9/11/22, 9:13 PM Human Trafficking in India - The Borgen Project

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CHILDREN, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, HUMAN TRAFFICKING, HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN INDIA, INDIA, Global Poverty 101

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FAQ’s

With its current population of 1.3 billion people

[https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/india-population/] ,
Search 
India is the second-largest country in the world. However, with its size
comes a myriad of human rights issues. With so many people in one
country, many of them can easily fall under the radar. Human trafficking in
India is one of the most prominent human rights issues within the country.
TAKE ACTION
In India, kidnappings for labor and sexual needs have been constant. In Call Congress
2020, a U.S. Department of State report identified India as a Tier 2 Email Congress
country [https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-trafficking-in-persons- Donate
report/india/] . In spite of many genuine efforts, the country remains 30 Ways to Help
hindered by its inadequate solutions to alleviate the problem and the Volunteer Ops

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department feels that India did not sufficiently ensure the mitigation of Internships
the issue. Enslavement has also been a common issue. In 2016, the Global
Slavery Index found that 18 million people
[https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2016/06/28/welcome-
india-country-18-million-slaves] out of 46 million people are enslaved in
India.

Trafficking of Women

Within the system of human trafficking in India, most of those victimized

are either women or minors. In 2016, The National Crime Records Bureau
estimated that 33,855 people in India
[https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/mar/07/india-
girls-women-trafficked-brides-sexual-domestic-slavery] have been
victims of kidnapping for the purpose of marriage. Half of this percentage
consisted of individuals under 18 years of age. Kidnappers most
commonly force women into commercial sex and indentured servitude.

Bride trafficking has also been a consistent commodity

[https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/dec/17/india-
bride-trafficking-foeticide] due to skewed sex ratios in certain areas.
There has been a lack of women for the larger male population to marry,
so many buy their partners. A UNODC report in 2013 found that of the 92
villages of the Indian state of Haryana, nine out of 10 households bought
wives from poor villages in other parts of the country. The report also
mentioned that most of the women experienced abuse and rape as well as
working like slaves.

Child Kidnappings

Alongside the trade of women, many child kidnappings

[https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jul/30/global-
development-india-child-trafficking] occur. Kidnappers force many of the
victims into servitude within industries of agriculture and manufacturing.
In 2016, the Central Bureau of Investigation estimated that 135,000
children [http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/06/children-of-a-lesser-god-
trafficking-soars-in-india/] become victims of human trafficking in India
annually. Many of the Indian train stations, such as Sealdah in the city of
Kolkata, have had reports of youth kidnapping. Due to the frantic
environment of the station, most of these disappearances go unnoticed. A
lot of these children either live near the station due to poverty and abuse
at home or travel out to work despite the danger and illegality of child
labor. Children have also experienced kidnapping during natural disasters.
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During an earthquake in Nepal, traffickers targeted children whose

parents had lost their lives. Wherever traffickers send these children, they
work in brutal conditions and receive little pay or nothing at all.

Action in Legislation

Despite the magnitude of the issue and the bleakness it presents, there
are glimmers of hope. The government and the public have pushed to
mitigate these problems. Prosecution and the tracking of victims are
becoming a focus of legislation creation. The Ministry of Women and
Child Development has worked to develop a new law to combat the issue.
The draft law will include measures to make placement agencies
compulsory and rules to monitor where workers are from and where they
are going. The 2020 Department of Justice report recommended that
increased prosecutions and legislation are necessary to combat the issues.

There are also Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that can give

outside assistance in helping trapped women escape. One such group is
Chetanalaya, [http://chetanalaya.org/History.aspx#] which is the social
action group of the Archdiocese of Delhi. Started in 1970, the
organization focuses on mobilizing volunteer groups and state and union
governments to assist in its efforts. The group has managed to liberate
more than 800 enslaved domestic workers in the past two decades.

Helping Faceless

With the rise of technology in India, many have looked to use new
innovations to assist in their cause. An example of this is the app Helping
Faceless. [https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-09-26/these-new-indian-
apps-target-bribery-child-trafficking-and-male-creepiness] Created in
2013, it helps fight child kidnapping and trafficking through the use of
search engines that use facial recognition to help find wandering youth. To
assist in helping women, the website is available for anonymous
documentation of sexual assaults and other horrific experiences. By 2015,
5,000 downloads [https://www.thebetterindia.com/22482/helping-
faceless-mobile-app-reunite-street-kids-mobile4good/] had occurred and
the app continues to grow with attempts to improve the technology.
Moreover, some are proposing to bring it to other countries that have
similar human rights issues.

