human trafficking in India

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Human trafficking is a multi-dimensional threat: it deprives people of their human rights This UGLY PHENOMENON has a Devastating impact on individual victims, who often suffer physical and emotional abuse, rape, threats against self and family, passport theft, and even death.

Annually, about 600,000 to 800,000 people -- mostly women and children -- are trafficked across national borders which does not count millions trafficked within their own countries.

Impact of human trafficking goes beyond individual victims; it undermines the safety and security of all nations it touches.

Human trafficking is a multi-dimensional threat: it deprives people of their human rights and freedoms, it is a global health risk, and it fuels the growth of organized crime.

Devastating impact on individual victims, who often suffer physical and emotional abuse, rape, threats against self and family, passport theft, and even death.

Annually, about 600,000 to 800,000 people -- mostly women and children -- are trafficked across national borders which does not count millions trafficked within their own countries.

Impact of human trafficking goes beyond individual victims; it undermines the safety and security of all nations it touches.

Human trafficking in India, although illegal under Indian law, remains a significant problem. People are frequently illegally trafficked through India for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced/bonded labor. Although no reliable study of forced and bonded labor has been completed, NGOs estimate this problem affects 20 to 65 million Indians. Men, women, and children are trafficked in India for diverse reasons. Women and girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage, especially in those areas where the sex ratio is highly skewed in favor of men. Men and boys are trafficked for the purposes of labor and may be sexually exploited by traffickers to serve as gigolos, massage experts, escorts, etc. A significant portion of children are subjected to forced labor as factory workers, domestic servants, beggars, and agriculture workers, and have been used as armed combatants by some terrorist and insurgent groups.

India is also a destination for women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Nepali children are also trafficked to India for forced labor in circus shows. Indian women are trafficked to the Middle East for commercial sexual exploitation. Indian migrants who migrate willingly every year to the Middle East and Europe for work as domestic servants and low-skilled laborers may also end up part of the human trafficking industry. In such cases, workers may have been ‘recruited’ by way of fraudulent recruitment practices that lead them directly into situations of forced labour, including debt bondage; in other cases, high debts incurred to pay recruitment fees leave them vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers in the destination countries, where some are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude, including non-payment of wages, restrictions on movement, unlawful withholding of passports, and physical or sexual abuse.