Frequently Asked Questions
Human Trafficking
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) on Human Trafficking, efforts have been made to facilitate every person’s understanding of their role and course of action while working on the issue of human trafficking, as well as develop their understanding of the substantive and procedural laws that often come into play, victims rescue, protection and rehabilitation too form the integral part of the handbook, also church involvement in combating human trafficking is also dealt upon.
・ Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may include providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extraction of organs or tissues, including for surrogacy and ovary removal.
・ Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally
・ Human trafficking is a human rights violation crime against the person because of the violation of the victim’s rights of movement through coercion and because of their commercial exploitation
・ Human trafficking is the trade in people, especially women and children, and does not necessarily involve the movement of the person from one place to another
・ Moving them to another place to exploit and use them as forced labour, bonded labour, sex workers etc.
・ A crime that traps people in doing sexual acts against their will is a form of sex trafficking
・ Well organized networks of family, relatives, friends, community leaders, brokers, the pimps and owners of brothels, the police, political connections and the criminal nexus could be involved in this crime of Human Trafficking.
While human smuggling and human trafficking are linked, there are fundamental differences between the two:
Human smuggling generally involves the consent of the person being smuggled. These people often pay a lot of money to be smuggled across international borders by illegal means.
Once in the country they are usually left free to carry on according to their own devices.
For it to be trafficking there must be the threat of or use of force, coercion or deception against a victim.
Technical definitions of “slavery” and “human trafficking”, as well as related concepts like forced labour, child labour and bonded labour differ slightly legally, but there are enormous overlaps between them. Many of these terms are commonly used interchangeably, as ultimately they all involve practices that exploit or abuse someone physically or psychologically for profit.
As a practical matter, human trafficking is when someone is moved from one place to another for the purpose of enslavement; slavery is the exploitation that happens when they arrive. However, in many places the term trafficking means enslavement.
Sex trafficking
・ Prostitution
・ Escort services
・ Child sex tourism
・ Massage parlours
・ Commercial sexual exploitation of children and related abuses.
Labour trafficking
・ Forced labour in construction and agricultural work
・ Bonded labour in manufacturing industries, mining etc.
・ Custodial work in restaurants, hotels, schools, public & private buildings
・ Involuntary domestic servitude in housekeeping, nannies etc.
・ Public begging, street peddling
・ Child soldiers
・ Debt bondage
・ Exotic dancing etc.
Organ trafficking
・ Traffickers force or deceive the donors to give up an organ.
・ The victims agree to sell an organ because of poverty; these victims are often cheated out of money.
・ Organs are removed without the victims’ knowledge.
・ Victims can be killed in the process.
Forced child labour
・ Is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children
・ Depriving them of the opportunity to attend school;
・ Obliging them to leave school prematurely; or
・ Requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
Anyone (any age, race, nationality or gender) can become a victim of Human Trafficking, but the largest numbers of victims are female.
Women and children are at the greatest risk for human trafficking. Statistics show that 80% of the victims are women and over 50% are children. Even labour trafficking, often considered a male dominated problem, is now considered to be dominated by women worldwide. A lot of the female labour trafficking victims are also forced to perform sexual acts for money.
Often victims are physically locked up or heavily guarded at all times. They are often threatened with beatings. They are disorientated and have no idea where they are often they do not know the city or country they are. They might be kept under the influence of drugs or alcohol. They distrust authorities or think there will be no one that would help them.
In our Indian/South Asian context, being a victim of human trafficking is not something to be spoken about. Most victims are so ashamed at what they have been forced to do or so fearful of social stigma, they do not admit that they are victims. Victim that are still in the situation are not able to speak up mostly for the same reasons why they cannot just escape.
Trafficking consists of three core elements:
・ The action of trafficking which is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons.
・ The means of trafficking which includes threat of or use of force, deception, coercion, abuse of power or position of vulnerability
The purpose of trafficking which includes exploitation, for example sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of
organs.
The traffickers can lure the victims by false offers or advertising for lucrative jobs locally or abroad. They can use a network of local associates who lie and cheat to entrap the victims. The associates can also be friends or community members whom the victims have come to know and trust or they can be victims themselves. They are often women who easily build trust with their desperate fellow women. Though this might be a more known method, abduction or kidnapping, taking the victim by force, is actually used in only a small percentage of cases.
