HUMAN

TRAFFICKING
AND ITS
CAUSES
[Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is
typically a short summary of the contents of the
document. Type the abstract of the document here. The
abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the
document.]

[Type
the
docume
nt
subtitle]

Introduction
Human trafficking is an emerging problem being caused by
globalization processes facilitating human movements. At the same
time, the phenomenon is also an old problem dating back to
slavery trade practiced in many parts of the world for hundreds of
years. Today, income disparity between the affluent North and
(relatively) impoverished South is still considerable, if not
increasing, and peoples aspirations to seek better opportunities
have become greater as information on life in other parts of the
world is now more available than before due to the development of
the mass media and internet. Economic motivation explains, to a
great extent, ever-increasing migration: both legal and illegal
forms. Also, human trafficking can be explained by the economic
motivation of potential victims, as most human trafficking victims
are initially migrants.
The factors reflect diverse aspects of push and pull factors of
human trafficking, but can be categorized into four frames. The
four prime pillars migration, crime, vulnerability, and policy and
institutional efforts.

Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is the third largest organized crime after drugs and the arms trade
across the globe. According to the definition of the United Nations trafficking is
any activity leading to recruitment, transportation, harbouring or receipt of persons,
by means of threat or use of force or a position of vulnerability. Close to 80% of the
human trafficking across the world is done for sexual exploitation and the rest is for
bonded labor and India is considered as the hub of this crime in Asia. As per the
statistics of the government in every eight minutes a child goes missing in our
country. In 2011 about 35,000 children were reported missing and more than 11,000
out of these were from West Bengal. Further, it is assumed that only 30% of the total
cases are reported, so the actual number is pretty high.
Human trafficking is one of the major problems in India. Till date no concrete study
has been conducted so far to know the exact number of trafficked kids in India. The
New York Times has reported on the widespread problem of human trafficking in India
especially in the state of Jharkhand. Also in the report it is stated that young girls are
trafficked from neighboring Nepal to India. In another article published in The Times
of India Karnataka is the third state in India for human trafficking. Other South

Indian states are also the most sought after destinations for human trafficking. Every
year more than 300 such cases are reported in each of the four south Indian states.
Whereas West Bengal and Bihar, on an average have 100 such cases each year. As per
the data, more than half of the human trafficking cases are from these states.
According to the latest report on human trafficking by the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime reveals that Tamil Nadu has 528 such cases of human trafficking in
2012. The number is really high and more than any other state except for West Bengal
(549). As per the data from Home Ministry, 1379 cases of human trafficking were
reported from Karnataka in the period of four years, in Tamil Nadu the number is
2,244 whereas Andhra Pradesh has 2,157 cases of human trafficking. Recently 300
bonded labourers in Bangalore have been rescued. According to an article
in Firstpost, Delhi is the hub of human trafficking trade in India and half of the
worlds slaves live in India. Delhi is the hotspot for illegal trade of young girls for
domestic labour, forced marriage and prostitution. Delhi is also the transit point for
human trafficking.

Why Human Trafficking increasing in India?

Fundamental theory of demand and supply is applicable to this situation as well. Men
for work generally migrate to major commercial cities and from here the demand for
commercial sex is created. To fulfill the supply all sorts of efforts are made by the
suppliers like abduction etc. Young girls and women belonging to poor families are at
higher risk.
Then comes the economic injustice and poverty. If you are born to a poor family in
Northeastern state of India then you are at a higher risk of being sold. If you are born
to a poor family and a girl then these chances further increases. Sometimes parents are
also desperate to sell their daughters to earn money.
Social inequality, regional gender preference, imbalance and corruption are the other
leading causes of human trafficking in India.
Parents in tribal areas think that sending their kids means a better life in terms of
education and safety. Parents also pay about Rs 6000-7000 to these agents for food
and shelter.
Forced marriage
Girls and women are not only trafficked for prostitution but also bought and sold like
commodity in many regions of India where female ratio is less as compared to male
due to female infanticide. These are then forced to marry.
Bonded labour
Though debt labour is not known much but it is illegal in India and prevalent in our
society. According to the International Labour Organization there are more than 11.7
million people working as a forced labour in the Asia-Pacific region. People running
out of cash generally sell their kids as debt labour in exchange for cash. Both boys
and girls are sold for this purpose and generally not paid for years.

