A full circle of rehabilitation

Trauma-informed care must be an integral part of the support provided to victims of trafficking 

It would be impossible to discuss the new Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill 2018 without first getting involved in the criticism around it. This includes alleged discriminatory slants, the vesting of enormous power in newly formed investigating bodies, effectively restricting the personal liberties of survivors at some stages of the post-rescue process, and, more importantly, the Bill having been drafted “in secret” by a ministerial committee.

Multiple inputs

While the Bill is, and should be, open to constructive public argumentation, the charge of excessive discreetness is unfounded. Having served on a State-level committee as an analyst of international policy on human trafficking while the Bill was being drafted, in 2016, I made recommendations, as a mental health professional, to develop a bulwark of rehabilitation stratagems the Bill could incorporate and enhance the rehabilitation process for survivors. Others, lawyers, activists, doctors, social workers, came in with their ideas, experiences and opinions. After respectful dissent, we were able to draw up counsel for the Bill, which has been a subject of media debate since the first draft was released.

In my work in Kashmir with children who were victims of trauma induced by political violence, it was easy to find commonalities between their lives and of (trafficked) women whose stories I began to get familiar with after reading literature on commercial sex work. Both groups had been through grievous abuse and violence; both had experienced breach of consent, their rights to their bodies transgressed.

Defining trauma

We call it trauma. Mental health professionals have definitions for it. The one most common is: “Traumatic reactions are normal reactions to abnormal situations.” So survivors of trafficking who have been confined, beaten, raped need to receive care that is designed for their needs. Under existing custodial models of rehabilitation, all survivors stay at a shelter home for at least a short period (where there is real possibility of casual stigmatising, of shaming and bullying, and of the absence of a restorative and therapeutic environment conducive to trauma recovery), until they are repatriated. And at this time, their health-care needs should ideally be evaluated beyond the hurriedly conducted medical tests. Many survivors do see a counsellor, who usually begins a generic counselling treatment with the assumption that the survivor is depressed, or is clinically traumatised. At times, this might even result in short-term positive effects. When this observation is made, mental health caregivers, who are thinly spread across government-run schemes for thousands of survivors across the country, move on to the next woman in need.

This lack of compulsory formal assessment of the survivor’s mental health status along a continuum of care is deplorable, as is the current disregard for her personal narrative that puts her trauma in context. The survivor’s internal ways of responding to her trauma may never be articulated even if she is steadfast about attending her psychosocial counselling sessions, which is unusual for most women from marginalised communities; for them, life simply gets in the way of prioritising, let alone reaching out for mental health care. Likewise, her external stressors such as family pressures, and continuing physical, emotional and sexual exploitation may continue to operate on her without her learning strategies to cope at the psychosocial counselling sessions she takes pains to attend. This is ironical because good therapy work can only happen when counsellor and subject have sat down together and made a customised blueprint for the process of counselling in true democratic fashion. For a survivor of sex trafficking, trauma-informed care must be the touchstone for a caregiver.

Chandrani Dasgupta  

 

In brief, trauma-informed care is an approach to therapy that carries within it an awareness of the prevalence of trauma in the subject, and an understanding of the impact of that trauma on the physical, emotional, and mental health of that person. At the centre of trauma-informed care is the subjectivity of the survivor, her major life events and choices, and push and pull factors that governed these decisions. Counsellors skilled in this form of care know that traumatised people will respond in unpredictable and often unusual ways to what most people find perfectly ordinary, commonplace circumstances. They will not expect stereotypical reactions to atypical situations either.

Frustratingly, for a well-meaning and altruistic counsellor, it is not uncommon for a trauma victim to reject help. A planned move away from psychosocial models of counselling — treated as a panacea of sorts by mental health professionals working with trauma survivors — and toward trauma-informed or trauma-focussed counselling can yield rich dividends, although these forms of intervention take intensive training for the professional. The survivor might reclaim her human rights and learn to recognise her purpose in life. In the end, the survivor might feel rehabilitated.

