UPSC SOCIOLOGY – Paper 2 – Part C – Chapter 7 – Challenges of Social Transformation – Crisis of development: displacement, environmental problems and sustainability.
GS 2 MAINS – Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions, and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
- The United Nations defines human trafficking as: “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”
- The 3 most common types of human trafficking are sex trafficking, forced labor, and debt bondage. Sex trafficking disproportionately affects women and children and involves forced participation in commercial sex acts.
THE TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (PREVENTION, CARE AND REHABILITATION) BILL 2021
- The Ministry of Women and Child Welfare releasedTrafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021. The Bill w has increased the scope of the nature of offenses of trafficking as well as the kind of victims of these offenses, with stringent penalties including life imprisonment and even the death penalty in cases of an extreme nature.
- Property bought via such income as well as used for trafficking can now be forfeited with provisions set in place, similar to that of the money laundering Act.
- The scope of the Bill vis a vis offenders will also include defence personnel and government servants, doctors and paramedical staff or anyone in a position of authority.
- While the penalty will hold a minimum of seven years which can go up to an imprisonment of 10 years and a fine of Rs 5 lakh, in most cases of child trafficking, especially in the case of the trafficking of more than one child, the penalty is now life imprisonment. In certain cases, even the death penalty can be sought.
- Exploitation has been defined to include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation including pornography, any act of physical exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or forced removal of organs, illegal clinical drug trials or illegal bio-medical research.
- The Bill also extends beyond the protection of women and children as victims to now include transgenders as well as any person who may be a victim of trafficking and also does away with the provision that a victim necessarily needs to be transported from one place to another to be defined as a victim.
- The draft of the Bill also states that the National Investigation Agency shall act as the national investigating and coordinating agency responsible for prevention and combating of trafficking in persons and other offences under this Act, as well as for investigation, prosecution and coordination in cases of trafficking in persons.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN INDIA
- 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 a family income of less than $1 per day.
- The causes of human trafficking in India include gender discrimination, a vulnerability of the impoverished population and the desperation of the impoverished to support their families. Because there are far more men in India than young women, bride trafficking, or the illegal sale of women for the purpose of marriage, is becoming more prevalent in India. Poor communities are especially vulnerable to human traffickers, as they often offer better job opportunities or debt relief to lure victims. The causes of male trafficking in India is primarily tied with forced or bonded labor.
