Victims Of Bonded Labour, Child Labour, Sex Trade Come Together To Demand Stricter Laws On Human Trafficking

No matter how 'modern' we may have become, the society is still ailing with the sickness called human trafficking. The worst victims of this evil happen to be children.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data form indicates that there were 2,854 reported cases of human trafficking across India were a total of 5,898 individuals, including minors and women, were trafficked. 5,789 victims of human trafficking were rescued from various parts of the country in the same time period.

Indian Leadership Forum Against Trafficking

Out of these 1,657 people were trafficked for forced labour, 1,275 for sexual exploitation for prostitution, 113 for domestic service and 240 of them were trafficked for forced marriage.

While there is an increase in the number of rescued human trafficking victims, they say that getting their freedom back only served one of their several problems.

Indian Leadership Forum Against Trafficking, a forum of NGOs and human trafficking victims, has now come together to fight for their rights and to prevent more people from facing what they had to go through.

ILFAT has over 2000 members and representation in 8 Indian states and is advocating for raising awareness, improve access to justice, bring an end to human trafficking, and be considered stakeholders in the decision-making process.

Ram, (name change) a resident of Jharkhand was a bonded labor along with his family. According to Athmaram, the family had taken around Rs 8000 from a local landlord, which they had to repay by working in his field.

Indian Leadership Forum Against Trafficking

Ram said that his father died in January 2017 due to exhaustion from working in the field for nearly 4-5 months. He said that despite them filing a complaint no action has been taken against the accused.

Priya (name change) who was trafficked for sex trade was rescued from a brothel in Kolkata in 2013 during a police raid. She said even after all these years, she is left traumatised due to the abuse and torture that she had to endure at a young age.

"Trafficking victims get rescued, but they are left alone after that. We don't get any support, from the police or government after that. I was shifted to a shelter home, but even there I did not get any help for my condition. I had gone into a state of mental trauma. Later I got some phylactic help, but that came very late. Now with the medication and counselings, I am trying to move forward in life," she said.

She got training in tailoring during her stay in the rescue home today works as a tailor in Kolkata. She said it is important for trafficking victims to get both emotional and legal support.

"It is important that human trafficking cases are tried promptly. Most of the rescued victims either don't have the means to fight the case, both financially and mentally. Coming face-to-face with a person, who tortured and abused you for long, even if inside the courtroom is a stressful experience," she said.

Indian Leadership Forum Against Trafficking

Those fighting against human trafficking say the poor rate of convictions in such cases is one of the biggest challenges they face.

"If you look at the number of convictions, especially in child trafficking cases, it is almost none. That is because the victims are often trafficked from one state to another. And after they are rescued they are sent back to their home states, while the case is filed where they were trafficked to. In most cases, the victims do not get the court summons or do not have the means to travel all the way to the court to depose," Suresh Kumar, Executive Director, Centre DIRECT, a Bihar-based NGO working with child trafficking victims said.

He said that there should be a national-level body to coordinate such cases. Jaya, (name change) a former bonded labour in a textile company in Tamil Nadu also echoed the same opinion. Janaki, a native of Sathyamangalam was promised a good salary by an agent who got her the job in the textile company in Coimbatore. For the impoverished family, the Rs 5000 salary was too good to turn down. But only after she started working, Jaya realized that it was a trap. She along with the thousands of others in the factory were made to work up to 12 hours a day often without even a break for lunch or going to the washroom.

Indian Leadership Forum Against Trafficking

"We were given accommodation in a room in the factory complex itself. We were not even allowed to leave the compound, and if we were late by even a few minutes, they used to abuse us both verbally and physically. Most of the workers in the factory had forged documents that showed their age above 17 but in reality, the majority were around 13-14 years old," she recalled.

ILFAT has made the following demands from the government.

1. Victim Compensation: Victim Compensation for trafficking victims should not be conditional. Lack of awareness and a cumbersome process fraught with legal hurdles contributed to the glaring gap between the number of people trafficked and the number of those who have received compensation.

2. Mental Health Aid: There is an urgent need for better counselling from dedicated individuals who are there to ensure the wellness of the survivors and treat them with dignity and care. The Traf?cking of Persons (Prevention, Protection, and Rehabilitation) Bill which could not be made law during the last Government and should be brought in again. must lay greater emphasis on the mental health of the survivors in their rehabilitation period.

3. Punishment to the perpetrator: Trafficking should be a non bailable offence and must be sentenced to a minimum of a life sentence. With better conviction rates and punishments, there is bound to be deterrence.

4. Breaking the stigma: Women survivors face more stigma than male survivors. The new anti-trafficking Bill should, therefore, lay down provisions to ensure the reintegration of survivors to society.