Planning ahead

The new Bill makes provisions for mental health-care professionals to make long-term interventions to safeguard survivors’ health. It also makes provisions for a rehabilitation fund, which will receive annual budgetary allocations and collections from trafficking offence fines, to potentially arrange community-based rehabilitation initiatives for survivors. This gives hope that we might train more counsellors in trauma-focussed care, intervene often and early, and design grassroots activism campaigns to generate awareness of why adequate and accessible trauma informed care models chosen with the survivor’s consent can make a world of difference. We must supply the traumatised survivor with the implements to reclaim her life, and then rehabilitation will have come full circle.

Chandrani Dasgupta is a psychologist and independent researcher. She has worked extensively in the field of human trafficking and with children, and specialises in trauma care and resilience development

Source: The Hindu, 25/12/2018

Does the anti-trafficking Bill address trafficking?

The Bill goes beyond criminalisation; it tries to combat the organised nature of trafficking

India took a giant step towards the protection of its women and children when the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act was passed by the Lok Sabha in 2013. Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was substituted with Sections 370 and 370A, which defined trafficking and laid out the punishment for it. However, mere criminalisation of trafficking is not enough — several laws have not been implemented in letter and spirit in the absence of a comprehensive legislative framework. In the case of trafficking, data show that despite the 2013 law, there has been an increase in the number of victims of human trafficking. It is to tackle this menace that the comprehensive Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018, was passed. Instead of mere criminalisation, the Bill seeks to systematically combat the organised nature of trafficking.

Multipronged approach

The Bill ties together the approaches of prevention, rescue and rehabilitation to create a robust policy framework against trafficking. It places at its core the rights and welfare of victims of human trafficking. There are aggravated forms of trafficking which have been introduced, such as trafficking for the purpose of begging, or bearing a child, or for the purpose of marriage or under the pretext of marriage by administering narcotic drugs, hormones, or chemical substances for the purposes of early sexual maturity, and so on. Under the Bill, prosecution under these offences will be made timely and efficient by special public prosecutors.

The Bill provides protection to witnesses. It also seeks to maintain the confidentiality of victims by recording their statements through video conferencing and by in camera proceedings. It states that there will be time-bound trials and repatriation of victims.

A rehabilitation fund has been introduced for the first time. This will be used for the physical, psychological and social well-being of victims. The Bill seeks to build the capacity of victims by providing capital, infrastructure, education and skill development to empower them to access justice and to prevent further trafficking.

For the first time, the National Anti-Trafficking Bureau will coordinate with authorities in foreign countries and international organisations, and facilitate inter-State and trans-border transfer of evidence and materials. It will strengthen the intelligence apparatus to improve the collection, collation and dissemination of operational intelligence. The Bureau will also coordinate actions and enforcement by various bodies or authorities established under this Bill. There will be State and District Anti-Trafficking Committees which will arrange for appropriate training and sensitisation of functionaries of all personnel.

It is crucial to note that trafficking is an organised crime. In order to break the organised nexus, at the national and international levels, the Bill proposes attachment and forfeiture of property and to remit the proceeds of crime in the rehabilitation fund. It will also freeze bank accounts of those whose funds have been utilised to facilitate trafficking. By doing this, the Bill handicaps the organised trafficking networks.

Systematic surveillance

The Bureau will also develop and monitor a database on every crime under this Act. Such systematic surveillance of offenders will, in about three years, not only help prevent trafficking but pre-empt it. The Bill does its bit. Now we must all come together to use it to deliver justice.

Source: The Hindu, 10/08/2018

Andhra must ensure children in drought-hit areas don’t fall prey to traffickers

Natural disasters exacerbate the root causes of human trafficking, including poverty and lack of viable livelihoods

A drought is not just water scarcity. It has several other implications: Migration, trafficking, malnutrition, livestock deaths and agricultural losses. Such trying times are also an occasion for the State’s safety net to kick in and help people tide over the crisis. But that is not happening in Andhra Pradesh, which is facing one of the worst droughts in recent years. According to a news website, a fact-finding team, which visited seven villages in the Anantapur district, saw “shortage of water for irrigation as well as consumption by humans and livestock, the lack of PDS outlets and ration cards, migration, banking and debt”. But the most “harrowing ordeals” described in the report are about the children in these villages: Many of them have been left alone or with their siblings in the village to fend for themselves while their parents have moved to the cities in search of work. At best some families had left behind the elderly too to look after the children.