There are several factors that lead to trafficking of women and children or cause them to become victims of trafficking. They are as follows:
・ Abject poverty
・ Harmful cultural practices
・ Female illiteracy and lack of education of girls
・ Male unemployment or loss of family income
・ Natural calamities and poor rehabilitation of disaster affected victims
・ Dysfunctional families
The two components of human trafficking that attracts traffickers are the high profits and low risk. The traffickers know that sex industry and cheap labor will always bring fast and easy profits. This is exactly what has made human trafficking one of the fastest growing criminal industries in the world.
Source state: The state to which the victim originally belongs/resided in and from where he/she has been forced into trafficking.
Transit state: The place where the victim is taken after being recruited by the trafficker. It is the intermediary state before the victim reaches the destination state and the victim may be kept there for extended periods of time. The victim may be taken to more than one transit state.
Destination state: The state which finally receives the trafficked victim.
Trafficking mainly takes place in tribal belts because of the following reasons:
・ Lack of awareness about legal rights, schemes and current scenario around them
・ Majority of the tribal population lives below the poverty line
・ Industrially undeveloped regions
・ High illiteracy rate
・ High rate of unemployment.
As a citizen, you have the right to seek and receive all information, like:
・ Any human trafficking related issue in your local village or area
・ Number of cases reported on missing children in the state
・ The budgetary allocation for the shelter home and the number of women and children currently housed there
・ Similarly, we can find out how many cases were reported under the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act or the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act.
If the information, you have requested relates to “life and liberty” of any person, then it is the PIO’s duty to provide it within 48 hours (Under section 7)
Law Enforcement Agencies
・ Under the CID, the Women Protection Cell (WPC), Child Protection Cell (CPC) and Anti-Human Trafficking Cell (AHTC) are created to monitor crime against women, children and cases of human trafficking.
・ Collect, check, analyse and publicise the information on Crimes against Women
・ Network with Director of Women & Child Welfare Department, Juvenile Justice Department and NGO’s working in the field of Women and Child Development.
CPC protects of children from violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect
・ CPC are a set of government-run services designed to protect children and youth who are under age and to encourage family stability
・ Coordinate with National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) Women and Child Welfare Department of the State Govt., Juvenile Justice Board (JJBs) and other judicial forums in matters pertaining to crimes against children and for the welfare of Juveniles.
・ Anti-human trafficking cell is a division of Central Bureau of Investigation
・ Monitors the cases of Human Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation
・ Follows up for successful prosecution of the cases and assists in providing protection and rehabilitation to the rescued victims
・ Attend to all the three aspects of trafficking namely; prevention, protection and prosecution.
Special Police Officers
• Appointed (S.I, A.S.I, and H.C) to look after such affairs and report to senior officers – DGP and Additional DGP
• The State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) who study, conduct research and create awareness on human trafficking
• Child Labour Commission is responsible for the welfare of children
• Child Protection Commission under Child protection officers
• Child Welfare committee (CWC) under the JJ Act
• Every District has Juvenile Justice Board to look after the needs and issues of children under 18 years of age
• NGO’s who are dealing with human trafficking issues.
Laws in India
Even though we have taken great care in researching the laws of India, Laws are constantly reviewed, changed and new ones are added. Here are some laws related to human trafficking:
Whoever, for the purpose of exploitation, (a) recruits, (b) transports, (c) harbours, (d) transfers, or (e) receives, a person or persons, by
・ using threats, or using force, or any other form of coercion, or by abduction, or by practicing fraud, or deception, or by abuse of power, or 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.
・ Whoever commits the offence of trafficking shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years, but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.
・ Whoever, despite knowing, or having reason to believe that a child has been trafficked, employs such child in any form of labour, shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to seven years, and with fine.
・ Article 23 (1) of the Constitution prohibits traffic in human beings and beggar and other similar forms of forced labour and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.
・ Article 24 prohibits employment of children below 14 years of age in factories, mines or other hazardous employment.
