Can We Hear the Cry of Trafficked Women and Children?
Today human trafficking
has become a big issue not only in India but also in the world. It is a big
obstacle of development for developing country like India. Human trafficking is
the misuse and exploitation of available human resources. Missing of thousand boys and girls every year
is not a new thing in our country. “According to government statistics in our
country a child disappears in every 8 minutes.”[1] Though
many NGOs and government agencies are working against the issue “human
trafficking” but still many trafficked children remain untraced. It is hard to
imagine about the fact, the innocent boys and girls are kept away from their
parents though their parents are still alive. When the other children celebrate
their lives, trafficked children made to suffer quietly. Exploited life and
unimaginable treatment takes away their innocent smile. But who cares? What
crimes have they committed? Is it their birth? Whom to blame? Is it their
parents who brought them into this world? These questions will remain
unanswered. Where are we moving today? Is it the kind of progress and
development we dream for? Trafficked women and children are sold in the market
like goods. They are bargained in the market. Can we imagine the pain and
suffering, they go through when all these processes go on? Why the hands of
traffickers do not shiver doing all these things? Have they murdered their
soul? Everyone wants to live in freedom, breath in fresh air. Who has given traffickers the right to play
with their lives and take away the smile from their innocent faces? Today we
need to think seriously about all the above questions.
With this background
let me share the life story of Ms. Sunita whose life forces me to think about
the pain and suffering of every trafficked girl. Sunita was 15 years old girl
studying in class 9th. She came from a poor family, village called karamtoli,
Gumla district. She had seen her poor and illiterate parents struggling to run
their family. In the month of December, in the village market she met some
girls from neighboring villages who had come from Delhi to celebrate Christmas.
Their appearance was quite different form rest of the village girls. They
invited Sunita to go with them to Delhi and showed willingness to find for her
a decent job with good salary. Sunita was tempted to go with them but her
parents would not allow her to go. But one day she quietly ran away with those
girls who had come from Delhi. She worked there as a domestic worker. In the
beginning everything was fine but after few days she was scolded and beaten by her
employer and was sexually exploited by the driver of that house. She had become
like a sex slave. She complained about it to her owners, but they did not pay
attention to it, may be it was because the driver was working in that house for
many years. She was thrown out of the house when she got pregnant. With the
help of another girl who worked in neighboring family, she managed to return
back home. Her return had become the main gossip at that time in her village. A
girl, who used to be very talkative, spoke very less and hardly came out from
her home now. Situation had completely silenced her. Nobody cared about the
pain and suffering she was going through at that situation. She was completely
broken from within. She has lost the hope of survival. Anyway after few days
she gave birth to a baby boy. But it was not the joyful moment for Sunita like
the other mothers. She died after two days of the birth of her son. I am sure
that she would have survived, if someone would have helped her mentally and
psychologically. At that moment she was in need of mental, physical and psychological
support from her family and villagers. Whom to blame for her death? Is it the
girls who tempted her to go to Delhi? Is it the employers or their driver who sexually
exploited her? Or is it her parents or villagers. It is not easy to answer
these questions. There are so many Sunitas in our country who are going through
same kind of pain and suffering every day.
Keeping in mind the
life story of Sunita let us analyze the issue of human trafficking.
Analysis of the issue
From Jharkhand
thousands of girls are trafficked every year by interstate gangs to Delhi,
Bengluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Haryana, Punjab and Goa. Garhwa, Gumla, Saheb Ganj,
Dumka, Pakur, West Singhbhum, Ranchi, Palamu, Hazaribag, Dhanbad, Bokaro,
Girdih, Kodarma and Lohodaga, Simdega and Khunti are the districts of Jharkhand
which have become the hunting grounds for the traffickers.
These are the main reasons which play the major role in trafficking from above mentioned states-:
Poverty
All these states are tribal majority states. And 35%
of tribal population lives below the poverty line. Some of them own few pieces
of land but because of the uncertainty of monsoon rain they do not get good
crops. Some are landless, and earn their living by working in the others’
fields or doing manual labour. They do not have any savings and thus their
children’s education remain uncertain. Their dreams are not high but just
earning a living. This kind of situation forces them to fall easily into the
hands of traffickers.
