Friday, September 30, 2011
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years of the 21st Century - 2000 to 2010
India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Internal forced labor may constitute India's largest trafficking problem; men, women, and children in debt bondage are forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories. Although no comprehensive study of forced and bonded labor has been carried out, some NGOs estimate this problem affects tens of millions of Indians. Those from India’s most disadvantaged social economic strata are particularly vulnerable to forced or bonded labor and sex trafficking. Women and girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage. Children are also subjected to forced labor as factory workers, domestic servants, beggars, and agricultural workers. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country report] | |||
CAUTION: The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in *** FEATURED ARTICLES *** Never too young to be sold Sreyashi Dastidar, The Telegraph, October 16, 2007 [accessed 10 February 2011] One wishes the circumstances were the same, but they seldom are. How does one equate a girl lured away from a village in Meghalaya to a brothel in Delhi with the one pushed into beedi-binding by her own parents just so there is enough money to feed all the mouths in the family? Or a boy thrown into the laps of paedophiliac foreign tourists in Goa with one who runs away from starvation and poverty at home, to be picked up and employed by a brick-kiln owner who gives him a paltry daily wage and lunch? Which arm of the State — women and child development, labour, police, or home affairs if there is border-crossing — has failed to do its job in each of these cases, and which is responsible for ensuring that the trafficked person gets a livelihood and a respectable life? This is why trafficking is such a tricky crime in developing countries with their many areas of darkness. In Haryana, for instance, where it is acceptable to destroy female foetuses and kill baby girls, young women are trafficked from Bengal and the Northeast and forced into marriage to keep the family line going. How does one, in the absence of a complaint from the girl or her family, initiate criminal proceedings against those who claim the girl as their daughter-in-law? Police rescue trafficking suspect from mob fury July 17, 2007 www.kalingatimes.com/orissa_news/news/20070717_Police_rescue_trafficking_suspect.htm [access date unavailable] Police on Tuesday rescued a former employee of a Bhubaneswar-based placement agency facing charges of trafficking youths from this region to The mob badly beat up Sunil Das and held him captive in the village. The irate mob pounced on him demanding the refund of money that the Malaysia bound youths had paid to the placement agency, police said. A Dalit youth from this part of the state had undergone a two-month-long nightmarish ordeal in Malaysia and escaped from the clutches of a well-knit human trafficking racket, bringing to the fore the harrowing plight of a number of unemployed local youths still stranded in Malaysia in their quest for greener pastures. The Enslavement Of Dalit And Indigenous Communities In India, Nepal And Pakistan Through Debt Bondage [PDF] UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, February 2001 At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] SUMMARY - This paper describes the gross and continuing violation of the rights of millions of people in *** ARCHIVES *** CHILDLINE - Toll Free Call 1098 - Night & Day [accessed 10 February 2011] CHILDLINE reaches out to all children in need of care and protection such as: street children, childlabourers, children who have been abused, child victims of flesh trade, differently-abled children, child addicts, children in conflict with the law, children in institutions, mentally challenged children, HIV/AIDs infected children, children affected by conflict and disaster, child political refugees, children whose families are in crises. Delhi Govt. Started the toll free 'Youth Phone service’ 1-800-11-6888 The Government of Delhi running the 'youth' helpline named Yuva Phone line in Website to track missing children launched Anasuya Menon, The Hindu, [accessed 10 February 2011] Parents can post photograph of missing child on the website Anyone who has lost their child can post a message on this website and a search will be set in motion simultaneously in 40 cities in the country. Launched by Don Bosco National Forum for Youth at Risk in association with UNICEF, www.missingchildsearch.net will be closely watched and monitored by child welfare organisations in all major cities in the country and a search will be generated immediately. The Don Bosco National Forum for Youth at Risk is a major partner ofChildline India Foundation and extends service to hundreds of children who are victims of war, conflict, natural calamities, sexual exploitation, trafficking and HIV/AIDS. They also take care of street and working children. The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor [accessed 10 February 2011] INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Bonded or forced child labor is a problem and exists in several industries. Recent reports indicate that the practice exists in carpet manufacturing and silk weaving. Human Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices [accessed 10 February 2011] TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – Within the country, women from economically depressed areas often moved to cities seeking greater economic opportunities, and once there they were often forced by traffickers into prostitution. In many cases, family members sold young girls into prostitution. Extreme poverty, combined with the low social status of women, often resulted in parents handing over their children to strangers for what they believed was employment or marriage. In some instances, parents received payments or the promise that their children would send wages back home. According to the Boys, often as young as age four were trafficked to the Middle East or the Persian Gulf as jockeys in camel races, and many boys ended up as beggars in Saudi Arabia during Hajj (pilgrimage). The majority of such children worked with the knowledge of their parents, who received $200 (Rs. 9,300) for their child's labor. Many children were kidnapped for forced labor, with kidnappers earning approximately $150 (Rs. seven thousand) per month from the labor of each child. The child's names were usually added to the passport of a Bangladeshi or female citizen who already had a visa for the Gulf. Girls and women were trafficked to the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 26 February 2004 [accessed 10 February 2011] [74] The Committee welcomes the ratification