Modern slavery

When incidents of forced labour or sex trafficking hit the headlines, the law-enforcing machinery suddenly gets into a firefighting mode. Victims are rescued and success stories circulate. But the magnitude of human trafficking and its disastrous impact on people and society often go unnoticed. According to an UNDOC report, the most common forms of human trafficking are sex trafficking (79 per cent), forced labour (18 per cent), and debt bondage. Around 27 million human beings are reported to be living in conditions akin to slavery, and 20 per cent of all trafficking victims happen to be children. The unethical trade, worth billions of dollars, is flourishing globally. According to Antonio Maria Costa — the executive director of UNDOC — despite the rise in cases of human trafficking, many countries are still in denial and 40 per cent of the countries haven't even recorded a single conviction yet.

India, too, has its own share of the problem. According to GSI 2018, around 8.1 million people are trapped in modern-day slavery in the country — more than 20 per cent of human trafficking victims globally. The figure may be three-fold if forced marriages, sex trafficking and child labour are included. About 65 per cent of victims are forced to labour in tea farming, manufacturing industries, brickmaking and mining. A heartrending fact is that there are about 10 million children aged 5-14 as forced labourers. The NCRB data shows that around 60 per cent of the victims rescued are children, while women and girls account for 55 per cent. While 45 per cent were trafficked for forced labour and 33 per cent for sex trade, the rest are victims of forced marriages, begging, domestic service, drug peddling etc.

Whether the victims acquiesce in trafficking due to poverty and social vulnerability, or the law-enforcing agencies turn apathetic, or the trafficking gangs receive political patronage or the laws lack teeth, are some germane questions. India, the largest democracy and one of the global leaders in many aspects, cannot put up with the infamy of being one of the 'source' and as well as 'destination' countries of human trafficking.

There is no dearth of laws against trafficking. Article 23 provides for fundamental right against human trafficking. In addition to the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) 1986, Sections 366B, 366-A, 372 and 373 of IPC are specific penal provisions against importation of girls from foreign countries, and procuration, buying and selling of minor girls for prostitution. Moreover, the new amended section 370A of IPC in 2013 broadened the scope of the definition of trafficking provided by Palermo Protocol 2000. It reads: "(1) whoever, for the purpose of exploitation, (a) recruits, (b) transports, (c) harbours, (d) transfers, or (e) receives, a person or persons, by (i) using threats, or (ii) using force, or any other form of coercion, or (iii) by abduction, or (iv) by practicing fraud, or deception, or by abuse of power, or (vi) by inducement, including the giving or receiving of payments or benefits, in order to achieve the consent of any person having control over the person recruited, transported, harboured, transferred or received, commits the offence of trafficking". Earlier, Section 370 was confined to sex trafficking alone.

Nevertheless, crimes of human trafficking continue unabated in all its forms. Statistics only disappoint. A report by NHRC says that 40,000 children are abducted each year, and 11,000 remain untraced. Under the POCSO Act, 36 per cent of total crimes were against children. According to NCRB's report, a total of 2,189 cases of human trafficking were registered in 2021 as compared to 1,714 in 2020 — an increase of 27.7 per cent; these are only reported cases, unreported ones could be far higher in number. Eight children are trafficked every day and exploited for sex, labour and begging and worse is that 77,535 children were reported to be missing. The total number of 1,49,404 cases in 2021 saw an increase of 16 per cent in crimes against children. When chargesheet was filed in 85 per cent of the cases only 16 per cent was the rate of conviction and no convictions were reported at all in eight states — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Telangana, Delhi, Chandigarh and Jammu & Kashmir. In the last three years, human trafficking was reported to be rampant in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Jharkhand, Kerala, Odisha and Rajasthan in descending order.

Human trafficking directly violates basic human rights, for it involves unlawful restriction on movement, denial of right to negotiate work conditions and access to earnings. In the long run, victims are subjected to adverse psychological, social and economic consequences. The rehabilitation measures are barely adequate to ensure proper livelihood with dignity. Laws have the force of deterrence, but the demand for more and new laws stands no ground since the existing laws are yet to be enforced effectively. Despite commissioning Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTU) in 270 districts and issuing various advisories to states and UTs to increase the responsiveness of the system, the results are not very encouraging.

Prevention of the crime is more important than prosecution of offence. The focus needs to be at the root of the problem. Human trafficking feeds on social oppression in forms of religion, caste, gender and economic inequalities. The common factors behind human trafficking are hunger, need to provide for the family, natural disasters and armed conflicts. Human trafficking only exposes the gaps in poverty alleviation and employment generation schemes, for there would have been a decline in migration or human trafficking had the schemes delivered the intended results. UJJWALA scheme of WCD Ministry was rolled out in 2016 to exclusively prevent sex trafficking and rehabilitate the victims but doesn't cover other forms of trafficking. Perhaps we need to devise more effective schemes to address poverty, hunger and unemployment at grassroot levels, especially to empower women and the youth. The focus needs to be the 'source' states rather than the 'destination' ones since the human development indices are pathetic there. The vulnerable sections of society, backward areas, and disaster-stricken regions serve as breeding grounds for human trafficking. They need special attention for upliftment and development. Increased access to education, local job opportunities and food security will make a great difference. Similarly, 'source' districts of child trafficking should be priority for the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) alongside doubling allocations for all programmes of child and adolescent development.

Enforcement of laws against trafficking should be proactive in spirit. Instead of waiting for commission of crime or for the FIR, the police should try to apprehend the suspects beforehand by sniffing the motive and intent. Secondly, rather than booking the poor pimps or middle men, the main invisible perpetrators must be targeted. Media deserves credit for tracking the crimes and saving the victims from time to time. Cooperation between the authorities, NGOs, lawmakers and the media is a must, for it works as a deterrent against the traffickers. Finally, district authorities can deliver better by rationing time and manpower on VIP protocols and fanfares, and concentrate on administrative priorities of human welfare.

The writer is a former Addl. Chief Secretary of Chhattisgarh. Views expressed are personal