in such cases is a major challenge.

WHY ARE THE PROVISIONS NOT WORKING EFFECTIVELY AGAINST TRAFFICKING?

LACK OF COORDINATION

• Getting justice for the survivors and punishing the culprits are challenging tasks and most of the time, the traffickers get away using legal loopholes.
• Like terrorism and drug trafficking, human trafficking is an organized crime involving interstate and sometimes international networks. If a person is trafficked and their kin goes to the local police station, they can only do so much to investigate the case locally as their resources are limited.

LACK OF LEGAL RESOURCES

• In such cases, where the evidence is very little, the prosecution has to rely on the statement of the survivor, who is both the victim and the witness of the crime.
• The issue of the declining rate of conviction essentially indicates there is a lack of strong and appropriate investigation that spans across state borders.
• There is also a lack of a proper rehabilitation mechanism and victim compensation for the survivors, which would encourage them to cooperate with the investigators.
• In 2018, the NIA agreed to take up human trafficking case involving two or more states, but it is still in the early stages.

VICTIMS NEED WITNESS PROTECTION

• In the case of survivors who want to take their traffickers to law, one of the major challenges is safety, as one or more chains of the network will be people who are part of their own community or village.
• There is no proper mechanism for witness protection and victim compensation. The survivors have to deal with this powerful network that is very intimidating.
• Survivors getting threats from traffickers against seeking legal measures is not uncommon. In the current system, the only protection the victim is offered is to place them in a shelter home.
• The maximum punishment in human trafficking cases is 10 years in jail, and in cases of sexual exploitation, the prison sentence can be for life.

THE ANTI-TRAFFICKING BILL 2021

ACCORDING TO THE  BILL

• Defines human trafficking as an organized crime with international implications
• The law will apply to all citizens of India, within and outside the country.
• The law shall apply to every offence of trafficking in persons with cross-border implications.
• Widens the definition of the “victim” by including transgenders, besides women and children.
• Any offence of trafficking shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years.
• More severe penalties for “aggravated offences” and seeks to crack down on organized crime syndicates.
• Aggravated offences include cases that may result in the death of the victim or where the victim suffers a grievous injury (in cases such as an acid attack), organ mutilation or removal of organs, or where the victim is a child.
• In case of the death of the victim, the Bill proposes life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 30 lakh.
• Imprisonment up to 20 years and the death penalty for the offenders found guilty.
• The investigation needs to be completed within 90 days from the date of the arrest of the accused.
• Widens the range of offenders who can be booked under the law, bringing public servants, armed forces personnel or anyone in a position of authority under its ambit. The penalty for the guilty will include life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 30 lakh.

CONCERNS WITH THE BILL

• The Bill is not clear about how the NIA, as a nodal agency, will gather information and intelligence from different parts of the country through Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) at the district level and State levels.
• Largely silent on rescue protocols except the “reason to believe” by a police officer not below the rank of a sub-inspector.
• The absence of community-based rehabilitation, missing definition of reintegration and also the funds related to rehabilitation of survivors in the Bill.

THE WAY FORWARD:

Border measures

• Stringent Enforcement of cross-border trafficking, Secure Vigilance in Trafficking routes and Proper social accountability are needed.

 Economic and social policies

• Taking measures to raise levels of social protection and to create employment opportunities.
• Taking appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on the basis of gender equality, the right to equal pay for equal work and the right to equality in employment opportunities.
• Developing programmes that offer livelihood options and include basic education, literacy, communication and other skills reduce barriers to entrepreneurship.
• Encouraging gender sensitization and education on equal and respectful relationships between the sexes, thus preventing violence against women.
• Ensuring that policies are in place that allow women equal access to and control over economic and financial resources.

Awareness-raising measures

• With the help of NGOs and Police officials, there can be some types of advertisements through the popular media in a particular location and by conducting some awareness programs in villages, local schools, among kids of the poor society and public to be alert of being victimized.

Legislative measures

• Adopting or strengthening legislative, proper law enforcement, uncorrupt officials, educational, social, cultural or other measures and, where applicable, penal legislation, including through bilateral and multilateral cooperation, to discourage the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation of persons, especially women and children, and that leads to trafficking.
• Enhance the capacity building of law enforcement agencies.
• Conducting workshops on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings for Police officers and for Prosecutors at the Regional level, State level and District level
• Sensitize the judicial officers about the various issues concerning human trafficking and ensure a speedy court process.

THE CONCLUSION: The issue of human trafficking in India must be addressed in a whole comprehensive manner. It requires a multi-faceted strategy to combat the menace of human trafficking in our country. While efforts include that there should be a process of rehabilitation and reintegration for all the victims of human trafficking, it should be mainly conducted. Otherwise, it will not successfully address the issue in the long run and strategically.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER

1. Why in recent times the case of trafficking is increasing? How are technological developments encouraging it?
2. Why does the issue of human trafficking persist in India despite so many laws and awareness campaigns? Suggest some effective measures to prevent it.
3. The anti-trafficking bill 2021 is an effective law to address the issue of trafficking in India, but implementing the law is a major challenge. Comment.

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