of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution; the adoption of a plan of action to combat trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of women and children; the initiative to undertake a study, inter alia, to collect data on the number of children and women who become victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking; and the Pilot Projects to Combat Trafficking of Children for Commercial Sexual Exploitation in Destination and Source Areas, but remains concerned that the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1986 does not define trafficking and limits its scope to sexual exploitation. In addition, the Committee expresses its concern at the increasing number of child victims of sexual exploitation, including prostitution and pornography. Concern is also expressed at the insufficient programs for the physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of child victims of such abuse and exploitation. Testimony of Anita Anita Sharma Bhattarai, [accessed 10 February 2011] I felt very scared that evening and I refused to eat anything. I soon noticed that many men were coming in and out of the house and I realized it was a brothel. I began howling and shouting. I said that I wanted to leave. Renu Lama told me that I was ignorant. She said that I did not just come easily and I could not go easily. She said that I had been bought and I would have to work as a prostitute in order to pay them back. On the fourth day that I was in the brothel, my first client came to me. I refused to have sex with him. He had already paid so he grabbed me and tried to rape me. I fought him off. He had managed to get my clothes off but he was very frustrated because I was resisting him so much. He stormed out and asked for his money back. A couple of the brothel owners (voluntary prostitutes) came in and beat me. When they were done, the same man came back in. Some of my associates overheard the owners saying that they were also planning to sell me to a brothel in Sarat because I was too much trouble. I decided that I could not wait until the boy returned from Nepal. I had to try again to run away. I asked some of the other girls to run with me, but they were too afraid. We had been told that we would be killed if we tried to run away. But I had determined that I would rather die than stay in the brothel. The other girls pooled their money together and came up with two hundred rupees. In exchange for the 200 rupees, I promised that if I made it out alive, I would get help for them. Bangla aiding NE human trafficking The [accessed 10 February 2011] The Director General of Assam Police GM Srivastava today stated that neighbouring countries, especially Attributing the rise of human trafficking cases in the region to poverty and the simplicity of the people here, the Assam Police chief stressed on the need for an attitudinal change amongst the people to wipe out the menace from the society. Indian workers' struggle shines light on human trafficking, slave labor Sunil Freeman, Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSLweb.org), July 4, 2008 [accessed 10 February 2011] The plight of immigrant Indian workers who were deceived into virtual slavery has brought attention to the vile practice of human trafficking. Indian workers protest slave-like conditions before the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., June 11. The workers took jobs with Signal International to work on the U.S. Gulf Coast following the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Indian workers were told they would receive "green cards," allowing them permanent legal residence in the United States. Many who left their families behind in search of better wages had been told they would be able to bring their relatives. The promises were all lies. Instead of receiving permanent legal status, the workers—who had paid fees of up to $20,000 to Signal—received 10-month H-2B temporary worker visas. The workers were essentially trapped, and their employers knew it. Their documents were stolen and wages were withheld. For all practical purposes, slavery had returned to Louisiana. Prostitution is killing childhood in northeast, says study Maitreyee Boruah, Indo-Asian News Service IANS, Guwahati, May 31 2008 [accessed 10 February 2011] All is not well with children in In addition, the report also states that most of the children are victims of acute physical torture. "They are initially raped and flogged almost to death to take up the profession," the report said. Almost half of the child prostitutes were from Assam, followed by Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura,Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, said Sarma. Some of the victims were also sold to brothels in Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad. "We have reports that sheikhs from the Middle East are also buying northeastern girls from these brothels. Also, trafficking gangs from Southeast Asian countries are taking a keen interest in the girls because of their Mongoloid features," Sarma said. CBI goes after foster parents in child racket K Praveen Kumar, Times News Network (The Times of [accessed 10 February 2011] The case had originated on the basis of complaints from parents about missing children. One of them, the child of Kathiravel and Nagamani, pavement-dwellers in Pulianthope, had been allegedly kidnapped and sold to a Dutch couple. Similarly, the four-year-old child of Sylvia, a woman fromOtteri, was kidnapped from an auto and sold to a couple in Australia. Another couple from the city had lost their one-and-a-half-year old child, who was traced to the US. The racket was busted in the city in the first week of May 2005 after the Otteri police received specific information about kidnapping of children in and around Otteri. The police team then started investigations and arrested seven people identified as Varadharajan, Sheikh Dawood, Navjeen,Sabeera, Manoharan, Salima and K.T. Dawood. They subsequently traced the racket to an illegal adoption agency, Malaysian Social Service, which had kidnapped street children and sold them to foreigners after forging certificates. The case was subsequently transferred to the Crime Branch. –htsc Child trafficking could become rampant in state unless tackled urgently, feels activist KanglaOnline, Imphal, Apr 8, 2008 -- Source: www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=headline&newsid=41695&typeid=1 [accessed 10 February 2011] Every year thousands are trafficked across Various NGOs and organisations of the state who are working to prevent human trafficking in the state, have said that due to lack of funds and other reasons they were unable to take any action against the traffickers. Jogesh Doley, merinews.com, Apr 06, 2008 [accessed 10 February 2011] Every year thousands