Victims of human trafficking have great chances of suffering from issues like mental
disorders, depression and anxiety. Women forced into sexual trafficking have at
higher risk of getting affected from HIV and other STDs.
Action against guilty
Under the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA) trafficking for commercial
sexual exploitation is penalized. The punishment ranges from seven years to life
imprisonment. The Bonded Labor Abolition Act, the Child Labor Act, and the
Juvenile Justice Act prohibit the bonded and forced labor in India.
Because of the brutal gang rape of December 2012, government has passed a bill in
which laws related to sexual violence and making sex trafficking have been amended.
But still there is a huge gap between enactment and enforcement of these laws.
Because of widespread corruption and bride, it is easy for agents for bring these
young boys and girls for their profit. But there should be strict disciplinary action
against everybody involved in such a crime then only this problem can be addressed.
Also better education and other facilities should be provided at native places so that
parents do not opt these ways for their kids. Above all attitude towards women and
young girls must change.

Push and Pull Factors of Human Trafficking

There is large set of push and pull factors of human trafficking, the first
determining the supply of victims from countries of origin, and the latter
determining
the demand for labour provided by victims in destinations. The following four
pillars provide a
tool to explain the different aspects of human trafficking in origin and
destination countries.
Each pillar is, of course, not exclusive and many push and pull factors can be
included in
more than one pillar.

Root causes of traffickingThe root causes of trafficking are various and often differ from one country to another.
Trafficking is a complex phenomenon that is often driven or influenced by social,
economic, cultural and other factors. Many of these factors are specific to individual
trafficking patterns and to the States in which they occur. There are, however, many
factors that tend to be common to trafficking in general or found in a wide range of

different regions, patterns or cases. One such factor is that the desire of potential
victims to migrate is exploited by offenders to recruit and gain initial control or
cooperation, only to be replaced by more coercive measures once the victims have
been moved to another State or region of the country, which may not always be the
one to which they had intended to migrate.
Some of the common factors are local conditions that make populations want to
migrate in search of better conditions: poverty, oppression, lack of human rights, lack
of social or economic opportunity, dangers from conflict or instability and similar
conditions. Political instability, militarism, civil unrest, internal armed conflict and
natural disasters may result in an increase in trafficking. The destabilization and
displacement of populations increase their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse
through trafficking and forced labour. War and civil strife may lead to massive
displacements of populations, leaving orphans and street children extremely
vulnerable to trafficking.
These factors tend to exert pressures on victims that push them into migration and
hence into the control of traffickers, but other factors that tend to pull potential
victims can also be significant. Poverty and wealth are relative concepts which lead to
both migration and trafficking patterns in which victims move from conditions of
extreme poverty to conditions of less-extreme poverty. In that context, the rapid
expansion of broadcast and telecommunication media, including the Internet, across
the developing world may have increased the desire to migrate to developed countries
and, with it, the vulnerability of would-be migrants to traffickers.
The practice of entrusting poor children to more affluent friends or relatives may
create vulnerability.
Some parents sell their children, not just for the money, but also in the hope
that their children will escape a situation of chronic poverty and move to a place
where they will have a better life and more opportunities.
In some States, social or cultural practices also contribute to trafficking. For example,
the devaluation of women and girls in a society makes them disproportionately
vulnerable to trafficking.
Added to these factors are the issues of porous borders, corrupt Government officials,
the involvement of international organized criminal groups or networks and limited
capacity of or commitment by immigration and law enforcement officers to control
borders.
Lack of adequate legislation and of political will and commitment to enforce existing
legislation or mandates are other factors that facilitate trafficking in persons.
In response to the above root causes, most prevention strategies fall within one of the
following categories:

Reducing the vulnerability of potential victims through social and economic

development.

Discouraging the demand for the services of trafficked persons.

Public education.
Border control.
Preventing the corruption of public officials.
Why Is This Happening?
Trafficking has become the most lucrative crime business after drugs(US State
Department), because the merchandise can be sold over and over again. What are
the root causes of human trafficking? What does root cause mean? A root cause
is the basis or reason that results in some action or behavior occurring,
it triggers something to happen. In general root causes of human trafficking worldwide include those which are economic, those that stem from social exclusion and
gender discrimination and those which are political, legal or result from conflict.
Economic causes may include:
Systemic poverty
Economic inequality see systemic poverty
land reform -- large-scale agriculture, resource gabbing, food security/
sovereignty, mechanization of agriculture
Wage and labor repression migration, unemployment
(especially youth), decent jobs or jobs without dignity, supply chain abuse, labor
binding agreements, child labor.
Climate change and environmental degradation rising sea levels, drought,
floods, deforestation, commercial overfishing, mining, commodification of nature
Social exclusion and gender
discrimination causes may include:
Gender inequality feminization of poverty, unpaid care work, gender-based
wage gaps.
Violence against women and girls armed conflict, crisis and instability, natural
disasters
Denial of womens rights to education, health, participation,
sistersagainsttrafficking.org credit, skills, land/property, and productive assets
Multiple forms of discrimination in public, economic; political, and private
spheres, especially child marriage, caste systems, racism
Weakness of social protection passage and enforcement of protective legislation,
meaningful punishment of perpetrators, education/information for awareness,
willingness to report criminal action, training of law enforcement, forming

partnerships/coalitions to address the problem.