Going Forward

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While the current issues regarding human trafficking in India are

immense, the information and technology available can help alleviate the
problem. Looking into a problem is one of the best steps in creating a good
future and, while it may take a while, there is reason to hope. With the
large population in the country, there are many individuals who have
survived these experiences and are ready to fight to ensure that others
will not endure them.

– John Dunkerley

Photo: Flickr [https://www.flickr.com/photos/nhi_dg/15885121712/in/photolist-qcHpfQ-oiAXk-7i5JKN-

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JULY 7, 2021

FORCED LABOR, HUMAN TRAFFICKING, INDIA

CAUSES OF HUMAN
TRAFFICKING IN INDIA

Human trafficking [https://borgenproject.org/5-causes-of-human-

trafficking/] , defined as the illegal trade of humans most commonly for the
purposes of sexual slavery and forced labor, currently claims an estimated

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24.9 million victims worldwide, and the Global Slavery Index estimates
that 8 million trafficking victims live within India’s borders. In 2016, there
were 8,132 human trafficking [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-
trafficking/indias-human-trafficking-data-masks-reality-of-the-crime-
campaigners-idUSKBN1DY1RP] cases reported in India, a 20 percent
increase from 2015, and there were 23,117 people rescued from the
human trafficking system.

Of the people rescued, 60 percent were children, women and girls

accounted for 55 percent, 33 percent were trafficked for sexual services,
and 45 percent were trafficked for forced labor. While much of the global
pervasiveness of human trafficking can be explained only by extreme
poverty, political instability and war, the causes of human trafficking in
India are more nuanced.

Causes of Human Trafficking in India

The causes of human trafficking in India can be explained in part by

gender-based discrimination, responsible for the deaths of approximately
239,000 girls [https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/15/asia/gender-
discrimination-india-deaths-intl/index.html] under the age of five in India
each year. Gender-based discrimination is a cultural norm in India, as sons
are considered more useful to the family than daughters. This heavily
patriarchal society leaves girls with limited access to education, leading to
gender gaps in both literacy rates and financial earning potentials.

According to the 2011 census, the literacy rate was 82 percent for men
and 65 percent for women, and according to the 2013 census, men were
paid 25 percent more than women. As a result of gender-based
discrimination, the sex ratio in India is greatly skewed.

Because there are far more men in India than young women, bride
trafficking, or the illegal sale of women
[https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/11/cows-goats-india-
slave-brides-161114084933017.html] for the purpose of marriage, is
becoming more prevalent in India. In the more rural Northern states,
where the sex ratio is worse than the national average, bride trafficking
has become a norm. More than 90 percent of married women in these
Northern states have been sold from other states, some as many as three
times, often first becoming brides as preteens. Gender-based
discrimination in India has perpetuated a societal structure that strongly
favors males over females to the point of self-destruction, as men are
unable to find wives, thus driving demand for the human trafficking of
women in India for the purpose of marriage.

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Sex Trafficking

Another cause of human trafficking in India is a lack of opportunity in

India’s poor communities, especially for uneducated women, to provide
for their families. In 2012, only 43 percent of women in India worked
regular wage or salaried positions. Victims of sex trafficking in India are
predominantly young, illiterate girls from impoverished families in rural
states. Although poverty is decreasing in India, 28 percent of the
population still lives below the poverty line.

Poor communities are especially vulnerable to human traffickers, as they

often offer better job opportunities
[http://www.asianphilanthropyforum.org/cruel-economics-human-
trafficking-india/] or debt relief to lure victims. With limited opportunities
to make money, offers like these are hard to decline for young women. Sex
trafficking victims average 10 to 14 years of age, down from its previous
average of 14 to 16, because younger girls are thought to be less likely to
carry sexually-transmitted diseases.

Forced Labor

The causes of male trafficking in India is primarily tied with forced or

bonded labor
[https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/country-
studies/india/] . Bonded labor, defined as a system of forced or partly
forced labor under which a debtor accepts an advance of cash for a pledge
of labor, by the debtor or any member of the debtor’s family, for the
benefit of a creditor, is deeply entrenched in India’s social structure. While
bonded labor was abolished in India in 1976, many industries who rely on
bonded labor schemes for their workforces have turned to the human
trafficking trade for workers in their spinning mills, granite quarries and
brick kilns.

