[NYTr] The $32 billion annual trade in humans

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by  Lynette Dumble - activ-l

[Note: Well worth reading the e-paper version of this item where by
scrolling across to the extreme right is the  background information
on India's trafficking bazaars - markets which NEVER dip, worth $32
billion annually, with 150,000 [the vast majority female] trafficked
in South Asia each year - Lynette]

The Hindustan Times - Oct 14 2007
http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=506adf7a-1ffd-485b-b919-473bbd27545d

Seduced, imported, sold...

by Namita Kohli
Hindustan Times

It's a two-way street: of greed and need. When traffic flows, at the
dead end are unsuspecting people, bartered every day in a consumerist
society. As the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
identifies India as a top  source, transit and destination country for
human trafficking, the spotlight is, yet again, on the issue and its
million victims.

Prerna, 14, was lured from Andhra Pradesh to Delhi, by her aunt. On
reaching the city, she was sold to a brothel for a paltry sum. I
dont know who raped me, but there was blood on my body when I got up
the next morning. We were told that if we escaped, the police would
beat us black and blue, she says, adding, Those who dont manage to
escape, eventually turn into traffickers themselves.

One crime, many faces

For those working against trafficking, one of the biggest challenges
is its multi-faceted nature. In a rapidly transforming society,
demands are ever-changing: prostitution, domestic work, friendship
clubs, child sex tourism, migrant labour, forced marriages, even
adoption. The human trafficking market feeds on all these.

A low female sex ratio in Punjab and Haryana has given rise to
trafficking in brides from poorer states like Jharkhand and
Chattisgarh. They are brought for marriage, but many times they are
forced into the sex trade, says Rishi Kant, anti-trafficking activist
at Shakti Vahini, a Faridabad- based NGO. In a city like Delhi, says
Kant, domestic help placement agencies - all unregistered - are also
trafficking women and children in droves. In one recent case,
Darjeelings Priya Tamang, 12, came to Delhi with an IB official who
promised her parents to educate her. The child later fled and told the
police that they treated her as a maid. She is now staying in a Nari
Niketan home in Karnal.

Its a colonial mindset of master and slave, says Bharti Sharma,
chairperson, Child Welfare Committee. Sharma, who works with minor
victims at the Nirmal Chaya Complex in Delhi, says she hears stories
of multiple abuse inflicted upon children in domestic work. Away from
their families, the child is not allowed to build a social network.
Sexual, mental and economic abuse follows. In a fight or flight
situation, more often than not the latter happens. Its here that
either the child is restored to the police or goes untraceable. Of
late, she says, traffickers have also been tapping yet another market:
adoption rackets. Its a complex crime, with multiple layers.

To and fro

Even more complex are the routes charted by traffickers. According to
a 2005 National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) study by Dr PM Nair and
Sankar Sen, trafficking from neighbouring countries like Bangladesh
and Nepal is about 10 per cent; 89 per cent of the crime takes place
internally. The UNODC report clearly shows the major harvesting
zones: Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand and
Orissa. High demand areas point towards Goa, Maharashtra and Delhi.
As a transit point, Delhi scores on good connectivity - international
airports and railways stations - so criminals are using it for
trafficking people to Pakistan and the Middle East, says Delhi Police
PRO Rajan Bhagat. Girls from predominantly tribal areas like
Jharkhand are easy to lure, says Manju Hebrom, member, National
Commission for Women. Due to poverty, she says, young people become
easy prey for the traffickers, who have extensive links in remote
areas. From there, victims are transported in an organised way, with
bodies changing hands and transaction made at each stage in the process.

The law is an ass

The Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act  (ITPA) concentrates more on
prostitution, than the other forms of trafficking. Labour laws that
permit the movement of people also need to be amended, says SC Raina,
professor in charge, Campus Law Centre at Delhi University. A
constitutional mandate under Article 23, the Indian Penal Code and a
host of other laws like the JJ Act complete the legal framework
against trafficking. But implementation is the problem. Prosecution is
often delayed, witnesses are not protected and the victim is made
the criminal. Also, the police often dont even register an FIR,
says Hebrom.

We need to kill the source of demand, says Renuka Chowdhury,
minister for Women and Child Development, referring to Section 5C of
the ITPA, one of the proposed amendments that penalises the customer.
She points to the prosecutions in Andhra Pradesh : 1,008 traffickers
and over 300 customers were arrested this year.

As of now, the victim doesnt even have the right to represent, says
lawyer Aparna Bhat, pointing to the situation where the victim turns
into a mere witness. She stresses the importance of anti-trafficking
units (ATUs) and regional cooperation. This year, for the first time,
ATUs were set up in Andhra Pradesh, Goa and West Bengal.

Rescue to restore to rehabilitate

But this is only half the battle won. The NHRC study found that 24 per
cent of the rescued victims are pushed back into the trade. At the
UNODC conference, Chowdhury rattled off a slew of rehabilitation
schemes and stressed that state governments should take action.
Meanwhile at the same event, corporates waxed eloquent on strategic
philanthropy. But on the ground level, things arent as simple.

In a country where even the Below Poverty Line card is possessed by
only those who can buy it, schemes dont reach the needy, says
Sharma, recalling instances of children being re-sold by parents as
bonded labour in Bihar.

A successful rescue operation is a lost effort without
rehabilitation, says Kant. Ask the authorities to define
rehabilitation and most talk of making the victims self-reliant by
giving them stitching, knitting or beauty training. None of these
vocations is lucrative enough and soon, leads to frustration, argues
Gary Lewis, UNODC representative.

But time is running out for victims like Rekha, who was rescued from
Delhis red light area in 2001. She was only 14 when she left
Jharkhand to work in Delhi as a domestic help. One day, she decided to
return home. While waiting at a bus stop, a friendly auntie offered
her a drink. The next thing she remembers is waking up in GB Road. I
was beaten, assaulted and raped, says Rekha who was rescued a month
later. Two years later, she was still languishing in a rescue home,
waiting for the verdict. One of the many stories that NHRC has
recorded, Rekha says, I wish I hadnt been rescued.

Piecemeal efforts are on to ensure that these girls dont end up as
mere case studies. Perhaps, as Nair suggests, well-coordinated
community policing thatll emerge from the concerted effort of the
law-enforcers and the vigilant citizens can prevent the menace.

(Names of the victims have been changed)