of tea tribe girls are lured by people and taken to different parts of India, to work as slave and in most of the cases they lands up in brothels. Those who are forced into sex work, or who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation as domestic labourers, are particularly at risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and unwanted pregnancy. The plight of the women from this community has remained unheard and unattended, since ages and they are have no other options but to migrate and to follow the people who lure them and assure them good jobs out side the state. - htcp Vikram Chowdhary, NDTV, [accessed 10 February 2011] Every year thousands of Punjabis fly to foreign lands for employment and better future. But for some, this dream turns sour as they are cheated by travel agents and given false assurances. It was the last thing her father, Gurdev Singh, expected to hear. He had sold land and took loans to pay Rs eight lakh to a travel agent for her job in London. But she ended up in Ukraine where she was forced into prostitution. "We ran away and sought help from a lady in Ukraine and narrated my entire story and told her that my travel agent took away my passport and travel documents. With her help, I was able to contact my family," added Manjit Kaur. The scourge of human trafficking in India Sandhya Nigam, merinews.com, Mar 17, 2008 [accessed 10 February 2011] When Mona was 13 years, her mother died and her father remarried. The stepmother was uncomfortable with Mona and wanted to send her away for some job, where she would be able to look after herself. Along came a ”contractor” who arranged jobs for youngsters as domestic help, etc. He paid a certain sum of money to the stepmother and took Mona to a town far away. He got her a job in a massage parlour as a ‘receptionist’. Even before Mona got to know the work profile, she realized that she had been trapped into sexual exploitation. She had become a sexual slave to the ‘customers’ who frequented the place for full-body massage. Ravi promises support to Indian trafficking victims in US NDTV, Indo-Asian News Service IANS, March 09, 2008 [accessed 10 February 2011] About 100 Indian victims of human trafficking in the 'Dr Kidney' arrest exposes Indian organ traffic Sandhya Srinivasan, Inter Press Service News Agency IPS, Mumbai, Feb 22, 2008 [accessed 10 February 2011] The arrest of "Doctor Kidney" Amit Kumar for running a sizeable racket in live kidneys has highlighted the role that South Asia plays as the hub of an international trade in human organs. A sophisticated but unregulated healthcare industry, a "donor pool" of desperately poor people ready to sell a kidney, and a corrupt monitoring system have combined to create a special brand of "medical tourism" in the region, especially in India and neighboring Pakistan. Kumar is accused of luring poor laborers to his "hospital" in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon with promises of job offers or large sums of money. Typically, they were promised 300,000 rupees (US$7,500) but paid only 30,000 ($750) after the surgery, police said. He is alleged to have conducted more than 500 transplants over an unspecified period, charging up to $50,000 dollars for each operation. Investigators say his patients came from Britain, the United States, Turkey, Nepal, Dubai, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Four child labourers freed Times News Network (The Times of [accessed 10 February 2011] Saddam said, "Our parents face severe hardships in making both ends meet due to abject poverty.Sagir took advantage of this and one day he came to our house and offered to 'help' the family by ensuring education for us. Gaining our parents' confidence and consent, Sagir brought us toNagpur." He added, "When we arrived in the city, Sagir took us to his zari embroidery unit inFarooq Nagar, near Teka Naka. He forced us to work in the embroidery unit. We used to work right from 8 am to 2 am, and he (Sagir) used to pay us a very meagre Rs 15 to Rs 20 per week." New cases on human trafficking Chandra Bhushan Pandey, Times News Network (The Times of [accessed 10 February 2011] Trafficking of poor girls by unscrupulous persons or gangs along the Indo-Nepal border here is common, but local people were shocked to know that a father sold his daughter and a husband sold his young wife for money. West Bengals sex workers remarkable fight against HIV Soma Mitra, ANI-News, Kolkata, Dec 30, 2007 [accessed 10 February 2011] To stop human trafficking in sex trade, a self-regulatory board has been established by the sex workers. The board works as a filter and it checks whether the new girl joining the trade is an adult or a minor. This board also tries to find out if any new girl joining the profession is under any pressure to do so. This has been very successful way to check human trafficking, police raids have also reduced considerably, said Swapna Gayen, who too is a sex worker in Sonagachi for over two decades. Is Christmas really Merry for Indian Children? Shishir Srivastava, merinews.com, Dec 25, 2007 [accessed 10 February 2011] The much-hyped policy against child labour has shown little results. In Shahpur village in Vaishalidistrict in Bihar, children were being used as beasts of burden. But the mindset of people was such that, none of them wanted to help those children. The boys were being used instead of bullocks forploughing the land and the land under question belongs to the minister for rural developmentRaghuvansh Prasad’s brother Raghuraj Singh. Child labour right under the nose of the ministry! Children under the age of 14 are forced to work in glass, fireworks, and most commonly, carpet-making factories. India has the largest number of uneducated children in the world. We boast of abysmal numbers, with 75 million children suffering from malnutrition and more than a 100 million being uneducated. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Mid Day meal scheme have not shown the desirous results yet, with 70 per cent dropout rate of children before the 10th standard. Trafficking victim awaits permanent home Moyna, Expressindia, Gurgaon, Dec 09, 2007 [accessed 10 February 2011] Abandoned at the Gurgaon bus stand on Thursday, a 14-year-old victim of human trafficking is left in the lurch with no one willing to offer her a solution, or a long-term shelter. Neither the local police stations nor NGOs are ready to take care of her. A resident of Gopalganj in Bihar, the victim was married off to a 45-year-old man (one Pramod) as her father could not repay money he had borrowed, the victim has said. The marriage took place in Bihar on March 10, and she was brought to Rohtak a couple of months ago, the victim said. Trading flesh, selling souls At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), between two to three million people are trafficked annually in and out of People from these states are trafficked to work in brothels, dance bars, pubs, restaurants, friendship clubs, massage parlours and for domestic chores, says Dr P M Nair, a senior police official and co-author of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) study entitled 'Trafficking in Women and Children in India'. Human trafficking burst in Chhattisgarh, 400 villagers rescued Press Trust of www.dnaindia.com/india/report_human-trafficking-burst-in-chhattisgarh-400-villagers-rescued_1133523 [accessed 10 February 2011] Over 400 villagers from Mahasamund district have been rescued by the Chhattisgarh government officials when they were being transported outside the state, a senior official said on Friday. "All the villagers were put inside the containers which did not have have sufficient ventilation or light and were being transported like animals," she said. Women emerge as primary victims in trafficking Nava Thakuria, Law Resource [accessed 10 February 2011] Porous borders with economically poorer Addressing the conference, the minister Ms Chowdhury also argued that trafficking is by and large a gendered phenomenon. The trafficking in India is primarily for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. There are nearly three million sex workers in India and 40 per cent of them are children or adolescent girls. Statistics reveal that children below the age of 10 years are also found in the brothel of Indian cities like Mumbai and Delhi now a day, the minister disclosed. "Many believe that having sex with young and virgin girls would cure them of diseases. It is nonsense," Ms Chowdhuryuttered. She emphasized on reducing the demand for prostitutes, engagement of children in workplaces, use of forced labour and empowering all collaborative efforts of governments, NGOs and other institutions to deal with the situation. - htcp 25 arrested for human trafficking; 200 labourers rescued in Indian state [accessed 10 February 2011] At least 200 persons, including women and children, were rescued from forced labour and 25 middlemen were arrested in this regard, police said Friday. The rescued include 70 persons, who were confined for three days in a forest in the jurisdiction ofTurekela police station area and 30 others, who were rescued from Titilagarh railway station. Never too young to be sold Sreyashi Dastidar, The Telegraph [accessed 10 February 2011] One wishes the circumstances were the same, but they seldom are. How does one equate a girl lured away from a village in Meghalaya to a brothel in Delhi with the one pushed into beedi-binding by her own parents just so there is enough money to feed all the mouths in the family? Or a boy thrown into the laps of paedophiliac foreign tourists in Goa with one who runs away from starvation and poverty at home, to be picked up and employed by a brick-kiln owner who gives him a paltry daily wage and lunch? Which arm of the State — women and child development, labour, police, or home affairs if there is border-crossing — has failed to do its job in each of these cases, and which is responsible for ensuring that the trafficked person gets a livelihood and a respectable life? This is why trafficking is such a tricky crime in developing countries with their many areas of darkness. In Haryana, for instance, where it is acceptable to destroy female foetuses and kill baby girls, young women are trafficked from Bengal and the Northeast and forced into marriage to keep the family line going. How does one, in the absence of a complaint from the girl or her family, initiate criminal proceedings against those who claim the girl as their daughter-in-law? UN seeks end to human trafficking Sanjoy Majumder, BBC News, [accessed 11 February 2011] GOALS - Every day in Sarpanch held for human trafficking [PDF] Express News Service [accessed 11 February 2011] [page 8] On a tipoff, Patnagarh police, led by DSP (crime) N C Dandsena, rescued the 40 labourerswhen they were being taken to a nearby railway station to work in a brick kiln unit. Police said theSarpanch had given some money to the labourers in advance and forced them to go to Hyderabad. They were to work in the brick kiln for five months. Over 650 Indian trafficking victims rescued: UNODC [PDF] Press Trust of [accessed 11 February 2011] [page 7] ANTI-TRAFFICKING EFFORTS BEARING FRUITS - Over 650 Indians, including 138 minors, who were victims to human trafficking, were rescued during the first six months of this year, an United Nations agency said here today. He claimed the average age of girls being trafficked in South Asia was dropping. "While in 1980, the average age of trafficked girls was 14 to 16 years, it dropped to 10-14 years in 1994. The figure in 2006 has decreased," he said. Human trafficking has become a billion-dollar business: UN report Luit Neil Don, merinews.com, Sep 26, 2007 [accessed 11 February 2011] The United Nations report also said, that girls and women from West Bengal and “(There is an) emerging pattern of trafficking in girls from West Bengal and Assam to the more prosperous states of Punjab and Haryana, where the gender gap is most acute…The woman is either abandoned or passed onto another man after the birth of the male child,” the study said. Human trafficking helps spread HIV/AIDS in Asia: UN Ranga Sirilal, Reuters, [accessed 11 February 2011] "Trafficking ... contributes to the spread of HIV by significantly increasing the vulnerability of trafficked persons to infection," said Caitlin Wiesen-Antin, HIV/AIDS regional coordinator, Major human trafficking routes run between Nepal and India and between Thailand and neighbors like Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. Many of the victims are young teenage girls who end up in prostitution. "The link between human trafficking and HIV/AIDS has only been identified fairly recently," Wiesen-Antin told the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. Police rescue trafficking suspect from mob fury July 17, 2007 www.kalingatimes.com/orissa_news/news/20070717_Police_rescue_trafficking_suspect.htm [Last access date unavailable] Police on Tuesday rescued a former employee of a Bhubaneswar-based placement agency facing charges of trafficking youths from this region to The mob badly beat up Sunil Das and held him captive in the village. The irate mob pounced on him demanding the refund of money that the Malaysia bound youths had paid to the placement agency, police said. A Dalit youth from this part of the state had undergone a two-month-long nightmarish ordeal in Malaysia and escaped from the clutches of a well-knit human trafficking racket, bringing to the fore the harrowing plight of a number of unemployed local youths still stranded in Malaysia in their quest for greener pastures. Church organizes