Political, legal and conflict causes may include:
Corruption organized crime, border controls
Increased militarization armed conflict, civil war, resource curse in
extractives, refugees
Legal access to justice, rule of law, statelessness (Source: Human Trafficking
and the SDG Reports, summarized by Devin Tellatin, Intern, Sisters of Mercy,
Mercy International at the United Nations) More specifically, sex trafficking
and labor trafficking share some common root causes. These include:
Poverty
Lack of education and health care
Lack of respect for persons
Undocumented status of immigrants
A lack of anti-trafficking legislation
A lack of effective enforcement, if such legislation exists
Profit by those in control or with power More particular to sex trafficking,
common root causes include:
Vulnerabilities from adolescence such as peer pressure or poor self-image
Violent behavior in the home and on tv
Drug and alcohol addiction
Being a runaway
Disintegration of social protection networks
A culture that accepts treating people, especially women and children as objects
Pornography, promoted and available globally Common root causes for labor
trafficking include:
Ready markets and demand for cheap goods
Increasing demand for cheap and exploitable laborers in the construction,
agricultural and industrial sectors and to produce consumer-demanded goods
Expenses of providing required benefits to regularly employ workers
Further research, data collection, interviews with trafficked persons
and experiences can surface other root causes. Addressing the root causes and
finding solutions to them can lead to a reduced demand for trafficked persons,
whether for sex or labor.
Prevention
Recommended preventive action at the national level The Action Plan to Combat
Trafficking in Human Beings adopted by OSCE contains a number of measures
recommended for adoption at the national level in order to prevent trafficking in
human beings. They consist of: (a) measures relating to data collection and
research; (b) border measures; (c) economic and social policies aimed at addressing
the root causes of trafficking in human beings; (d) awareness-raising measures; and

(e) legislative measures. The following economic and social policies are
recommended: In countries of origin: Considering as priority goals the fostering of
social, economic and political stability, and the reduction both of migration caused
by deep poverty and of supply factors of trafficking. Policies followed in pursuit of
these goals should also promote both economic development and social inclusion.
Improving childrens access to educational and vocational opportunities and
increasing the level of school attendance, in particular by girls and minority groups.
Enhancing job opportunities for women by facilitating business opportunities for
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Organizing SME training courses and
targeting them in particular at high-risk groups. In countries of destination:
Implementing measures to reduce the invisibility of exploitation. A multi-agency
programme of monitoring, administrative controls and intelligence gathering on the
labour markets and, where applicable, on the sex industry, will contribute greatly to
this objective.
Considering the liberalization by Governments of their labour markets with a view
to increasing employment opportunities for workers with a wide range of skills
levels. Addressing the problem of unprotected, informal and often illegal labour,
with a view to seeking a balance between the demand for inexpensive labour and
the possibilities of regular migration. Tackling underground economic activities
that undermine economies and enhance trafficking. In both countries of origin and
countries of destination: Taking measures to raise levels of social protection and to
create employment opportunities for all Taking appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on a
basis of gender equality, the right to equal pay for equal work and the right to
equality in employment opportunities Addressing all forms of discrimination
against minorities Developing programmes that offer livelihood options and
include basic education, literacy, communication and other skills, and reduce
barriers to entrepreneurship Encouraging gender sensitization and education on
equal and respectful relationships between the sexes, thus preventing violence
against women Ensuring that policies are in place that allow women equal access
to and control over economic and financial resources Promoting flexible financing
and access to credit, including microcredit at low interest Promoting good
governance and transparency in economic transactions Adopting or strengthening
legislative, educational, social, cultural or other measures and, where applicable,
penal legislation, including through bilateral and multilateral cooperation, to
discourage the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation of persons, especially
women and children, and that leads to trafficking.

Reference
1. http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/413249-Labor-Trafficking-in-theUnited-States.pdf
October 2014 report on Labour Trafficking in the United States, 300+
pages.
2. Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, Pub. L. No.
106-386 (2000),
available at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/10492.pdf
3. http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/humantrafficking/litrev literature review
4. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/resource/fact-sheet-labortrafficking-english (Office of Refugee Resettlement)
5. http://www.traffickingresourcecenter.org/ The National Human
Trafficking Resource Center
6. http://www.humantrafficking.org/updates/894 Human Trafficking. Org