Maoists war Zone
All these states are Naxal affected states. Their
life is always in threat from both police and Maoists. They do not have faith
in the police because even police is afraid to go in these areas. Young boys
are often suspect to be Naxalites and thus often they are unnecessarily beaten
and even put into the jail. And on the other side most of the decisions about
their lives are taken by Naxalites. Naxalites take away their children both
boys and girls in order to increase their numbers. Thus poor tribals do not
want to keep their children at home for the good of their children. So, if
someone who takes their children to the big cities in promise of finding a good
job, they happily send their children with them without much thinking. And even
if some children are lost they do not go to the police because they fear
naxalites.
Illitracy
Most of the tribal people are illiterate.
In some of the tribal villages, there are no schools. And in some of the
villages there are schools but there are no teachers and proper building to run
the schools. Since these people are very poor they cannot afford for the good
education in the big cities. Thus, they remain illiterate and do not know much
about the reality of the city life. So if someone comes with the tempting
offer, they do not think much about it and easily get ready to go with them.
Lack of sustainable employment
In
villages there are very less possibility of getting employment. Most of the
people are engaged in cultivation. Thus, there is no employment other than the
cultivation work. Government comes with some employment project but that also
does not last long or villagers are cheated in their payment by the middlemen.
This kind of situation forces them to go to the big cities in search of
employment.
Single crop patterns
Tribals fully depend on monsoon
rain for their cultivation. They do not have the irrigation facilities. They do
not have enough money to buy the modern equipments of cultivation. Thus, they
produce only once in a year. Thus, half of the year they remain unemployed. And
so, if they get offer to get employed in the big cities, they do not hesitate
to go to the big cities.
Lack of awareness
There is lake of awareness among the
tribal people. They do not know much about the reality of the big cities. They
feel happy when they get money from their children but fail to think about the
situation by which their children earn that money. Many children run away from
their families because their parents are alcoholic. Most of the children are
not taken care well; they are left to themselves to decide about their lives.
Parents cannot think more than to make them to work in the paddy fields. And if
any family does well in a particular village, in place of getting inspired from
that family, others plan how to bring them down.
Lack of political stability
In Jharkhand there is
lack of political stability. There is lack of good political governance.
Government has failed to tackle some basic problems. Most of the time poor
people are neglected. Many times they are exploited in different ways. Their
lands are being taken away from them. Government officials and dalals take advantage of their illiteracy.
Before the election political leaders promise to do many things for the poor
people but after election they never think and talk about their promises. All
these situations create the way for the human trafficking.
Now let us look at the district wise statistics of human trafficking presented by the police from-2011-2015, published in Prabhat Khabhar, life Ranchi, dated 06.08.2016.
District
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
2014
|
Ranchi
|
14
|
22
|
10
|
16
|
Lohordaga
|
01
|
01
|
06
|
02
|
Gumla
|
08
|
13
|
20
|
42
|
Simdega
|
02
|
11
|
12
|
11
|
Khunti
|
04
|
02
|
13
|
23
|
Chaibasa
|
01
|
01
|
08
|
13
|
Saraikela
|
00
|
00
|
01
|
02
|
Jamshedpur
|
01
|
03
|
00
|
00
|
Palamu
|
01
|
03
|
00
|
00
|
Garhwa
|
01
|
01
|
00
|
01
|
Latehar
|
00
|
03
|
07
|
05
|
Hazaribag
|
00
|
00
|
00
|
03
|
Kodarma
|
00
|
02
|
00
|
01
|
Girdih
|
02
|
07
|
04
|
01
|
Chatra
|
00
|
01
|
01
|
00
|
Ramgarh
|
01
|
00
|
00
|
00
|
Bokaro
|
00
|
00
|
00
|
00
|
Dhanbad
|
01
|
00
|
01
|
00
|
Dumka
|
01
|
00
|
01
|
07
|
Pakur
|
00
|
00
|
03
|
07
|
Given
above statistics clearly shows us, that the most affected districts of human
trafficking are Ranchi, Gumla and Simdega. These are the three districts from
where every year human trafficking takes place in maximum number.
It is very hard to
understand the reasons that make easier for trafficking for traffickers. But
one thing is clear that most of the trafficked girls have come across some
problems or the other. They have closely experienced hunger, illiteracy,
unemployment, poverty or exploitation at home. Some women have gone to the big
cities by choice and the others have been tempted or forced to go to the big
cities and fall into the hands of traffickers.