struggle against human trafficking [accessed 11 February 2011] Many girls from the region are also taken to Indian cities with promises of jobs, said Shimray, a native of Manipur state. Shimray said many women are taken from their homes after being promised jobs as domestic maids. The educated ones are promised jobs in hotels and city firms, she added. In many cases, those who entrap the women are members of their own families, relatives or people close to them. In the period, the state recorded 3,718 missing female adults. Among them, 1,837 are still untraceable. During the same period 4,259 girls went missing and only 1,918 were traced, Borahsaid. Guard Against Human Trafficking Manu Aiyappa, Times News Network (The Times of timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Bangalore/Guard_Against_Human_Trafficking/articleshow/1999535.cms [accessed 11 February 2011] These marriage offers come for a consideration ranging between Rs 5,000 and Rs 1 lakh,which are ascertained on the basis of her beauty. In some situations, poor family members sell children hoping that they will get a good life, job or education. However, most of them end up in a brothel or simply they are forced to have sex with clientele." Traffickers often use local people (sub-agents) in a community or village to find young women and children, and target families who are poor and vulnerable. "One of the major problems with making arrests is that the victim's family does not complain as it does not want to be used as witnesses against the agents or gangs involved in trafficking," an officer said. Slavery In Posted 12-18-2007 [Last accessed 30 August 2011] [scroll down to #3] The increase in human trafficking cases in the last couple of years is worrying NGOs and exposes the government’s apathy towards the social evil. Figures say that more than 60 girls from Karnataka, who fell prey to human trafficking, have been rescued from brothels and red light areas in Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi. These rescued girls, in the age-group of 12 to 20 years, are mostly from the northern districts of Bijapur, Bagalkot, Shimoga, Mysore, Mandya and Chamrajnagar. They fall easy prey to the agents who assure them of jobs and attractive earnings, but they land up in brothels. State unaware of child abuse situation, projecting deflated figues newindpress, Bhubaneswar Orissa, April 12 2007 At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] The pilgrim town of But the State Administration and Police make no attempt to move because the holy town also happens to be a tourist hotspot. But the real cause of concern lies elsewhere. Domestic abuse continues unabated and even in the face of newer and stringent legislation. Having children as domestic helps is a common practice and they are the major victims of abuse. The sensational incident of child torture by royals of Khariar in 2004 had amply revealed the magnitude of the problem. The Crime Branch of Orissa Police arrested the former royal BP SinghDeo and his wife Pushpalata Singh Deo who allegedly branded their 8-year-old domestic help. The new and stringent legislation has not been able to rein in the menace. Children are not only afraid of reporting the abuse in fear of retribution, loss of livelihood also deters them to disclose. How to change the world - The role of the social entreprenuer Nikhil Mustaffa, The Daily Mirror, March 15, 2007 At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] As Childline expanded to new cities, the call-tracking system also emerged as an important source of child protection information. National data showed that the biggest killer of street children was tuberculosis, but regional call patterns revealed a variety of local problems. In Jaipur, for example,childline received reports of abuse in the garment and jewelry industries. In Varanasi, there were reports of children being abducted to work in the sari industry. In Delhi, many calls came from middle-class children. In Nagpur, a transit hub, there were frequent reports of children abandoned in train stations. In Goa, a beach resort, a major problem was the sexual abuse of children by foreign tourists. Panel Draws Attention to Human Trafficking The Blue & Gray, At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] Thirty families living in a village in the Tiruvallur district of India all have one thing in common: They are now free after spending years in bonded labor at a nearby brick kiln, said Gayatri Patel, who visited the village in 2006. "The people I met with told me the owner of the brick kiln who had practically enslaved these people had been arrested, but he was only sentenced to one night in prison," Patel recently told a Georgetown audience. "The next morning when he left, he just went back to his brick kiln, rounded up another 100 bonded laborers and put them to work." NGO worker involved in human trafficking arrested Manisha Sharma, HindustanTimes, [accessed 6 September 2011] Arrest of an activist working for a non-government organisation (NGO) for his alleged involvement in human trafficking of 13 Nepalese women in Maharajganj district on Thursday has put a question mark over the very genuineness of such agencies involved in the eradication of the menace. This worker, arrested along with a policeman, was working for the NGO Manav Sewa Sansthan. March denounces child trafficking BBC News, 25 February 2007 [accessed 11 February 2011] LURED BY SWEETS - Kailash Satyarthi, chairman of the Global March Against Child Labour, says "Children are being used for child marriages. Child prostitution is of course there, then a lot of children are taken as camel jockeys." Thousands of children work in roadside food stalls Some children, he says, are kidnapped and sold so their organs can be harvested for transplant operations. One of the young marchers is a boy of 13 who says he was lured from his village in Bihar by a man with sweets, kidnapped, and taken to Human trafficking is a $32 bn worldwide business Sujoy Dhar, Indo-Asian News Service IANS, [accessed 11 February 2011] Afsana Khatun, a 15-year-old Muslim girl from Kolkata's Kidderpore area, has never met 13-year-oldRakesh who works for 18 hours in a Punjab village like a slave after he was trafficked from his native village in Bihar. But on Sunday, Afsana will march with thousands of others from Kolkata so thatRakesh and other boys and girls of his age who are trafficked every day are not enslaved in a stone quarry or a red light area forever. 