Not For Sale : Trafficking of females

One night, a granny came to police station to file a complaint of her missing granddaughter. She stated that her 16 year old granddaughter Rakhi had gone missing. All the facts were indicating  that this was a case of trafficking that required urgent attention. Her complaint was lodged at the local police station. Also police started investigating the case.

After speaking to her friends, family and teachers. Police could gather all the pieces of information. Father was an alcoholic, lost her mother when she was a child. Her granny brought her up and the only person who loved her. The father who always used to beat her up was taken into custody. Police could smell something fishy in his statements. They spoke to each person around and narrowed the search. They searched all the public places and showed her photograph. One taxi driver could recognize Rakhi. He had driven her from Gurugram to Uttrakhand. Few days later, her granny told the police that she had received a call from Rakhi who was in Punjab. Police took the number and traced it. She had actually called from Delhi. Finally they had her location. A raid was conducted by CBI and Rakhi was rescued from the traps of hell, where her own father sent her for money.

What is female trafficking?

Female trafficking is form of slavery or selling of young girls that involves the illegal trade of girls for the purpose of forced coerced sexual exploitation that is not limited to prostitution, and has become a rising problem globally.

Female Trafficking in India

India has very high rates of trafficking, as it hard to track because of the nature of the crime and due to the poor enforcement of laws, it is difficult to prevent. Let’s check out the figures:

•Around 5000 and 7000 in 1998, Nepalese girls were trafficked into the red light districts in India. At that time more than 250,000 Nepalese women an girls were already in Indian brothels.

•In India, merely 10% of human trafficking is on international level rest 90% is interstate.

•In India, 76% of all humans trafficked were women and girls according to 2014 reports.

•Roughly 40% of prostitutes are children.

•Over 2 million women and children are trafficked for sex into the red-light districts in India as per an estimated report.

•Around 1.2 million kids were involved in prostitution in India, according to the CBI reports from 2009.

Causes of female trafficking

1)Many of them are sold into this illegal trade by parents, husbands.

2)Most of the times, these girls or women are promised good education, a job or citizenship in a foreign country. Also they are offered a false marriage proposal that is turned into bondage.

3)They are unwillingly and forcibly kidnapped by traffickers.

4)Most common tactic is used to force them is debt bondage, it’s an illegal practice where the person has to pledge personal services in order to repay their debt.

5)Families living in poverty lured by the offers provided by sex traffickers. In exchange of selling girls or young women, they promise of a better life.

Traffickers targets who?

Traffickers commonly look for potential victims who are either living in poverty or socially vulnerable. Most of the victims are susceptible to poverty, isolated from the society,  addicted to drugs, faced family violence, sexually abused in childhood, family dysfunction, gone through school failure, or committed crime at a young age. Also victims can be an orphan, physical disabled women or girls, and who are illiterate. Mostly they are chosen through either guerrilla pimping or finesse. In finesse pimping, the traffickers use compassion, kindness, and psychological games such as luring them or their families through small gifts of cash, clothes, shelter, food and drugs that leads  them to feel indebted to the traffickers. In guerrilla pimping, they use violence, threats, intimidation, or aggression in order to take them away and then enslave them as sex workers.

Why they stay instead of escaping?

It’s not easy to escape from the trap of hell, where they are using the victims for almost 18 to 20 hours. That means, once the victims are involved in the sex slavery industry, it becomes very difficult for them to escape.

1)They may go through legal barriers, where the traffickers will confiscate all forms of immigration and citizenry documentation.

2)Other barriers are language, fear, limited knowledge, and lack of money.

Conclusion

In today’s world, female trafficking or the involuntary enslavement of future generations of girls in the sex has become an expected societal norm. These victims experience adverse physical and psychological trauma and social disadvantages. Thus, exploitation have severe health issues that requires both medical and legal attention.

Trafficking leaves not merely visible scars on the body but invisible scars on the mind and soul too. It’s a power which can impact someone’s life forever.