Role of the agents and the function of the placement agency
Every trafficked girl
has her own story. But in most of the trafficked tribal girls’ story, the role
of the agent is played by the people who are known to them. For example in case
of Sunita the role of agent was played by the girls of neighboring village.
Thus, agents can be anybody, their uncles, maternal uncles, brother in laws, or
can be their own brothers or sisters. Trafficking is not a one day affair but
the process of trafficking goes on for a few months. Traffickers gradually
prepare the background for trafficking by tempting the innocent girls and boys in
the promise of good job, money and luxurious life. There are also some cases
where boys make the innocent girls to fall into their love and take them to the
big cities and sell them.
Almost all the agents,
work for the placement agency. They get sufficient money for this. Thus, their
work is just hunting boys and girls for trafficking. Agents generously spent
money on the trafficked girls to make them somewhat look decent and modern, before handing them over
to the placement agencies, which they get back from the placement agency later
on. Placement agency functions very secretly and systematically. It places
these girls for the work according to the demands and requirements as if they
are market goods. An agreement is made between employers and placement agency.
And this agreement is for one year, during this period if the girl runs away
from employers home or falls sick, whole responsibility is taken by the
placement agency. In place of that girl another girl is replaced if above
mentioned incidents take place. If the family builds the emotional attachment
with that girl and wants to keep the girl after one year also the placement
agency does not take any responsibility. This way we see that poor trafficked
girls are treated like any other goods in the market. It is very strange that
in replacement agency even our own tribal people are also involved. This shows
that tribal people can go blind and can sell even their soul for money. Then how
can we expect help from the non-tribals.
Human trafficking worldwide
“In all over the world
80% human trafficking takes place only for sexual exploitation and remaining
20% for bondage labour.”[2] The
majority of trafficked persons are women and girls and only few of them are men
and boys. “Where as, most trafficked women and girls are exploited in the sex
industry and through domestic labour, men are trafficked mainly for labour in
agriculture, construction and services.”[3] Women
are trafficked for prostitution, pornography, forced mirage and slavery. And
there is no doubt that cases of women trafficking are increasing every day. Women
are trafficked mainly from central and Eastern Europe (from Albania, the Czech
Republican, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine). These trafficked
women are sent to work as prostitutes in Western Europe. “ in the Netherlands
70%, in Germany between 60 and 80%, in Austria 80% and in Italy 80% of all
trafficked women come from eastern Europe.”[4] Some
of the countries like Thailand and so on, are also known for sex tourism, thus
they need young girls and women to attract the customers. Women who are
trafficked for force labour are not protected or recognized. They are paid less
and have limited access for public interaction. They are involved in
unprotected works such as domestic work, child care, and care for the elderly persons
and so on. Children are also trafficked for prostitution. In many parts of the
world, young prostitutes are in great demand; it is because the exploiters are
feared of contracting HIV/AIDS.These are the ways through which women and children are trafficked globally:-
1. Local contacts
With the help of local people
trafficking are executed. Villagers or local people, who play the role of an
agent, always look for the people who are poor and vulnerable. Everything is
done with a proper planning.
2. Direct sales
In this case women and children are
directly sold to traffickers by parents or other family members.
3. Deceit
In this case agent deceives parents, women and
girls with false promises, such as good jobs or mirages to rich partners.
4. Kidnapping
Criminal gangs or middlemen kidnap
women and children, force them to work against their will, and often sell them
to brothels.
4. Bribes
Bribes are commonly paid to various officials or
police to produce false documents, or at border crossings.
This way we see that in
all over the world human trafficking has become a big problem. Everyday many
women and children are kidnapped or sold from one place to the other or one
country to the other. It is unimaginable that everyday many children and women
are sexually exploited or even killed.
Trafficking in women of Jharkhand
Trafficking of women
and children from Jharkhand mostly takes place through the well organized
placement agency racket in Delhi. They target mostly the children of age group
11-16, who remain silent, even after exploitation. These young children are
easy to be tempted for good jobs and good life. It is seen that tribal girls
are easily attracted towards the glamorous life. Thus, when they see someone
coming from the big cities with good cloths and money, they are tempted to have
things like them. There are some girls who are forced to go to the big cities
and get exploited and the others take this decision by choice.
