Human trafficking is gradually moving up on the national and international agenda as regulators, investors and civil society contemplate to take more measures to stop it. It is also partly due to the understanding that the Covid-19 pandemic is increasing human trafficking risks.
Transporting people into situations of exploitation like forced labour, marriage, prostitution or organ removal is also known as human trafficking, trafficking of persons or modern slavery. “Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit…. The traffickers often use violence or fraudulent employment agencies and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims,” elaborates the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on July 30 may not have got the same attention as other popular international days, but it won’t be so for long. In India, on any given day, 18 million people are living in modern slavery, according to the Global Slavery Index 2018. The enactment of a law has been on the anvil for many years now to address the issue. The Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021, is expected to be tabled in the Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon session. The objective of the bill is “to prevent and counter trafficking in persons, especially women and children, to provide for care, protection, and rehabilitation to the victims, while respecting their rights, and creating a supportive legal, economic and social environment for them and also to ensure prosecution of offenders.”
The Constitution of India under Article 23 (1) prohibits trafficking in human beings or persons. Besides, as of now, the issue is dealt in parts by the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1976; Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986; Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) of 1956; Indian Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013; Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000; Juvenile Justice Act of 2015; Protection of Children from Sexual offences (POCSO) Act of 2012; and Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006; and Transplantation of Human Organs Act of 1994. India’s National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities for Business (NVGs), issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, already prohibit businesses from engaging in “child labour, forced labour or any form of involuntary labour, paid or unpaid”.
India has international commitments, too. India has signed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include Target 8.7 on ending human trafficking, forced labour, modern slavery and child labour. India has ratified the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, which are being implemented the UNODC. Besides, India has ratified the SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution.
Globally human trafficking is estimated to earn profits of $150 billion a year for traffickers, including $99 billion from commercial sexual exploitation and the balance from construction, manufacturing, mining and utilities ($34 billion), agriculture, including forestry and fishing ($9 billion) and private households that employ domestic workers under conditions of forced labor ($8 billion), according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
It is estimated that there are more than 40 million people in modern slavery, which means there are 5.4 modern slaves per 1,000 people in the world. A majority of about 25 million people is in forced labour in the private sector such as domestic work, construction or agriculture (16 million); forced sexual exploitation (about 5 million), and forced labour imposed by state authorities (4 million). Half of the forced labour in the private sector is controlled through debt bondage. The remaining 15.4 million are estimated to be in forced marriages, according to the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage report brought out in 2017 by the ILO, Walk Free Foundation and International Organization for Migration. The numbers are grossly underestimated. Most of the human trafficking cases are undetected, if one considers that hardly an estimated .04% human trafficking survivors are identified globally, according to surveys.
Globally investors, too, are increasingly focusing on corporate compliances related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects, which include advancing human rights and preventing human trafficking. The Financial Sector Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking or the Liechtenstein Initiative seeks to engage the financial sector to rally global efforts to address the issue.
Set up in response to asks by the United Nations Security Council and the G-20 to eliminate modern slavery and human trafficking, the Liechtenstein initiative commissioners comprise captains of hedge funds, banks, international financing organisations, and institutional investors. The G-20 countries are estimated to import at-risk products of modern slavery, including garments and textiles from India, worth $354 billion annually.
There are also calls globally by the civil society to increase efforts to prevent modern slavery during emergency situations as the risks have increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi has been leading high octane campaigns to prevent modern slavery of children, who have become more vulnerable to trafficking due to loss of their parents or their livelihood caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since human trafficking is widely prevalent and deeply rooted, it will take efforts at scale to address the conditions enabling it and, thereby stop it. There is a need to focus on root causes like improving working conditions in the informal sector, creating adequately paying livelihood opportunities, improving literacy levels of girls, stopping early marriages and ensuring financial inclusion. It calls for key stakeholders like governments, companies and civil society to come together to stop human trafficking.
Source: The Times of India
Published on 2 August 2021