Modern World Slavery

"The trade in human persons constitutes a shocking offence against human dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human rights. It is an affront to fundamental values that are shared by all cultures and peoples, values rooted in the very nature of the human person"

(Pope John Paul II, Vatican City, 15 May 2002)

Case Study : India

The Story

“Born in a poor family in Pileru, Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh, instead of going to school Bhavani worked with her parents, who were landless laborers. Her family of eleven consisted of six sisters and three brothers. On the assurance of a maternal cousin, 12-year old Bhavani was married to Amar who worked in Delhi. “Even though I was young I felt very happy to get married as they gave my parents lot of money and took care of the marriage expenses.” After the marriage, Bhavani and her husband accompanied by the cousin left for Delhi. On reaching New Delhi Railway Station, Amar asked Bhavani to stay with her cousin till he made arrangements for family accommodation. Her cousin’s house turned out to be a brothel on G B Road the red light area in New Delhi. Bhavani’s ordeal began the very next day when she was asked to cater to a customer. She then came to know that she had been sold for a sum of Rs.45, 000/- (USD 1000.00). Interacting with other girls she realized that her ‘husband’ had married ‘twelve times’ in that year alone. Her resistance to be initiated was met with a lot of beatings and starvation. After seven days of struggle Bhavani gave in. After five abortions and innumerable sexually transmitted infections, Bhavani today at the age of 17yrs is rescued and”HIV positive.” (www.Prajwalaindia.com)

This is a story of a just one, a world which is renowned to talk constantly about establishing love, peace, respect and humanity, pays a deaf ear to hundreds and millions of voices similar to this, out there begging a stop to this unimaginable crime against humanity and human life.

It is shocking to note that India is listed in the Tier II list of the UN which includes countries having failed to combat human trafficking. Given the vast population and the existence of innumerable social stigmas and social discrimination based upon class and creed has resulted in India becoming the harbor for human trafficking.

United Nation, in Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines Trafficking in Persons as

“the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs”

Hundreds of thousands of young adults and children are traded for flesh in the guise of jobs, marriage, acting roles, modeling and love. More often than not these traders of human misery are not strangers to the victims. Criminal conspiracy to exploit human vulnerability is at the core of human trafficking. Trafficking in women and children is one of the worst forms of violation of human rights - a form of modern day slavery where the victim is subjected to violence, violation of personal integrity and total humiliation. Most of the times, the victim of such devastating violence may also end up with life threatening HIV/AIDS or a lifetime of trauma and personality disintegration.

Victims

The main targets of this heinous crime are those unfortunates who are unable to find jobs or is so uneducated and cannot support means for livelihood .Mostly, those mentally disturbed, or those subject to social discrimination, deprived and marginalized becomes the perfect subjects for trafficking. Regrettably, children are no less amongst the victims who are exploited due to their helplessness and vulnerability.

The United Nations estimates that 700,000 to 4 million women and children are trafficked around the world for purposes of forced prostitution, labor and other forms of exploitation every year. Trafficking is estimated to be a $7 billion dollar annual business. These victims of trafficking are often subject to gross human rights violations including, rape, torture, forced abortions, starvation, and threats of torturing.

According to UN statistics, nearly every country is involved in the web of trafficking activities, either as a country of origin, destination or transit. Countries of destination include Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, France, India, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

Reason

Like many social ills, trafficking in human beings is a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional phenomenon that has many different ‘drivers’ (or ‘root causes’), which have a tendency to reinforce each other. The most common factors for human trafficking include;

• Abject poverty, especially the feminization of poverty

• A lack of political, social and economical stability

• A lack of reasonable and realistic prospects for human development

• Situations of armed conflict and oppression

• Domestic violence and disintegration of the family structure

• Gender discrimination and low status of women in different cultures

• Lack of access to education and information

• Vulnerability of society

•The HIV-AIDS reality and the vulnerability of children

Karl Marx and Engels in the book, “The origin of family, private property and the state” argues that women’s subordination is not a result of her biological disposition but of social relation. This meant that it is but a social construction which delineates women and confines women in certain work spheres, leading them to become vulnerable and degraded. This level of economic discrimination no doubt leads to women at some point even to consent to such networks of traffickers. Desperate, oppressed and left in the cocoon of political confusion and social atrocities, women and the marginalized section of society is slowly swept into the wave of this network.

It is extremely sad to note that Human Trafficking has now become an organized institution. Those involved in this business believes that the human body is an expendable, reusable “commodity”. Several things happen during a “human being sale” from selecting, tricking, intimidation and deception of the victim to the transportation of them to the “location”. Extra precaution is paid by these professionals transporting the people in avoiding detection of law.