The fact-finding team comprising of activists found another disturbing fact: Some children could not get rations from the public distribution system because either the shops are located at a distance or the families did not have ration cards. “Further, issues were reported with biometric verification as well, especially in cases where the person in whose name the ration card was had migrated, and the machine wouldn’t accept the fingerprint of the existing beneficiary. So sometimes, the children would walk kilometres only to be turned away at the PDS outlets,” they added.

In a paper (Trafficking and Natural Disasters: Exploiting Misery) in International Affairs Review of the George Washington University, Joshua Finn writes that natural disasters exacerbate the root causes of human trafficking, including poverty and lack of viable livelihoods. The added shock of a natural disaster to an already vulnerable population can lead to an environment where human trafficking is more likely to be profitable. Among other recommendations, the paper emphasises the need to secure “greater engagement of local stakeholders” and provide increased “access to safe spaces following a disaster”.

It is the Andhra Pradesh government’s duty to ensure that these children without families are safe and that they get enough provisions to tide over this difficult time.

Source: Hindustan Times, 10-05-2017

Trafficking Bill a step forward but the problem must be tackled at its source

No one can fault the quantum of punishment prescribed in the draft Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016 — rigorous imprisonment of seven to 10 years for traffickers and in the case of the victim being a minor, it could extend to life. This is a great improvement on the penalty under the existing Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, 1956, which ranges from three to six months in prison. In a recent case, a woman from Chhattisgarh was convicted by a court in that state after it was found that she had trafficked 10,000 girls over a period of 10 years. The Bill to be tabled this winter session should deter traffickers to some extent if it is implemented rigorously.

The situation is particularly grim when it comes to the trafficking of minors. From 2011-2013, 10,500 children were found missing from Chhattisgarh alone. Estimates suggest that at least 135,000 children are trafficked each year in India. They are forced into domestic work; criminal gangs force them to beg or are pushed into the commercial sex industry. The main reasons for parents, especially from tribal areas, handing over their children to agents who promise them jobs in cities for paltry sums of money are poverty, poor or complicit law enforcement, civil unrest and lack of awareness. According to National Crime Records Bureau statistics, there has been a 38% increase in trafficking of minors between 2009 and 2013 — but alarmingly, a decline of 45% in convictions. This could mean that the situation is likely to get worse going forward. The problem has to be tackled at source, the catchment areas in which touts prey on vulnerable people. Once a person is trafficked, it becomes difficult to trace both the victim and the trafficker and successfully pursue cases to their logical conclusion.

The ministry of women and child development has two schemes, Ujjawala and Swadhar aimed at the rescue, rehabilitation and re-integration of trafficked women and children. But it is hobbled by the fact that government funding for it has been reduced and there are hardly enough shelters for those rescued. Counselling services are few and far between and little thought has been given to how to re-integrate women and children into the mainstream. The many employment agencies which `place’ women and children in so-called jobs could not have done so without the complicity of the police. If stringent checks are maintained on who are eligible to run such agencies, and which cohort they are dealing with, we might make some headway in dealing with the problem before it is too late. The new draft law is a step forward, but it is just one part of the solution.

Hindustan Times, 28-10-2016

Anti-trafficking Bill: The suggestions made by victims must be heard

Last week, national news magazine Outlook created a furore with its investigative piece on how the RSS has violated norms in sending 31 girls in Assam to the organisation’s residential schools in Punjab and Gujarat for an education that instills ‘Hinduism’. The RSS — angry at the reporter’s allusion of their action to human trafficking — filed an FIR against the magazine for inciting communal hatred. While the jury is out on this case, human trafficking is indeed a serious challenge in India.

