sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or (B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. (The United States Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act. 2000)
Human trafficking industry is estimated to generate approximately $150 billion annually across the world. The widespread industry is a result of Globalization. The countries targetted are generally underdeveloped and developing affected by overpopulation, poverty, war, and suppression. There are around 35.9 million people held in slavery out of which 26% are children forced into labor. (Molloy, B. 2016)
The slaves that are delivered to these traffickers are affected by factors like poverty, weak judiciary system, weak social order, corruption, gender discrimination, minority ethnicities, military conflict and environmental disaster. The traffickers generally attack the individuals who are migrating from country to another or are migrating within the same country. The amount of demand for the forced labor is huge. The reason for this demand is that the value of an individual is insignificantly low but the individual can later generate up to 300% return on the investment and that there is an insignificant risk in purchasing or selling of a trafficked person.
Human trafficking in North East India has always been a much talked about controversy across the country. One of the reasons that Trafficking is taking place is due to the society’s negligence towards the issue so people need to acknowledge whats happening around. In India, North East shares the border with many countries like China, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma and Bangladesh thus, becomes an easy passage for organized human trafficking. Through a research conducted by an NGO, it was shown that villagers had low income and huge families to support so they get lured by Traffickers who promise their children well-paid jobs and cross them over to other states, district or other countries. Young girls are trafficked either for commercial sex trade or domestic help.
The trafficking in North Esat India is carried on within the region and across the border with the neighboring countries. The reason for the trafficking given by the NGOs working in the area is poverty, militarization, urbanization, unemployment, and economic tensions. The trafficking in this region is different than rest of India as it is surrounded by countries, some of those does not even have properly guarded borders, which make trafficking a well-organized crime to conduct without getting caught by the authorities. The people trafficked were generally poverty-stricken but in the recent years the young educated girls looking for jobs outside their region gets caught in this circle and are forced into commercial sex by the traders.
The government and NGOs have tried to get a complete picture of the trafficking happening but are not able due to the obvious reasons that trafficking is illegal and that just a fraction of the human trafficking cases is reported. The reports are given to the public with approximated or estimated numbers. With the help of the rescued and saved victims of human trafficking, slowly a clear image is coming out to the public. This is the crime that can no longer be neglected as more and more people get involved in this vicious circle. It may not be affecting the people near and dear to us but it doesn’t mean that it's not deteriorating our society.
Every year thousands of Indians are affected by this malicious crime, which consists of almost 200,000 children. It is thought that only women and girls are the ones who are affected by trafficking but many men and young boys are also getting sucked up into this illegal business. There are several steps taken by the Government to control the problem of trafficking in India. In 2013 for the first time ever a bill was passed making laws for sexual violence and sex trafficking. These two are considered criminal offense after passing the bill. The government has started offering medical and economic assistance to the sex workers and the victims of sex trafficking. Anti- Human trafficking units have been set up across the country to rescue the victims and help them to live a normal life again. One of the many examples is of Mumbai, Maharashtra where a local organization, Oasis has helped to rescue 200 sex workers and children from slavery in the red light area of Kamathipura District. They provided them with medical care and counseling programmes to the victims.
The government has made many labor laws in the 20th century in order to protect the laborers from getting exploited, to have a safe and proper working place, maternity care and benefits, to provide a minimum wage system and to have basic human rights. Still, these laws are not able to protect the victims from getting forced into labor. The labor that the victims are forced into is usually bonded labor which means that whenever a poor man is in need for money say a medical emergency, the wealthy owner of a business will provide him with the required money and in return will ask the laborer to pay the debt off by working for the businessman. This way the laborer get trapped by the traffickers who then exploit him by making him work in the miserable environment, paying less than the minimum wage and not letting them leave. The government made a Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act (BLA) under which if a trafficker is caught he is sentenced to jail for a maximum period of three years along with a fine of two thousand rupees maximum.
In order to control drug trafficking in India, the government passed The Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in the year 1988. Though these laws are not that effective, it is showing that Government is working towards the problem to curb it down and moderate efforts are being done to improve the anti-trafficking laws existing in India.
NGOs like Save the Children are working toward creating awareness in the people and to educate them about the issue of human trafficking. These NGOs also force the government to come up with better laws to track the human trafficking victims. Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act (2012) and Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act has been very successful in creating awareness and after the passing of these acts, several cases have been reported.
Conclusion
Human trafficking in North East India has always been an intense topic to be talked about across the country. One of the reasons that Trafficking is taking place is due to the society’s laxity towards the issue. So people need to acknowledge whats happening around. In India, North East shares the border with many countries like China, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma and Bangladesh thus, becomes an easy passage for organized human trafficking. Though the government has proposed rules on Human Trafficking, there is a lack of awareness among all. We need to sensitize the importance of equality of all among all. The most important thing based on the present scenario is to build up a strong youth base and to create awareness among the youth as they are the strength and the building block of future.