'The objective of this march is to build a mass movement against child trafficking and forced labour. There is no regional protocol to prohibit trafficking. We would march to make the government answerable and people aware,' he said. Four held for human trafficking; three girls rescued Press Trust of www.dnaindia.com/india/report_four-held-for-human-trafficking-three-girls-rescued_1077030 [Last accessed 11 February 2011] Three young women aged 18 to 20 years were rescued from being trafficked and four persons arrested in this connection here on Tuesday, police said. The girls belonging to Vijayawada city were lured on the promise of jobs in Hyderabad. Child Trafficking Tribune, 8 April 2004 At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] [scroll down] TRAFFICKING AND CHILD MARRIAGE - Due to a demographic imbalance in Haryana (850 girls/1000 boys), men find it difficult to find a bride. The easy way out has been through a network of touts who help men, young old and widowed men to find wives from West Bengal, Assam and Bihar. An estimated 5000 girls were sold in the Mewat region of Haryana. Of Serious Concern Editorial, The Rising At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] Incidents of human trafficking are on the rise in the country despite the presence of a number oforganisations, both in the private and government sectors, and the powerful media that makes each incident of human trafficking public. The latest case of human trafficking was revealed in Nepalgunjthe other day when a suspected trafficker was arrested while trying to traffic four boys and five girls across the border. Thanks to Maiti Nepal, an NGO working for the well-being of helpless girls, the police arrested the suspected trafficker. Though there is no official record regarding the number of Nepalese girls trafficked to Indian brothels, thousands of Nepalese girls are said to live lives of untold misery in the Indian brothels. Four arrested for human trafficking [access information unavailable] CID Crime Branch sleuths on Saturday said they’ve arrested four persons who are involved in trafficking two girls allegedly for the purpose of trafficking. On interrogation, police found that the girls were brought from outside the state and were being supplied by a couple to a middleman in 4 held for human trafficking, inter-state racket busted Express News Service, [accessed 11 February 2011] Samir went the to urinal while the announcement was being made but when he returned, both his daughter-in-law and the man, identified as Ramesh, were missing, said police. During investigations, police found that Ramesh, who stays in Usmanpur Pusta, northwest Delhi, had gone to Roorkee in Uttaranchal and followed him. At Roorkee bus stop, Ramesh and oneSandhya Devi were arrested while they were settling a deal of Rs 20,000 for the victim, police said. Police raided Sandhya's house in Roorkee and rescued a 15-year-old girl, who was kidnapped from Old Delhi Railway Station earlier. Pak one of the key sources of women trafficking in world: UN report Bureau Report, Zee News, [accessed 11 February 2011] A UN report has described United News & Information UNI, September 12, 2006 [accessed 11 February 2011] The court was hearing a petition filed by a non-government organisation "Prerna" which has sought reinvestigation into the case wherein nine girls, who had been rescued from a brothel in 2002, had gone missing. The court was told that the number of minor girls rescued from brothels during the last three years was shocking. As many as 26 girls were rescued in 2003, twelve in 2004, 31 girls were rescued in 2005 and 27 during the current year, the court was told. Human trafficking from Mohan Budhair, Kathmandu Post, Paliya [accessed 6 September 2011] [page 22] Trafficking of Nepalese women and children into A large number of women and children are being trafficked into India from checkpoints west ofButwal, representatives of several Indian and Nepalese non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and security officials stated during an interaction on 'controlling cross-border human trafficking'. Woman held for human trafficking The Hindu, [accessed 11 February 2011] A middle-aged woman allegedly engaged in trafficking of humans was caught at Nodal cell in Home Ministry to deal with human trafficking Bureau Report, Zee News, [accessed 11 February 2011] The centre has directed state governments to deal with such crimes in a holistic manner and to evolve an effective and comprehensive strategy encompassing rescue, relief and rehabilitation of victims besides deterrent action against violators. Govt push to drive against human trafficking Express News Service, Mumbai, August 12, 2006 [accessed 12 February 2011] A total of 8900 cases of trafficking were registered in 2004-2005. 13,300 persons were arrested, 93% of them women and minors. 85% of them were convicted, IPS officer P Nair, currently on deputation to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), quotes these figures to illustrate how the justice system is criminalising victims, but not traffickers. The boy racer Amelia Gentleman, Observer Sport Monthly, 30 July 2006 [accessed 12 February 2011] Budhia Singh was sold as a baby by his illiterate and impoverished mother. Now, aged five, he is India's most improbable young sports star, famed for his astonishing feats of endurance running. Reuters, [accessed 12 February 2011] Village heads across impoverished rural Indo-Asian News Service IANS, [accessed 12 February 2011] The study said 72 percent of human trafficking is for commercial sex, 80.26 percent of trafficking of women takes place in Human trafficking turning into organised crime in India Bureau Report, Zee News, [accessed 12 February 2011] "Trafficking can be disguised as migration, commercial sex or marriage. But what begins as a voluntary decision often ends up as trafficking as victims find themselves in unfamiliar destinations, subjected to unexpected work," said E Rajarethinam of GCT. Pointing out that trafficking is deeply related to deprivation, Jill Shirey, a consultant at American Centre for International Labour Solidarity (ACILS) said that people are "forced into accepting unknown jobs due to lack of options." India rejects U. S. criticism for inability to control human trafficking Media Release, Jun. 6, 2006 At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] The Indian ministry statement said Rep. Christopher Smith, a Republican author of the 2000 law that established the annual trafficking reports, said in Washington that the Bush administration went too easy on India by placing it on the watch list instead of among the dozen worst offenders. Microsoft Teams with CAP to Train Victims of Human Trafficking in IT IT News Online, 31 May 2006 -- Source: www.itnewsonline.com/showstory.php?storyid=4119&scatid=8&contid=1 [accessed 12 February 2011] Microsoft Corp. India Private Limited, under its Project Jyoti program, has announced a grant of around Rs. 2.2 crore to CAP (Child and Police project), a Hyderabad-based NGO, to provide IT skills training to victims of human trafficking as well as vulnerable communities at