Increasing the rate of child trafficking in India are a failure to access quality education and low literal
ability. The challenge of limited access to education has an impact on all those involved. The child is
limited by the lack of access to education. It can also be connected to feelings of increased
vulnerability, low self-esteem and an inexperience of rights. The absence of an effective system of
public education or the lack of security makes it much more attractive for children than to pursue
education in unqualified labour sectors (such as construction and domestic aid). A lack of good,
affordable education and financial security could lead to a depreciation of education from the
perspective of parents. This applies in particular to girls. The education of a daughter is often
forgotten when weighting the costs of educating a girl against the other cost to the family. As the
financial advantages of training are only truly seen in the future, the current value of education is
considered very low. The fact that poor, marginalised communities in India lack economic
opportunities supports this argument.
Additional causes: Other institutional challenges in India include a threat to vulnerable
children from traditional religious and cultural practises. For example, in certain parts of India young
girls are forced into the Devadasi system where they are forced "to live a ritual sex slavery" and
given to a village elder as concubine. Also, child marriage is one of the most important cause of
trafficking in children. Also because of the demand of tourists, many children have been trafficked.
People will travel to India from countries in which child trafficking is strictly enforced, as well as from
countries in which child prostitutes are severely browned up and socially unacceptable.
Forms:
Illegal activities: Children, who are often trafficked over adults, are seen as more
vulnerable in illegal activities such as begging and organ trafficking. Not only do these children have
to beg for money, they have been forcibly amputated by limbs, or even acid in their eyes to be
blinded by gang masters. Injured people tend to make more money, which is why they are so often
abused. Traffickers also traffic or force children to give up their organs is common.
In more than 30 armed conflicts worldwide, UNICEF estimates that over 300,000 children under 18
are currently exploited. Although the majority of child soldiers are 15 to 18 years old, others are 7 or
8 years old. Many children are kidnapped in soldiers' capacity. Others serve as carriers, cooks,
guards, ministers, messengers or spies. Sexually abused are many of these young soldiers, often with
undesirable pregnancies and transmitted diseases. Some children were forced to atrocize their
families and communities. Reports indicate that Naxalite anti-government children were forced into
infantile units (the Bal Dasta), training and use for courier and information purposes, the installation
of improvised explosive devices and front-line operations against national security forces.
Forced Child Labour: In India, children are legally allowed to perform light work but are
often trafficked for domestic and bonded labour and worked much more than is permitted in the
country. Children are also forced to work in the bricks and stone quarries as bonded workers, paying
family debts due to financial lenders and employers. Often they have to work with contraptions
which bind them not to escape and then to be controlled. Other individuals may be bound by
physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Children in the rural areas of India are migrating or trafficked for
employment in industries like spinning mills, production of cotton seeds, handicraft, homework in
houses, stones mining, brick kilns and tea gardens, among other places, when forced to work for
little or no pay in dangerous environments. Those who have been forced into employment lose all
freedom, become slaves and lose their childhood.
Involuntary Domestic Servitude: When it comes to domestic servitude, children
are very vulnerable. Children are often told they receive excellent salaries to work in middle
class homes as household helpers, but usually they end up being heavily underpaid, abused
and sometimes sexually attacked. It is difficult to detect this particular type of trafficking, as it
is carried out in private homes without public enforcement. Tens of thousands of girls are
trafficked from rural India each year to work in urban areas as domestic workers.
Actions against trafficking:
There are numerous levels of action against child trafficking in India. In terms of the policies, and at
the legal level, the central government's response can be seen as acts and amendments. State
governments have also been aware that they are taking measures to tackle child trafficking by trying
to implement state-level schemes and laws. Non-governmental organisations working to address
various aspects of this question largely fill any gaps in the implementation of schemes and laws.
Indian government's response: India is seen as a hub for trafficking in people, but
for the Indian Government the issue is of little importance. First amended in 1956 was the Immoral
Traffic Prevention Act. The act was designed to prevent women and children being trafficked and
sexually exploited, but the Act failed to clearly define 'trafficking' as a result. In 2003, India enforced
the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which includes three
protocols, in particular the Protocol on Trafficking in Persons, particularly women and children, to be
prevented, suppressed and punished. The Protocol provides for an agreed definition of human
trafficking. It is meant to address people trafficking in the so-called three P's – criminal prosecution,
victim protection and trafficking prevention." Trafficking is defined by the Protocol "Recruitment,
transport or shipment by force, or by other means of coercion, abduction, fraud or deception, the
abuse of power, vulnerability or the granting or receipt of payments or benefits for the purpose of
exploitation for the purpose of obtaining the consent of a person controlled by another person.
Legal response to child trafficking: Intergovernmental organisations, such as the
UN, have been introducing measures in the international arena for addressing child trafficking with
different degrees of success since the early 1900s. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was
passed by the United Nations in 1948 and, in 2000, the United Nations Protocol on prevention,
eradication and punishing trafficking in persons, in particular women and children, was adopted.
Article 23 of the Indian Constitution explicitly forbids trafficking in human beings at national level.
The Indian government has also adopted other acts in order to address the challenge of child
trafficking by amending the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The Act of 1986 (ITPA) on immoral trafficking in
women and girls is a modified version of the 1956 Suppression of the Immoral Trafficking Act (SITA).
SITA made trafficking in human beings illegal for prostitution and outlined lawsuits against persons
involved in human trafficking. The laws of the ITPA have made the victim more friendly. ITPA has
also established a system to rehabilitate and prevent trafficked victims. In 2013, the IPC was
amended by creating more in line with the United Nations Protocol on Preventing, Suppressing and
Suspending Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, new provisions on human
trafficking in India.