・ Article 21 pertaining to protection of life and personal liberty
・ Article 21-A: The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 6-14 years in such manner as the State may by law determine.
・ Article 39 states that men, women and children should not be forced by economic necessity to enter unsuitable avocations; and those children and youth should be protected against exploitation.
・ Article 39A directs that the legal system should ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen because of economic or other disabilities.
・ Article 43 states that all workers should have a living wage and there should be appropriate conditions of work so as to ensure a decent standard of life.
・ The law provides for imprisonment of seven years to life for offences committed against a child (under 16), or seven to 14 years for offences against minors between 16 and 18 years of age
・ The minimum term of imprisonment for brothel keeping was one year for the brothel offence and seven years to life imprisonment for detaining a person, with or without consent, for prostitution.
· It is an Act to prohibit the engagement of children in certain employments and to regulate the conditions of work of children in certain other employments.
· The Rajya Sabha unanimously passed Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016. The Bill seeks to amend the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 to widen the scope of the law against child labour and stricter punishments for violations. Key Provisions of Bill Prohibition of employment of children below 14 years in all occupations or processes except where child helps his family. Punishment for employing any child is, imprisonment between 6 months and two years or a fine of 20,000 to 50,000 Rupees or both.
・ The definition of a “child in need of care and assistance” as per the Juvenile Justice Act is broad and includes a destitute child, a child living with a person who is abusive, a child likely to be inducted into drug abuse or trafficking, or a missing child whose parents cannot be found after making a reasonable inquiry. Section 2(14) also identifies other circumstances which might render the child vulnerable to trafficking, such as being without any home or settled place of abode and without any ostensible means of subsistence, or working in contravention of labour laws, or begging, or living on the street, or being orphaned or abandoned by his/her parents, or affected by armed conflict, civil unrest or natural calamity.
・ A “child in need of care and protection” may be produced before the Child Welfare Committee by any police officer, public servant, Child line, services/NGO, any social worker or public spirited citizen, by the child himself/herself, nurse, doctor or management of a nursing home, hospital or maternity home.
・ A “child in conflict with law” means a child who is alleged or found to have committed an offence and who has not completed eighteen years of age on the date of commission of such offence.
・ A child in conflict with law cannot be placed in a police lockup or in jail, but has to be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board in accordance with Section 10 of the Act.
・ Further, Section 81 of the Act states that whoever sells or buys a child for any purpose shall be punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years and shall also be liable to fine of one lakh rupees.
・ Section 43 provides for the establishment and maintenance of Open Shelters, which shall function as a short-term residential support for children who are vulnerable to abuse or to protect them from a life on the streets. Vide Section 50; Children’s Homes may be set up in every district or groups of districts for the placement of children in need of care and protection, for their care, treatment, education, rehabilitation and development.
The POCSO Act criminalises the following acts of sexual violence committed on children:
・ Penetrative sexual assault (defined in Section 3, punishment given under Section 4) Aggravated penetrative sexual assault (defined in Section 5, punishment given under Section 6)
・ Sexual assault (defined in Section 7, punishment given under Section 8)
・ Aggravated sexual assault (defined in Section 9, punishment given under Section 10)
・ Sexual harassment (defined in Section 11, punishment given under Section 12)
・ Using child for pornographic purposes (defined in Section 13, punishment given under Section 14 and 15)
・ Abetment of an offence (defined in Section 16, punishment given under Section 17 and 18): Anyone employing, harbouring, receiving or transporting a child, by means of threat or coercion, abduction, fraud, abuse of power or of a position, vulnerability or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of any offence under the Act, is said to aid the doing of that act. Hence, anyone involved in the trafficking of a child who results in the commission of an offence under the Act, would be liable for punishment.
・ POCSO provides for mandatory reporting of sexual abuse of a child or apprehended sexual abuse of a child. Any person (including a child) who has apprehension that an offence is likely to be committed, or has knowledge that an offence has been committed, shall provide such information to the Special Juvenile Police Unit or the local police. However, the apprehension or knowledge must have reasonable basis. For example, hearsay from strangers who have no knowledge cannot form reasonable basis.
・ All offences in POCSO are cognizable, non-compoundable and non- bailable, with the exception of the offence of failure to report or record a case (Section 21) and the offence of false complaint or false information (Section 22).
