America
Forced labour India's largest trafficking problem: US report
By
Arun KumarWashington, July 27
Saying that forced labour
constitutes India's largest trafficking problem, the US State Department
on Monday placed it in the second best category of Tier 2 countries for
the fifth year in a row.
"India is a source, destination, and
transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour
and sex trafficking," it said in the Congressionally mandated
Trafficking in Persons Report 2015.
Tier 2 ranking is given to
countries that do not fully comply with the US Trafficking Victims
Protection Act's (TVPA) minimum standards, but were making significant
efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
Suggesting
that forced labour constitutes India's largest trafficking problem, the
report said: "Men, women, and children in debt bondage, sometimes
inherited from previous generations, are forced to work in industries
such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories."
"Ninety
percent of India's trafficking problem is internal, and those from the
most disadvantaged social strata -- lowest caste Dalits, members of
tribal communities, religious minorities, and women and girls from
excluded groups -- are most vulnerable," it said.
Trafficking
within India continues to rise due to increased mobility and growth in
industries utilising forced labour, said the report released by
Secretary of State John Kerry.
Highlighting the hidden risks that
workers may encounter when seeking employment, he said: "This year's
report places a special emphasis on human trafficking in the global
marketplace."
In India, the report said thousands of unregulated
work placement agencies reportedly lure adults and children for sex
trafficking or forced labour, including domestic servitude, under false
promises of employment.
Begging ring leaders sometimes maim children to earn more money, it said.
Children,
reportedly as young as six, are forcibly removed from their families
and used by terrorist groups such as Maoists in Bihar, Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Odisha to act as spies and
couriers, plant improvised explosive devices, and fight against the
government, the report said.
Boys from Bihar are subjected to forced labour in embroidery factories in Nepal, it said.
Experts estimate millions of women and children are victims of sex trafficking in India.
A
large number of Nepali, Afghan, and Bangladeshi females -- the majority
of whom are children -- and women and girls from Asia and Eurasia are
also subjected to sex trafficking in India, the report said.
Prime destinations for female trafficking victims include Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat, and along the India-Nepal border.
Traffickers
pose as matchmakers, arranging sham marriages within India or to Gulf
states, and then subject women and girls to sex trafficking, the report
said.
West Bengal continues to be a source for trafficking
victims, with children more increasingly subjected to sex trafficking in
small hotels, vehicles, huts, and private residences than traditional
red light districts.
The report recommends that India cease the
penalisation of trafficking victims, including restrictions on their
travel and increase prosecutions and convictions for all forms of
trafficking, including bonded labour, respecting due process.
India
should also increase prosecutions of officials allegedly complicit in
trafficking, and convict and punish those found guilty, it said.
The
report recommended that India should also provide anti-trafficking
training or guidance for diplomatic personnel to prevent their
engagement or facilitation of trafficking crimes.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])