According to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau, trafficking of minor girls — the second-most prevalent trafficking crime — increased 14 times over the last decade and increased 65% in 2014. It also revealed that girls and women are the main targets, making up for 76% of human trafficking cases nationwide. South Asia, with India at its centre, is the fastest-growing and second-largest region for human trafficking in the world, after East Asia, says the UN Office for Drugs and Crime. Responding to the crisis, earlier this year, the Centre unveiled a draft of the country’s first-ever comprehensive anti-human trafficking law, which would treat survivors as victims in need of assistance and protection rather than as criminals.

The draft legislation provides for special courts to expedite trafficking cases, more shelters and a rehabilitation fund to help victims rebuild their lives. It also provides for anti-trafficking committees - at district, state and central levels - that will oversee prevention, protection and victim rehabilitation. There is also a provision for the recovery of fines from the convicted in the draft bill, officials said, and victims who are not paid wages while in servitude will be reimbursed. The draft Bill was up for public consultation, and 23 survivors of human trafficking from West Bengal have written to minister for woman and child development Maneka Gandhi with their suggestions. While one of the survivors have asked for the Bill to incorporate “punishment for hostile policemen who discourage us from lodging complaint against our oppressors,” another one wants time-bound rehabilitation targets so that they can be economically independent without being bogged down by the stigma. Another victim wants the draft Bill to define ‘trafficking’ better since she was abducted by an acquaintance and sold to a brothel.

While civil society groups have also been saying that the draft Bill falls short on many counts, the recommendations by the victims are crucial because they, more than anyone else, know exactly where and how the existing penal provisions or State structures have failed to help them. It is a positive thing that the ministry had sought the views of the survivors as this gives a better picture on how to deal with this problem in both preventing it and also dealing with the consequences, and it should now try to see how best the recommendations made by the victims can be incorporated into the new law.

Source: Hindustan Times, 17-08-2016

New Anti-Trafficking Law Set for Launch

Binoy Prabhakar

New Delhi:





Draft bill calls for the creation of a special court and investigation agency to tackle human trafficking cases in India

The government is about to unveil a new bill that aims to check human trafficking by unifying several existing laws, meting out tougher punishment for repeat offenders and ensuring the protection and rehabilitation of victims.Besides creating a comprehensive law against trafficking, the draft bill calls for the creation of a special court and investigation agency to tackle such cases and joint working groups with neighbouring countries to undertake preventive measures.
“There is a clear rise in cases of human trafficking in India, with people being trafficked not just for sexual exploitation but also for forced labour,“ a senior official of the Ministry of Women & Child Development, which prepared the draft bill, told ET. “We will finally have a structured mechanism to deal with this growing menace.“
Up to 5,466 cases of human trafficking were reported in 2014, an increase of more than 90% since 2009, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau.The US Department of State's `2013 Trafficking in Persons Report' estimates that up to 65 million people were trafficked for forced labour in India. It said 90% of trafficking in India is internal.
At present, hu man trafficking cases are dealt with by a hodge podge of laws and multiple agenci es. These laws, in cluding the Im moral Traffic (Prevention) Act, sections of the In dian Penal Code, the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and the Pro tection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, are inadequate because they gloss over prevention or fail to address trafficking beyond sexual exploitation, according to experts.
The draft bill will address these loopholes by bringing forced labour under the ambit of law and by working with the governments of Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar to curb trafficking, said the official. To act as a deterrent, the bill proposes to double the jail term to 14 years for repeat offenders and people engaged in the trafficking of minors.
“It is a comprehensive legislation that will tackle the entire gamut of organised crime of human trafficking,“ said Sunitha Krishnan of Prajwala, an NGO based in Hyderabad that has been pushing for a new trafficking law. “It also provides support to victims, which our existing laws didn't.“
The bill proposes to create a rehabilitation fund for victims. It provides for the protection of victims and witnesses by enabling their participation in trials by video conferencing, ending the practice of summoning them to open courts. If victims feel threatened during trials, they can approach a court and seek protection.
A special court will be established ­ a sessions court judge will be designated as a special judge ­ to handle trafficking cases. The specialised investigation agency to probe trafficking cases could be a new body or a new wing of an existing agency. The bill is being vetted by the law ministry and will be released this week for consultations and collecting feedback from the public, experts and state governments.