risk of trafficking. Press Release from Free Software Foundation of Free Software Foundation of [accessed 12 February 2011] The Free Software Foundation of India would like to bring to the attention of the Government and the general public the negative implications of the "investment pledges" made by the Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates, during his present visit to Human trafficking in the northeast fuelling HIV/AIDS UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN/PlusNews, Kokrajhar, 17 May 2006 [accessed 12 February 2011] We visited 25 relief camps of internally displaced persons [IDPs] in Kokrajhar in Bodoland Territorial Council, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (German Press Agency) DPA, At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] The women and children, some as young as five-years-old, were brought by the traffickers from fourneighbourhood districts with false promises of lucrative jobs in But they are mostly forced into prostitution as they illegally enter Need to rid Gujarat of human trafficking Times News Network (The Times of [accessed 12 February 2011] Last August, the city police had raided several embroidery units in Rakhial and rescued 84 childlabourers from Slavery in Our Time Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, January 22, 2006 [accessed 12 February 2011] Historians will look back in puzzlement at the way our 21st century world tolerates the slavery of more than a million children in brothels around the world. India alone may have half a million children in its brothels, more than any other country in the world. Visit the brothel district in almost any city in India, and you can meet 14-year-old girls who have been kidnapped off the street, or drugged, or offered jobs as maids, and then sold into a world that they often escape only by dying of AIDS. Indo-Pak girls forced into prostitution Asian News International ANI, At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] In a startling case of organised women trafficking that has come to light, Pakistani and Indian girls aged between 11 and 13 are being smuggled to the Hitting Brothel Owners where it Hurts Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, [accessed 12 February 2011] [24 January 2006] Imagine what you would have done if you'd been in Hasina Bibi's sandals. She was a lonely 16-year-old working in a garment factory in Bangladesh when an older employee began mothering her. They grew close, and one day the older woman gave Hasina some cakes to eat. Two days later, Hasina emerged from a drug-induced stupor in India, sold to a brothel in faraway Gujarat. The brothel's owner beat Hasina and threatened to deform her face with acid if she tried to escape. She had to do whatever the customers wanted, with or without condoms. Caritas Caritas At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] THE TRAFFICKED VICTIM IS SUBJECTED TO WORST FORM OF HUMAN RIGHT ABUSES - Mona, (not her real name) a girl from Jharkhand, aged 14 years, had been trafficked to Prostitution of Nepalese girls rampant in Indian brothel Kolkata, Nov 20, 2005 – Source: news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=167534&cat=India [accessed 12 February 2011] ''Young girls are trafficked from US accuses NGO of 'trafficking' Rema Nagarajan, Hindustan Times, At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] Northeast girls in metros forced into prostitution Indo-Asian News Service IANS, Guwahati, September 15, 2005 [accessed 12 February 2011] Gullible young girls from the northeast are being forced into prostitution in the metropolises after being lured by organized syndicates promising them glamorous careers and lucrative jobs, a rights group has said. "The situation is extremely serious with smart operators flooding the northeast hunting for good looking young girls for modeling assignments or jobs in call centers with good salaries," said Hasina Kharbih, chairperson of Impulse NGO Network. "But in reality, many of these women were pushed into the notorious world of prostitution." Stopping the traffic Malvika Kaul, Womens Feature Service, May 29, 2005 [accessed 12 February 2011] Slavery is not dead in Police rescue 24 girls from red light area Express News Service, Pune, August 18, 2005 [accessed 12 February 2011] Police said the rescued girls had been whisked away from various places in Teen escapes sex trade The Telegraph, Krishnagar, August 10, 2005 [accessed 12 February 2011] Tasmina Khatun agreed to elope with Muku Mondal, a man she loved, not knowing the nightmare she was inviting. Police yesterday rescued the 15-year-old girl from the Sunderbans when she was about to be taken to Bangla prostitution racket busted in Goa Herald (page 1), 15 July 2005 [accessed 12 February 2011] The minor girl, Mallika, hailing from a poverty stricken family, was approached by a 'sympathetic-looking' Bangladeshi woman, who offered to take the girl to Mumbai with the promise that the family would see a change in their fortunes. At Apna Ghar, Mallika narrated her woeful tale of being bought in from Bangladesh and being forced into the prostitution trade, to the counselor appointed by the government. Speaking out for the `nameless' S. Anil Radhakrishnan, The Hindu, May 31, 2005 [accessed 12 February 2011] "Anamika" (the nameless) is a documentary on trafficking of women and children from Andhra Pradesh to various parts of the country. It narrates how young girls are deceived, forced or coerced to enter the trade every year. The face that launched a thousand shares Malvika Kaul, Indian Express, May 20, 2005 www.indianexpress.com/storyOld.php?storyId=70664 [accessed 21 November 2010] Thousands of Indians, especially women and children, are trafficked everyday to some destination or the other and are forced to lead lives of slavery. They survive in brothels, factories, guesthouses, dance bars, farms and even in the homes of well-off Indians, with no control over their bodies and lives. Women and children are also being trafficked for illegal adoptions, organ transplants, the circus and the entertainment industry. Little Hands of Slavery netGuruIndia At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] In the tender age of five or six these children are made to work up to fifteen hours a day in stone quarries, fields, picking rags on city streets or as domestic servants. They do not go to school, and throughout their lifetime they possibly wouldn’t even have the barest skills of literacy. The most important fact that one has to keep in mind is that labor for these children is not just for a means of living but often a compulsion for mere existence. These children belong to extremely poor families where if they do not earn then the family does not get to eat. At times in our society riddled with cruel obligations, child