There are different
types of work which are done by the children and women who are trafficked from
Jharkhand. Most of them work in kothis,
as domestic help. Luckier ones have a good life as domestic workers but in
general most of them are given less money and are scolded and beaten for the
small mistakes. Some of them are sexually exploited by the employers or their
sons. Some of them are sold in mirage in Punjab and Haryana, as we know that in
Punjab and Haryana there is a vast difference in boys-girls percentage. Some of
them who are sold in brothel, there life becomes like hell. They are sexually
abused by the customers and there is always fear of contracting HIV/AIDS. This
way, they are made to suffer in brothel never-ending abuse in all forms. Some
of them are sent to Punjab and Haryana to work as bonded labour. Where they are
made to work day and night and are not paid well. The less fortunate ones are
made to work as organ donors. They are threatened and forced to donate their
organs. Recent news also reports about the emergence of trafficking of women
from Jharkhand for surrogacy and delivering babies for sale. Surrogacy is
becoming very popular these days where womb is hired for a baby from a surrogate
mother. Seeing this popularity government has come up with a bill where it
states that single parents, gay couples, foreigners and married couples before
five years of their marriage cannot have their surrogate child.
Thus, we see that victims
of trafficking have to go through a series of exploitation starting from the
source of traffickers, placement agents and employers. But who is going to
listen to their cry? Women and children from villages of Jharkhand just
disappear and no one is equipped to look for them. With whom the Poor and the illiterate
parents of trafficked women and children will share their pain. They cannot
approach the police because if they do so Maoists will not spare them. Even if
they approach the police, the police are not going to come there easily for
enquiry because most of the tribal villages are Naxal- affected villages.
This way, the villages
of Jharkhand remain hunting ground for traffickers. But who is going to listen
to the cry of the tribal people of Jharkhand. One side Modi government speaks
about “sabka sath, sabka vikas” but
in what sense. Present Jharkhand government is trying to bring amendment in
CNT/SPT act, if it does happen many tribals will lose their lands. And it will
again promote trafficking; Jharkhand will again become hunting ground for
traffickers. For tribals, land is everything, if they are uprooted from their
land, they stand nowhere, they become without identity. Thus, as a resident of
Jharkhand we need to understand our responsibility towards our fellow Jharkhandis.
We need to stand by the poor and fight for their rights.
Tribal’s life and understanding the situation of trafficking
Adivasis are peace
loving people with minimum needs. They live a simple life, believe in unity and
help one another. Their main assets are land, live stock and children, thus, they
believe in celebrating life. But they suffer from poverty and illiteracy. So,
it becomes advantages for the traffickers to tempt them for good jobs, money
and good life. Some girls leave their houses without telling their family
members, and, there are parents who send their children with agents in the hope
that they will find an employment in a big city. Simple and illiterate tribal
parents feel happy when their daughters and sons send money for them. But they
fail to understand the difficulties and exploitation which their children go
through to earn that same money.
Most of the trafficked
girls are sexually exploited. And in Adivasi culture pre-marital sex is not
permitted. The girls who live in the big cities are looked down by the
villagers. Even if they escape from the traffickers and come back to their
respected villages, they have to face a lot of difficulties. Villagers consider
them impure and no one wants to marry them and thus, many of them remain
unmarried. Often they are taunted by the family members and the villagers.
These girls go through a traumatic experience of dislocation, socially,
psychologically and culturally. It affects their family, community, their own
marriage, their family’s relationship with others both in and outside the
society, and above all, it affects them personally. Thus, their life becomes
miserable. They find themselves excluded and out of place. All these situations
force them to go back to live the same kind of life which they never want to. In
fact, these girls need psychological help and counseling so that they can come
out from the horrific experiences and start their life anew. Thus, these girls
are challenged socially and culturally. As a good human being we need to bring
awareness among the tribal people. We need to help them to understand the pain
and suffering of the trafficked girls so that they may accept these girls with
open heart when they come back their home.
Bibliography
Main
Source,
Vohra, Tanuja. Trafficking in women and Children.
Delhi: Pacific Publication Extension, 2009.
Secondary
Sources,
Guru, Rahul. Human
Trafficking. Prabhat khabar, Life Ranchi, 8 August 2016,
1.
Johnson, Mini S. Women in Christianity. New Delhi: Mittal
Publication, 2005.
Sharma, Arvind, ed. Women in World Religion. Delhi: Sri
Satguru Publication, 1995.
Kujur, Joseph Marianus
and Jha, Vikash. Tribal Women Domestic
Workers in Delhi. New Delhi: Mayur Entrprises, 2008.