Source: Economic Times, 23-05-2016

80% of kids trafficked by relatives: Study

Somreet Bhattacharya

New Delhi:





Of the 254 cases registered under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act in the past year in Delhi, a little under half involved youngsters lured to the workplace by friends below the age of 14. This revelation is one of the more shocking of the many in a study conducted by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), the findings of which were released in Delhi on Monday .The National Capital Region was found to be pretty notorious with 2,222 of the 5,253 child labourers rescued across the country in the past year employed here. And while 254 cases were registered against businesses using children in hazardous operations, 42% of the cases sadly showed that it were minors themselves who had lured their under-aged friends.
Of the child labourers rescued in the NCR, 80% had been trafficked by either their relatives or by people known to them, and shockingly , almost 90% of them had been yoked by industries producing hazardous goods. BBA officials say that under a proposed amendment to the Child Labour Act, the government plans to reduce the number of jobs classified as hazardous from 83 to three, and so the number of children rescued under this category could show a decline.
The data between 2010 and 2014 showed that only 185 children could be freed on average every month against the target of 500 set for the state la bour department by the Delhi high court. Of those emancipated, 1,289 were less than 14 years old and employed in small-scale industries being run from residences in west and northeast Delhi.
Incredibly , around 21% of the children below the age of 14 were bonded labourers.Their movement had been restricted and they were paid a pittance as wages. The figures showed that 50% of the children were employed in industries producing zari, plastic goods, footwear and bags.
The study also showed that 21% of the children were employed by their parents or their relatives and had been brought to the city on the pretext of access to better education. The rest had either been kidnapped or brought here by placement agents. A vast majority of the rescued children, 82% of them, were employed as “household helps“. Officials say that a propo sed law to permit the employment of children for home-based work is likely to perpetua te the trafficking of children.And since most manufacturing units operating out of residential areas claim to be family enterprises, Kailash Sa tyarthi, Nobel laureate and founder of BBA, pointed out the findings “would have implica tions for any change in the law allowing children to work for their families, especially if they are below the age of 14.“
BBA found that children were mostly trafficked from rural areas in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Nepal by people belonging to the same community . “Despite the fact that this atrocity has existed for many years no, little intervention has been possible to take action against the said agents due to the lax laws,“ said the study .

Source: Times of India, 24-11-2015

Govt plans NCB-like body to check human trafficking

Himanshi Dhawan

New Delhi:





A national authority to combat trafficking along the lines of the Narcotics Control Bureau is on the anvil following initial consultations between the ministries of home affairs and women and child development.While there has been no firm decision on the exact framework of the agency , it is likely that the authority will act as an umbrella organisation addressing aspects of intelligence, investigation, rescue and rehabilitation of human trafficking victims.Human trafficking is under the jurisdiction of the CBI as of now. “We had discussions with the home ministry , NGOs working in the field and several states on the issue of trafficking. In principle, we have taken a decision to establish the agency specialising in trafficking,“ a senior WCD official said.
Recognising trafficking as an organised crime, the government also plans to establish anti-human trafficking units in all districts and issue revised guidelines to states.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UN ODC), human trafficking in South Asia is often referred to as one of the fastest growing transnational organised crimes. Over 1,50,000 people are trafficked within south Asia every year for sex work, labour, forced marriages, organ trade and it is often their economic state and conditions that contribute to the vulnerabilities of young people, women and children.
Countries in South Asia serve as prominent origin, transit and destination countries for women, children and men being trafficked. India acts both as a source and destination with women and children coerced from Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to land up in middle-east and Africa.
Most of the trafficking takes place for commercial sexual exploitation where women are forced into unpro tected sexual acts with multiple partners. In addition, there has been a rise in demand for domestic helps at a time when human labour is becoming expensive. The recent case of two Nepalese women who were allegedly abused and exploited in a Saudi diplomat's Gurgaon residence is an instance of exploitation that caught the headlines.
The decision comes on the back of the Supreme Court directing the government to prepare a comprehensive action plan to tackle human trafficking. The case was filed by the NGO Prajwala.
Following the SC's intervention the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) submitted a report recommending that one unified agency should be created to address concerns.