Like the bride and sex trafficking trade, forced labor traffickers recruit
victims from poor, rural areas of India, promising lump-sum payments at
the end of their contracts. Workers are meagerly compensated for their
labor, and terrible working conditions provoke illnesses that lead to wage
advances and loans that keep the worker in lifelong debt to their
contractors.

Solutions

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The Government of India has been making strides to address

[http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/04/india-cracks-human-trafficking/] its
human trafficking problem by heightening its border security, increasing
its budget for aid to trafficking victims and drafting an anti-trafficking bill.
In February 2018, the Union Cabinet passed the Trafficking in Persons Bill
to be voted on by Parliament. If passed, the bill would criminalize
aggravated forms of trafficking and establish a national anti-trafficking
bureau, along with locally stationed anti-trafficking units. This bill also
includes methods to rehabilitate victims, addresses physical and mental
trauma and promoted education, health and skill development.

Additionally, the Rescue Foundation [http://www.rescuefoundation.net/] ,

established in 2000, helps to investigate, rescue and rehabilitate victims
of human trafficking in India. Rehabilitation programs include education,
computer training, legal aid and counseling. As a result of the Rescue
Foundation, more than 5,000 victims have been rescued and more than
15,000 have been rehabilitated and repatriated.

The causes of human trafficking in India include gender discrimination, a

vulnerability of the impoverished population and the desperation of the
impoverished to support their families. Trafficking industries in India are
taking advantage of the plight of India’s disadvantaged and impoverished
population for the benefit of others, as trafficking victims are rarely paid
as they’re promised.

However, human trafficking in India seems to be endangered as the

government progresses in reducing human trafficking in the nation by
increasing its border security, aid for trafficking victims and passing the
Trafficking in Persons Bill to Parliament. Moreover, nongovernmental
organizations like the Rescue Foundation have been successful in
rescuing, rehabilitating, and repatriating victims of trafficking back to
their families.

– Jillian Baxter

Photo: Flickr [https://www.flickr.com/photos/empowerpeople/41040946020/in/album-

72157698072428835/]

FEBRUARY 3, 2019

GLOBAL POVERTY, HUMAN TRAFFICKING, INDIA, SEXUAL VIOLENCE, WOMEN & CHILDREN

SUDARA HELPS WOMEN AND

GIRLS ESCAPE SEX
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TRAFFICKING IN INDIA

The trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation is the fastest
growing criminal enterprise in the world. This profitable industry
generates an estimated $99 billion each year. Unsurprisingly, women and
girls [https://www.equalitynow.org/sex-trafficking-fact-sheet] make up 96
percent of victims of sex trafficking. The action of sexual exploitation is a
human rights violation. This exploitation robs these women and girls of
integrity, dignity, health, security and equality.

Sex Trafficking in India an Ongoing Issue Despite New Laws

Sex trafficking in India continues to be lucrative and persistent, and

poverty is a major factor. Many vulnerable women and girls are lured into
the industry because of the promise of employment. When these women
and girls are faced with the harsh reality of poverty, hunger and
homelessness, many of them see this as the only option. Matters of
poverty are sometimes so severe that parents will sell their own
daughters into the trade. These women and children have no other
options because they do not possess an education or the skills or the
resources to escape sex slavery.

Although India’s Parliament passed a bill amending laws concerning sexual

violence and making sex trafficking a criminal offense
[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/opinion/sex-trafficking-in-
india.html] in 2013, this law will only be so successful. Trafficking is
profitable, and corruption is widespread. Traffickers can easily pay off
police officers to avoid the deserved charges, which leaves women and
children still very much at risk and unprotected.

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Sudara Provides Employment Opportunities for Sex

Trafficking Victims

A mission-driven company exists on behalf of these women and children

to not only empower them, but to provide them with dignified
employment opportunities. Sudara is an online store that sells items such
as clothing, bags, jewelry and children’s toys, yet there is so much story
behind each of these items.

Sudara started in 2006 by partnering with a sewing center in India

[https://www.sudara.org/pages/our-story] and taught six women how to
sew a pattern for loungewear pants that have been named Punjammies.
The previous year, founder Shannon Keith had just returned from a trip to
India, where she heard many stories of women who were sold into sex
slavery and women who were being picked up off the streets by local
pimps.