・ Both men and women can be perpetrators of sexual violence and face criminal charges as per POCSO. Consent to the sexual activity is irrelevant in a POCSO case.
・ Section 19 of the Act criminalises commercial dealings in human organs. Whoever offers to supply or makes or receives any payment for the supply of a human organ, or seeks to find a person willing to supply for payment any human organs, or advertises for the supply or payment for supply of any human organ, shall be punishable with imprisonment for two years which may extend to seven years and payment of fine.
・ Punishment for male adult: If an adult male who is above 18 years of age contracts child marriage, he shall be punishable with rigorous imprisonment for 2 years or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees or both.
・ Punishment for solemnising marriage: If a person performs, conducts, directs or abets any child marriage, he shall be punishable with rigorous imprisonment for 2 years or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees or both.
・ Punishment for promoting / permitting solemnisation of marriage: Any person having charge of the child whether parent or guardian or any other person including member of organisation or association of persons who does any act to promote the passing or permit child marriage or negligently fails to prevent it from being solemnised, including attending or participating such marriage, shall be punishable with rigorous imprisonment for 2 years or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees or both.
・ Where minor child is taken or enticed out of the keeping of legal guardian
・ By force compelled or by any deceitful means induced to go from any place
・ Is sold for purpose of marriage and go through a form of marriage or if the minor is married after which the minor is sold off or trafficked or used for immoral purpose
・ Such marriage shall be null and void.
・ Section 12 of the Act provides that when a minor child has been sold for the purpose of marriage, or who has been married and then trafficked or sold or used for immoral purposes, then such marriage shall be null and void.
・ The “RTE” Act was enacted to provide free and compulsory education to every child in the age group of six to fourteen years. It is the duty of appropriate Governments to provide such free education and ensure compulsory admission, attendance, and completion of elementary education, and ensure that children belonging to weaker sections of the society and disadvantaged groups are not discriminated against and prevented from pursuing and completing compulsory education on any grounds.
・ This Act regulates employment and service of workmen of any State who are recruited by contractors to work in an establishment in another State. It applies to those establishments and contractors which employ more than five inter-state migrant workers. Employment of inter-State migrants is prohibited without registration of the establishment under the Act26, and contractors must be licensed under the Act to recruit or employ workmen from a State to work in an establishment in another State. The license may contain terms and conditions under which workmen are recruited and employed, remuneration to be paid, hours of work and fixation of wages. Contractors are obligated to notify appropriate authorities in the states where the worker is recruited from and where he is to be employed, and have to issue passbooks to the workmen containing details about place of employment, amount and mode of payment of wage and other prescribed details.
・ The Act also regulates wage rates payable to interstate migrant workers, payment of displacement allowance, journey allowance, equal pay for equal work, provision of suitable residential accommodation and free medical facilities.
・ The Act also provides for appointment of Inspectors for checking compliance with the Act.
・ The Act provides for punishment for contravention of provisions under the Act with imprisonment of up to one year and/ or payment of fine and further provides that when an offence under this Act has been committed by a company, every person who was in charge of, and was responsible to, the company for the conduct of the business of the company, as well as the company, shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
which address the issue of trafficking in India are:
・ The Karnataka Devadasi (Prohibition of Dedication) Act, 1982;
・ Andhra Pradesh Devadasi (Prohibiting Dedication) Act, 1989;
・ The Goa Children’s Act, 2003;
・ Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act, 2006.
・ Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929;
・ Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act, 1956;
・ Probation of Offenders Act, 1958;
・ Criminal Procedure Code, 1973;
・ Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976;
・ Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986
・ The Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.
Section 3(1)(xi) in The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989
・ (xi) Assaults or uses force to any woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe with intent to dishonour or outrage her modesty;
・ (xii) Being in a position to dominate the will of a woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe and uses that position to exploit her sexually to which she would not have otherwise agreed, is punishable under the law.
• (2) Whoever, not being a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe, (v) commits any offence under the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) punishable with imprisonment for a term of ten years or more against a person or property on the ground that such person is a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or such property belongs to such member, shall be punishable with imprisonment for life and with fine.