An extract found in an article published in youth forum read as follows,

“The recruiters are the first in the chain –often called as the “dalals” – they may be parents, neighbors, relatives or lovers or people who have been trafficked before. The dalals move to the “potential sites” for victims which mostly are the poverty-stricken areas where there has been no proper rehabilitation and then they haunt the bus stops, railway stations, streets, etc. The period they choose for trafficking depends on if that place has suffered a drought or social or political disasters recently, so that it would be easier to lure in the already suffering victims. The dalals use drugs, abduction, kidnapping, persuasion or deception to bag the targets.

The dalals usually happen to know many languages, including the local one, so that they become closer to the victim. Because in India corruption is so deep rooted, the network of such people sometimes includes the police, the visa/passport officials, taxi/auto rickshaw drivers, etc. They hand the victims to the brothel owners, escort services, or managers of a sex establishment.”

The reasons for human trafficking are many, 68 years have passed since independence and yet the benefits of economic development have not reached the marginalized sections of the society and millions of people still live below the poverty line.

The Indian constitution and Punishment for trafficking

India has addressed trafficking both directly and indirectly in the constitution.

· Article 23 of the constitution, which is a fundamental right prohibits trafficking human beings and forced labor

· Article 39 ( e ) - Directive principle of the state policy ensures that the health and strength of the individuals are not abused and that no one is forced by economic necessity to do work unsuited to their age or strength

· Article 39 ( f ) - Directive principle of state policy states that childhood and youth should be protected against exploitation

The problem arises here when while fundamental rights are enforceable through court of law, directive principles are not. Thus when article 32 provides protection; that protection is not absolute and is not protected by the constitution in its totality. Furthermore, India’s immoral trafficking prevention act 1956 is the only legislation specifically addressing trafficking.

UNODC role

As the guardian of the organized crime convention and its protocols in person and smuggling of migrants, UNODC plays a leading role in strengthening and coordinating the criminal justice response to human trafficking and smuggling of migrants. The protocols provide clear mandates to UNODC to support efforts

· To prevent and combat trafficking in person and smuggling of migrants

· To protect and assist the victims of trafficking and smuggled migrants with full respect for their human rights

· To prosecute those who traffic persons and smuggle migrants , upholding justice and ensuring and effective criminal justice response

· To promote co-operation amongst state parties and other stakeholders in order to meet those objectives,additional mandates provide for global plan of action to combat trafficking in persons is founded on the implementation of the protocol and has 3 independent components; research and awareness , promotion of protocols and capacity building and the strengthening of partnership and coordination

To achieve this, various other legislations such as Indian Penal Code are designed to criminalize a number of offenses not specifically dealt with the human trafficking. However, penalizing such acts as buying , selling of human beings, importing or exporting / kidnapping / abducting and using force indirectly prevents and protects the person under threat of being kidnapped or transported beyond the borders .

Legislations such as the Child marriage prohibition act 2006, Bonded labor abolition act 1976, Child labor prohibition act and Juvenile Justice act 2000, scheduled caste and scheduled tribes act are all enacted in view with the aforementioned objectives; prevent discrimination, protect the vulnerable and marginalized sectors from being made subject to such degradation and to prosecute those who violate the laws enacted forth. Despite these legislations however, cross border trafficking in the context of organized crime are no less and exuberates the situation.

Action Plan

Much like its causes are multi dimensional, its solutions are difficult to find and difficult to implement. Social atrocities being at the peak of its entire problem, to remove them becomes a chaotic task.

The problem being awareness amongst the people, often the victim who’s perpetrator is a family member, the poor and underfed child and the helpless sections of society. They are not aware of what is being done to them until it’s too late. In such a case, prosecution of the culprit becomes difficult.

Some of the advocates of anti trafficking system argue that, sensitizing officers at the IAS (Indian Administrative Service) and IPS (Indian Police Service) level can at the least make it easier to track the network of leaders engaged in this business. However, at the police station level that becomes a challenge as a lot of cops are not aware of the anti-trafficking laws.

According to National Crime Records Bureau data, 22,939 women and girls were kidnapped and abducted in the country in 2008. In 2009 the number rose to 25,741. Latest UNODC data on South East Asia says that 150,000 people fall prey to trafficking every year.

There is a need to develop an institutionalized system of co-ordination between the law enforcement agencies and non governmental organizations (NGOs) who sometimes prove to be more effective than government agencies in exposing human trafficking networks. There is a need to have greater co-ordination between different states in India as trafficking has a long trail from the source point to the destination with several transit points in between. Investigation in the cases involving human trafficking should be carried out with the aim to destroy this long trail. Increased co-ordination between government departments like police, public welfare, health, women and child is required to ensure an effective response. Government and NGOs should work together to ensure post-rescue rehabilitation of the victims in terms of providing them healthcare, education and other employment opportunities.

Then and then only can we remove the social and cultural differences and stigmas that is holding this nation back from development. The essence of democracy lies in the power established in the hands of people and where people themselves are suppressed by their own kind, it weakens that very essence which is vital for this nation in becoming a true democracy, the world’s proudest one for that matter.