From the beginning, Sudara’s focus and goal has remained the same: to
empower women to live in freedom from sex slavery through safe,
sustainable living-wage employment. Every pair of Punjammies robes and
slouch pants are made in India, and every style is named after a woman at
one of the centers.

Fifteen years later, Sudara has multiple sewing center partnerships with
people from all over India and the United States. One of these center
partners, Ivana, provides women who are at high risk of trafficking with
valuable skills training on computers and tailoring
[https://www.sudara.org/pages/our-team] . In addition, the center also
offers counseling services for every woman as well as on-site childcare for
their children.

Sudara’s mission also emphasizes providing a level of care that allows a

woman who has been a victim of sex trafficking in India to heal from her
past and facilitate training that leads to a self-sufficient future. Because of
this, Sudara pays the sewing center partners a premium that goes towards
medical care and counseling. This premium also goes towards job
placement services and micro-loans for women who would like to start a
business of their own.

Sudara’s Nonprofit Arm Helps the Most Vulnerable in India

Sudara also created a nonprofit organization, the Sudara Freedom Fund,

to further its social impact goals. The donations made during checkout at
sudara.org go towards the Sudara Freedom Fund and have helped fund

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safe housing for women escaping sex trafficking in India, equipment for
new or growing sewing centers and back-to-school programs.

With the continuous support of donations to the Sudara Freedom Fund,

one of their most recent successes is the Sunetha Home
[https://blog.sudara.org/sudara-story-empowering-women-girls/] , which
opened in 2017. The Sunetha Home is providing safe housing, meals and
an education for 10 girls living in a red light district of India.

Although companies such as Sudara and its nonprofit, the Sudara Freedom
Fund, are putting their efforts towards creating freedom for hundreds of
women and girls who are at high risk of sex trafficking in India, it is not
enough to end sex slavery once and for all. To do that, it is necessary to
break the cycle of slavery for the next generation and the generations
after that. By supporting Sudara and other philanthropic organization,
many people are doing their part to combat the sexual exploitation that
millions of women and children face.

– Angelina Gillespie

Photo: Flickr [https://www.flickr.com/photos/m1key-me/8511213696/in/photolist-bD4uHi-hYZwi2-

4JrVmc-dZRjFE-dY7ciJ-dXQVq9-dM4dpQ-pQMzRt-pfizqM-9s5nZ5-9VfKGQ-cuuBz3-iziD4e-e2FCFs-

Bpy4fW-cSkvGs-qM9qmV-9L1FVK-kJbaB4-bP17H8-cuunoY-9A9DBV-9AGTP5-4qntUg-5Lq7m6-

8bYkKR-anyXUs-YXYe2-61WgVk-6gRjWS-eYmxJ8-nMZZee-kJcj3S-kL69Qp-6zzEyx-dtN69K-8NfUzE-

6GDhQZ-7xuwNF-o5n6F1-dtN6cP-RDwDir-6HeCWM-7ycspP-M9zzrb-6AZxUv-o3r7wL-5VKRpZ-

9zY8Ew]

JUNE 8, 2018

GLOBAL POVERTY, HUMAN TRAFFICKING, MODERN SLAVERY, SLAVERY

TOP 10 MODERN-DAY
SLAVERY FACTS

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While many may associate slavery [https://borgenproject.org/types-of-

slavery/] with the past, the sad truth is that slavery is a bigger issue in
today’s world. The numbers are greater than ever, and are only growing.
There are a lot of myths surrounding modern-day slavery facts
[https://borgenproject.org/top-10-modern-day-slavery-facts/] , and a
huge amount of basic information that many civilians are not aware of.
Knowledge is power, and in the effort to equip citizens with the tools to
fight this growing threat, these are the top 10 modern-day slavery facts
that people should be aware of.

Top 10 Modern-Day Slavery Facts

1. Slavery is more rampant now than it has ever been. The numbers
prove that there are more slaves in the world now than there has
ever been throughout all of history, and those numbers are only
growing. With as many as 40 million modern-day slaves
[https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/19/world/global-slavery-estimates-
ilo/index.html] in the world today, this increase is something to take
seriously.

