Friday, July 26, 2013

The 21st century slave trade: Human trafficking in India


Human trafficking has become the biggest emerging human rights issue for the 21st century. Yet, with the ranks of some ten million children prostituted and exploited around the world - more are located in India than in any other country.  According to the NY times "the brothels of India are the slave plantations of the 21st century". People are frequently illegally trafficked through India for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced/bonded labor. India is seen to be the destination for woman and girls from neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh being trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. 


  




 Yet, the government in India penalizes trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation through the (Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act), the Indian government shows that it at least has laws to attempt stop human trafficking. But the question stands if it is actually working and effective? I believe not. Usually, there are no efforts made in attempt to tackle the problem of government official’s compliance in trafficking workers for overseas employment. Corrupt officials frequently facilitate the bonded labor and the movement of sex trafficking victims. These officials protect the brothels that exploit these victims, and protect traffickers and brothel keepers from arrest and from other threats of enforcement. 





 According to Fox News "The victims of human trafficking in India are given no protection by law enforcement, no access to the courts, no political voice, and no hope of upward mobility". Since they’re no resources and no hope, many Indian woman and children succumb to India's thriving human-trafficking industry. 




The question rises on why is India such an epicenter of human trafficking? The answer remains that "human trafficking will not come to an end around the world, until it comes to an end in India". According to Fox news "India is the epicenter of human trafficking - including 100 million people, with 1.2 million child prostitutes, It tops the list of countries when it comes to transit, destination and source of human trafficking victims". As well according to the United Nations, the most dangerous place in the world to a girl or woman is India. 

 The international community needs to see India and its huge human trafficking problem as a threat to human security and national security. These victims are exploited and even brought to different countries at request. The statement that "human trafficking will not come to an end around the world, until it comes to an end in India". The international community needs to take this into concern and make more of an initiative to end the human trafficking in India. This needs to begin within the government in India, to end the corruption and begin to make this crime more punishable. 

2 comments:

  1. Very, very sad! It seems like the government wants to do something to stop the trafficking of little girls into sex slavery but for some reason, it can't. I wonder if corrupt officials are accepting bribes from leaders of trafficking rings. In which case, I think an outside organization should step in to help these people. What do you think?

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  2. Aimee, yes i believe an outside organization should step in definitely. by the statements i found where india is the "epicenter" of human trafficking. i truly believe that the international community should think of intervening if this statement is true. if the human trafficking is slowly stopped in india, i wonder if human trafficking around the world will begin to slow?

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