Stop human trafficking
Human trafficking outside India, although illegal
under Indian law, remains a significant problem. People are frequently
illegally trafficked through India for the purposes of commercial sexual
exploitation and forced/bonded labour.
Men, women and children are trafficked in India
for diverse reasons. Women and girls are trafficked within the country for the
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage, especially in
those areas where the sex ratio is highly skewed in favour of men. Men and boys
are trafficked for the purposes of labour and may be sexually exploited by
traffickers to serve as gigolos, massage experts, escorts, etc. A significant portion
of children are subjected to forced labour as factory workers, domestic
servants, beggars, and agriculture workers, and have been used as armed
combatants by some terrorist and insurgent groups.
Workers may have been 'recruited' by way of
fraudulent recruitment practices that lead them directly into situations of
forced labour, including debt bondage; in other cases, high debts incurred to
pay recruitment fees leave them vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous
employers in the destination countries, where some are subjected to conditions
of involuntary servitude, including non-payment of wages, restrictions on
movement, unlawful withholding of passports, and physical or sexual abuse.
Human trafficking in India results in women
suffering from both mental and physical issues. Mental issues include disorders
such as PTSD, depression and anxiety. The lack of control women have in
trafficking increases their risk of suffering from mental disorders. Women who
are forced into trafficking are at a higher risk for HIV, TB, and other STDs.
Condoms are rarely used and therefore there is a higher risk for victims to
suffer from an STD.
What has our government done to stop human
trafficking? The Ministry of Labour and Employment displays full-page
advertisements against child labour in national newspapers at periodic
intervals. The government has also instituted pre-departure information
sessions for domestic workers migrating abroad on the risks of exploitation. The Government of
India launched an anti-human trafficking web portal in February 2014 that they
hope will be an effective way for interested parties to share information about
this topic. But are these measures enough to prevent or stop human trafficking?
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