2. There are more enslaved laborers than trafficked sex slaves. Many
people associate modern-day slavery with sex trafficking, but in
reality, 68 percent [http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-
ilo/newsroom/comment-analysis/WCMS_181922/lang--
en/index.htm] of enslaved persons are trapped in forced labor of
some sort. These people are enslaved in industries highly consumed
in places like the United States, the U.K. and other first world
countries. Slaves are laboring in the agriculture, textile, chocolate,
mining and other industries that many people purchase from, directly
or indirectly, on a daily basis.

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3. One-fourth of the slave population

[https://www.alliance87.org/global_estimates_of_modern_slavery-
forced_labour_and_forced_marriage.pdf] consists of children. Kids
are being forced into slavery around the globe every day. Two
hundred thousand become child soldiers and are thrown into very
violent lifestyles against their wills.

4. Forty-six percent of people know their trafficker

[https://www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/issues_doc/labour/Forced_labour/HU
_THE_FACTS_-_final.pdf] . With almost half of enslaved persons
having been trafficked by someone they knew, this threat is
becoming harder to avoid. People who become enslaved are not
always engaged in risky behavior or being careless. Many times,
these people are simply hanging out with a friend they thought they
could trust.

5. Slaves are cheaper than they used to be, and therefore disposable. In
1850, a slave could be purchased for the modern equivalent of
$40,000. These slaves were, therefore, a long-term investment and
something to flaunt as a sign of wealth. Nowadays, a slave can be
bought for $90 [https://www.freetheslaves.net/about-
slavery/slavery-today/] . Being so inexpensive, slaves have become
short-term, disposable and something that buyers do not want to
publicly acknowledge. When a slave becomes sick or injured, they are
simply “dumped” or killed.

6. Poverty makes people vulnerable to trafficking. When people or

families make less money, due to unemployment, war or immigrating,
they become at risk. Traffickers pose as employment agents, and
those needing a job go along with them, only to become enslaved.
Families who want a better life for their children are often targeted
by traffickers posing as placement agents, who promise the family a
good home or schooling for their child. The family never knows what
becomes of their child, who is forced into slavery
[https://borgenproject.org/10-child-labor-facts/] .

7. It is not just traffickers that enslave people. Sometimes governments

still force labor upon their citizens. In Uzbekistan, people are forced
to harvest cotton for two months out of every year. In Mauritania
[https://borgenproject.org/poverty-in-mauritania/] , the country with
the highest percent of slavery among its people at 20 percent
[https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/06/the-
country-where-slavery-is-still-normal/241148/] , there are still laws
that prohibit slaves from attaining the rights of normal civilians.

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8. About half of the world’s slaves exist in India. Fourteen million

modern-day slaves live in India. Many of these people are “debt
slaves [https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/bonded-labour/] “,
meaning that people in debt are forced to work to pay off their debt.
It extends to their children and grandchildren, becoming a multi-
generational chain of slavery.

9. While slaves are cheap, the profits from them are huge. Annually, the
slave market brings in $150 billion
[https://50forfreedom.org/modern-slavery/] annually, which adds up
to be more than the combined revenues of the world’s four richest
companies.

10. Almost everyone is contributing to slavery. Even though most people

are not actually trafficking anyone into modern-day slavery, the fact
is that even our electronics have been touched by slavery, due to the
gold or other materials used to make them originating from conflict
areas. Ninety percent of the shrimp shipped to United States comes
from companies overseas using forced labor. The chocolate bars
people consume, the clothing people put on every day, the tomatoes
used to make salsa for families, the sugar in the candy given during
the holidays and even the soccer balls
[http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-
world/national/article63810932.html] used in school tournaments
are all made or harvested by slave labor. It has trickled down into
almost all products used on a daily basis. Becoming a conscious buyer
and consumer can make a difference in ways that many are not
aware exist.

While slavery is a bigger problem than ever, the moral battle has been
won; slavery is no longer considered a just practice. It has become
something to be ashamed of, and that was not always the case. What the
world has ahead of it are the numbers of enslaved people that need to be
freed. While the battle has yet to be won for slavery, becoming informed
and spreading the word can truly conquer a lot. These modern-day slavery
facts are all very real, and when the rest of the population works to create
change, the slavery numbers might be able to be reduced.

– Emily Degn

Photo: Flickr [https://www.flickr.com/photos/dfid/37320605562/in/album-

72157687164527534/]

APRIL 9, 2018

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