Source: Times of India, 6-10-2015

Runaway boy returns to J'khand

Ambika Pandit

New Delhi:





SHOs Traced His Home; Teen Lived At Railway Stn Before Being Rescued

Sixteen-year-old Monu (name changed) ran away from home in a Jharkhand village to make a living in Delhi along with other boys from his neighbourhood. After a short stint on odd jobs in Chandigarh he landed at Old Delhi railway station. Lucky to be rescued and admitted to the first drug de-addiction shelter for street and runaway children at Delhi Gate in June, he was happily reunited with his brother from Jharkhand on Monday .Monu would have been one of the many children who get lost and do not even make it to the database of missing children but for the efforts of counsellors at the night shelter that was converted as the first de-addiction centre for street and runaway children.The SHOs of police stations in Delhi and Hazaribagh helped trace the boy's house. Finally , it emerged as a heart-wrenching story of a boy who lost his parents while he was just a toddler.
According to Jhanvi Jain, counsellor and in-charge at the de-addiction shelter run by NGO Society for Promotion of Youth & Masses, from the day Monu arrived he wanted to return home. “He gave us the address and de tails and we started the hunt for his family . After much struggle and coordination with the police we finally managed to connect with the family on Sunday . Monu was delighted to hear that his brother was coming,“ Jain said.
The boy told TOI that he dropped out of school after Class V . He was living with his brother who was married with two children and worked in Assam. Earlier this year, Monu had gone to his village in Hazaribagh with his brother and sister-in-law. But soon his brother left for Assam and his sister-in-law for Kolkata to meet her children enrolled in a residential school. Alone for almost a month, Monu was lured by other boys coming to Delhi to earn money .
“I caught a train along with my friends without informing anyone. I reached Chandigarh where I worked for some time and then came to Delhi in June. When we got off from the train I got lost in the crowd and then an NGO brought me here,“ Monu said.
He was produced before the Child Welfare Committee (Kingsway Camp) which allowed him to return with his brother after an assurance that he would be enrolled in a vocational course and the proof sent to the CWC.
While Monu has left the capital happily with a promise to fight poverty , now it is for the authorities to ensure rehabilitation once he returns to Jharkhand. Without follow up on cases of poor children like Monu, child rights activists say they many times return to the streets to fight hunger and poverty .

Source: The Times of India, 16-09-2015

In search of freedom

With 2.5 million people a year falling victim to it, human trafficking forms a lucrative illicit economy that must be attacked from every angle.

The United Nations (UN) has designated July 30 as World Day against Trafficking in Persons. It is a good day to remind ourselves of the plight of an estimated 2.5 million people and 1.2 million children who are victims of trafficking every year all over the world.

Kailash Satyarthi

It is also a good day to confront the burgeoning issue of modern-day slavery. We live in times when teenage girls are sold in slave markets for as little as a pack of cigarettes. These are times when young boys are forced to become soldiers and are handed guns and swords instead of toys and books. The examples of trafficking and modern-day slavery are increasing steadily, and require concerted and cohesive action so that future generations are protected.

Despite technology, which has put information and knowledge at our fingertips, civilisation has woken up to the scourge of slavery only in the last few decades. Human trafficking results in and fuels all forms of slavery such as sexual exploitation, forced labour, other forms of labour exploitation, forced marriages, and the abuse of children in armed conflicts. Curbing human trafficking becomes imperative in tackling slavery.

