HUMAN TRAFFICKING : TYPES, SIGNS AND REASONS

 WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?

Human trafficking is the process of trapping people through the use of violence, deception or coercion and exploiting them for financial or personal gain.

What trafficking really means is girls groomed and forced into sexual exploitation; men tricked into accepting risky job offers and trapped in forced labour in building sites, farms or factories; and women recruited to work in private homes only to be trapped, exploited and abused behind closed doors with no way out.

People don’t have to be transported across borders for trafficking to take place. In fact, transporting or moving the victim doesn’t define trafficking – it can take place within a single country, or even within a single community.

People can be trafficked and exploited in many forms, including being forced into sexual exploitation, labour, begging, crime (such as growing cannabis or dealing drugs), domestic servitude, marriage or organ removal.

Types involved in human trafficking:

To our basic knowledge trafficking involves sexual trafficking and bonded labours or slavery. Due to the advancement in technology it may be further classified as follows:

Sexual exploitation: The victims are mainly women. In this process women are forced to involve in sexual activities. It may occur in prostitution sites and brothel centres.

Labour exploitation: It involves the persons to work as bonded labours or slaves by the way of forcing them or awarding punishments for not working and force them to work for little remuneration or payment in order to reduce their debts. For that purpose, they may enter into the contracts with their consent. The person will work within the employer home for long periods with certain restrictions for limited pay. The people may force to do a sexual favour through force or by the way of threatening by the employers of the home.

Forced marriage: This kind of marriage has occurred during king periods to gain some country in order to expand his kingdom. It can be viewed in recent times to enter into some person country. It may happen by sexual and psychological stress along with the physical violence.

Criminal activities: The coercion is considered to be a main thing to cause these kinds of activities. Making the person to involve in cultivation of illegal products like cocaine and some other related drugs. The personal information of any person is available to anybody other than the original users which help them to do credit card theft or ATM theft. It results in hacking of one's personal data without their knowledge from the internet. It forced them to be the victims and make them to commit crimes.

Children as victims: Here it includes both gender male and female. They are forced to works as bonded slaves under military camps in kitchen work and in some other violent or illegal activity. The female children are forced to have sexual exploitation without considering their age. The children are between the age group of 10 to 18 years who are considered to be minors.

Organ trafficking: The persons will transport the organs of the victims to another place for money.The victim here involves both gender and without any difference in their ages. It includes person ranging from small child to old person and even dead persons too. It may happen with or without their consent. If it happens with consent and the victim is doing this for the purpose of money he may be cheated and is known as organ trading. If the person is kidnapped or taken away from his own place without their knowledge it is called as extortion. In some hospitals they will make the person to falsely believe that they have some disease and will assure that they will cure for the purpose of exporting or to earn more. Sometimes the organs of dead person too will be transported without their family consent.

Skin trafficking: This process is similar to organ trafficking but with the slight difference it is for the skin. The victim skin is peeled and sold for higher amount when there is huge demand. It also includes victims from all age groups and genders.

 

Online trafficking:

It is the advanced form of sex trafficking or exploitation in the 21st century. The main victims are women. The advertisements are made on the websites used by the people and it will automatically provoke the users. These kinds of advertisements are made normally in all websites but it has its origin in the dark web or deep web with curiosity without their knowledge they will share all their personal information. The traffickers with the help of them will threaten the persons to do work or force them to have sexual intercourse. Some people without any other option in order to lead their life will they themselves become as victims for smaller amount. It is punished through the amended IT Act 2000.

INDIA STATISTICS

According to data submitted by the National Crime Records Bureau to the Supreme Court in 2019, Mumbai and Kolkata had the highest cases of trafficking in women and children, mainly for forced marriage, child labour, domestic help and sexual exploitation. A 2014 Dasra report stated  that approximately 16 million women are victims of sex trafficking in India a year, while 40 per cent of them are adolescents and children. And more than 70 per cent of victims are illiterate and 50 per cent of them have family income of less than $1 per day.

SIGNS

 

Since human trafficking is often a crime that is hidden in plain sight, it is important to be aware of its warning signs. Some indications that a person may be a victim of human trafficking include (especially in the case of women and children) :

1. Appearing malnourished

2. Showing signs of physical injuries and abuse

3. Avoiding eye contact, social interaction, and authority figures/law enforcement

4. Seeming to adhere to scripted or rehearsed responses in social interaction

5. Lacking official identification documents

6. Appearing destitute/lacking personal possessions

7. Working excessively long hours

8. Living at place of employment

9. Checking into hotels/motels with older males, and referring to those males as boyfriend or “daddy,” which is often street slang for pimp

10. Poor physical or dental health 

11. Tattoos/ branding on the neck and/or lower back

12. Untreated sexually transmitted diseases

13. Small children serving in a family restaurant

14. Security measures that appear to keep people inside an establishment - barbed wire inside of a fence, bars covering the insides of windows

15. Not allowing people to go into public alone, or speak for themselves

Reasons For Human Trafficking

There are many reasons for human trafficking. They are determined by political, economic and cultural factors. Trafficking in persons is according to the doctrine of supply and demand. Firstly, there are certain factors in the country such as need of employment, poverty, social conditions, instances of armed or war conflicts lack of political and economic stability, lack of proper access to education and information etc. Secondly, in developed and wealthy countries there is demand for inexpensive products, cheap labour and low priced services.
The organized crime groups have found an opportunity for making huge profits by connecting the supply and demand that by clubbing the first and the second instances. These reasons lead to increased migration but a condition of restricted migration due to numerous policies of the State. People use smuggling channels for human trafficking exposing themselves to exploitation, deceit, violence and abuse.