The world over, human trafficking is labelled as the third most lucrative illicit trade, after drugs and arms. But it is, in fact, the single largest illicit trade in the world. Slavery, prevalent in almost all countries of the world, amounts to U.S.$32 billion according to official sources and a definitive U.S.$150 billion according to non-governmental sources.

Take the example of a girl trafficked illegally in a red-light area. A solicitor pays approximately Rs. 500 on an average.If the girl performs sexual acts for 10 people a day and there are 100 such girls in the area, then that area alone generates Rs. 5 lakh in black money in a single day. This, when expanded to the thousands of such areas in almost a hundred countries, amounts to huge amounts of black money. This money is used, in turn, to support all other illicit trades, thus setting off a booming economy based on trafficking.

It is this nexus of black money exchange that needs to be dismantled. The lucrative illicit economy that has been built up around trafficking in persons must be attacked from every angle.

Despite its frightening repercussions, there are major legal lacunae in the definition, tracking and punishment of trafficking. A global concerted effort has come up only in the last few decades, after the passing of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Palermo Protocol) in 2000.

In the Indian context, on the other hand, traffic in human beings has been prohibited as a fundamental right granted in the Constitution. Untouchability and trafficking are two crimes that are prescribed as punishable in the Constitution itself.

Despite this, a comprehensive law was laid down only in 2013, which made trafficking a criminal offence. India ratified the Palermo Protocol after a case was filed by my organisation, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA). The Justice Verma committee report has dedicated two entire chapters to the issue on the basis of suggestions and recommendations from BBA.

The delayed action by government agencies against trafficking has resulted in its widespread incidence across the country, which spans from trafficking into forced labour in hazardous work and factories to the seemingly innocuous trafficking into domestic labour. As per official estimates, 15 children go missing every hour in India and 8 are never found. The real number of trafficked children is never known. The international nexus of trafficking has manifestations right inside our homes. Under the garb of supplying cheap domestic help, placement agencies traffic people, making this a large organised crime, especially in metropolitan cities. The problem hence needs not just organisational solutions but societal involvement too.

In this backdrop, other disturbing forms of trafficking are also emerging. Children in armed conflicts, illegal adoptions, the sale of organs, and trafficking for marriage are some of the other ugly heads of trafficking that have emerged in the past few years.

I have always maintained that India is a land of a hundred problems and the mother of a billion solutions. Filling policy gaps to counter trafficking, especially in the area of rehabilitation, is the foremost need. Next in line is an efficient legal response to all reported cases of trafficking. The enforcement of law and the subsequent enforcement of justice must be immediate and become a deterrent.

Trafficking is an organised crime that needs concerted inter-state and inter-agency efforts. Arresting a guilty placement agent, or shutting down a factory that employs trafficked persons is not enough. The entire money trail needs to be tracked and everyone involved tried as per law.

The victims of trafficking, especially children, need safe social and economic rehabilitation. Higher budgetary allocations are needed for their immediate help and counselling, besides making arrangements for their vocational training, housing and repatriation. The reintroduction to education is also a must. Also, changes in the education system to include rights-based information, if given to each child, can lay the foundations of an aware and secure generation. Schools and parents must make children aware of the dangers of trafficking and prepare them to recognise and tackle it.

All these efforts will only see results through dedicated public participation. Our social conscience has to treat trafficking for what it is, a crime and an evil. We can, all of us, help combat trafficking. Stay vigilant and inform the authorities whenever you see a case of exploitation, do not frequent restaurants or shops that employ child labour, report homes that employ children, be sensitive towards victims of sexual abuse, and participate actively in dialogue against trafficking and slavery. Businesses and corporate houses must self-monitor and map their supply chain to ensure there is no trafficking or forced labour.

I believe that together we can eliminate human trafficking across the world. Freedom is a non-negotiable right and each one of us, irrespective of our economic and social status, deserves to have it. The shackles of slavery can never be stronger than the quest for freedom.

(Kailash Satyarthi is Nobel Peace Laureate, 2014.)

Keywords: human trafficking, Kailash Satyarthi, Bachpan Bachao Andolan