labor comes to be a natural expectation for his or her cast. The major factor that contributes to the continuing problem of bonded child labor, is the employers' desire for cheap labor. Fierce competition draws factory owners to the plentiful supply of inexpensive, malleable, easily exploited child laborers. Couple Arrested For Human Trafficking Mumbai Newsline, Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Ltd., January 26, 2005 [accessed 16 March 2011] Sunil Dayalkar alias Sanjay More and wife Kushi alias Nishikant Biswas allegedly bought Asha(name changed) from one Sanjay Dutt for Rs 65,000 and then forced her into prostitution. Ashafinally escaped and approached the SSB, who raided the Dayalkar’s house and arrested the couple under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act This Will Force Us To Clean Up Our Act The Times of [accessed 12 February 2011] NGOs estimate that at least 7,000 girls are trafficked into 17,000 Xinhua News Agency, March 26, 2005 [accessed 12 February 2011] According to the study, the investigators talked personally to the Nepali women in the brothels of The Saving of Innocents - The Satya Interview with Ruchira Gupta Satya, January 2005 [accessed 12 February 2011] An uncle or a family friend pays the parent something like $30. There is the middleman in a packed city, the border guard who takes a payoff, and the agent who takes the girls across the border to the people who then transport them to Human Trafficking Situation In Times News Network (The Times of [accessed 12 February 2011] "The Government of India has shown little progress in addressing anti-trafficking in persons concerns since May... In Mumbai, convictions for trafficking-related offences increased from three in 2003 to 11 thus far in 2004 but remain grossly unrepresentative in a city of over 18 million inhabitants." Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 2 Civil Liberties: 3 Status: Free 2009 Edition [accessed 12 February 2011] Human Rights Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 12 February 2011] Library of Congress Call Number DS407 .I4465 1996 [accessed 12 February 2011] Slavery Today | Introduction Auriana Ojeda. "Introduction." At Issue: Slavery Today. Ed. Auriana Ojeda. [accessed 12 February 2011] [scroll down] The most common form of slavery today is debt bondage or bonded labor. A person enters into debt bondage when his or her labor is demanded as a way to pay back a loan. In India, for example, debts running from $14 to $214 are usually incurred for basic necessities, such as food, medical emergencies, marriage dowries (a long-standing cultural tradition), or funeral expenses. Taking into account the outrageous interest rates, often in excess of 60 percent, and the debtors’ meager wages, these loans are difficult, if not impossible, to repay. Moreover, inaccurate bookkeeping on the part of the moneylender ensures that the debtor never pays off the loan. Individuals are then forced to repay loans by working for the moneylender for the rest of their lives and often pass the same debt on to their children and grandchildren. Human rights groups estimate that there are approximately 20 million bonded laborers throughout the world. Vinay Kumar, The Hindu, [accessed 12 February 2011] In a bid to combat the menace, the During the past three years, the Vajpayee Government has tried to push the idea. But several States have expressed doubts that it would usurp the rights of their police organisations. Lauding the shift in India's approach to nab the traffickers, rather than the victims, Mr. Acosta hoped that the trend would continue. The three Ps — prosecution, prevention and protection — played a crucial role in checking trafficking. Probe into CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott, [accessed 12 February 2011] Indian press reports said that Indian nationals in Pulling the Rug out from Under Us - A Report on Debt Bondage, Carpet-Marking, and Child Slavery Swathi Mehta, Tufts University, American Anti-Slavery Group At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] Ironically, Unresolved Crisis Sanjaya Dhakal, At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] A recent study by International Labor Organization (ILO) showed that around 12000 Nepalese women and children are trafficked every year. They are mostly trafficked across the border to India for the purpose of prostitution. Although Nepal has been suffering from this problem for long, there are still no comprehensive data regarding the actual situation of trafficking. “An analysis of information from print media, case studies and surveys on trafficked survivors shows the age groups, 11-18 years for girls and 6-12 years for boys to be more vulnerable to trafficking. The percentage of trafficking is the highest among hill ethnic groups, followed by Brahmin, Chhetri and occupational castes. There is a great variation in data relating to the educational level of trafficked persons. Nevertheless various reports show that illiterate persons are more vulnerable than literate persons are,” states the book. Child Prostitution in Nepal/India Plan-UK At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] Every year, thousands of Nepalese girls, some as young as 11 are sent to or procured for brothels in the big Indian cities, like They are often the daughters of poor farming families, where everyone must help with the family income. Girls have little or no earning potential, and if they are to marry need substantial dowries. So, when the middleman arrives in the village, and promises parents cash in return for taking the girls to work in India, or perhaps in "the circus", and that they will be fed, housed and cared for, the offer is hard to resist. In reality, many of these girls are taken to work in Indian brothels, where new, young girls are much sought after, and their families may never hear from them again. Anti Trafficking -Save Our Sisters Movement (SOS) Robert I. Freidman, " At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] EVERY HOUR, FOUR WOMEN AND GIRLS IN INDIA ENTER PROSTITUTION, THREE OF THEM AGAINST THEIR WILL - 13-year-old Mira of Nepal was offered a job as a domestic worker in Ranjitha Balasubramanyam, World in Progress, Deutsche Welle DW-World.DE, 01.09.2007 [accessed 12 February 2011] TINY HANDS AT WORK - In the glow of apparent prosperity, what went unnoticed for the most part were tiny hands that pulled, twisted and separated the yarn, so the fiber could become strong enough for weaving into cloth -- tiny hands that often bled from cuts and sometimes suffered permanent damage at the unrelenting machines in front of them. They belonged to children as young as 6 or 8, who stood all day on tired feet, laboring away at the twisting machines. These children worked in the midst of ear-splitting noise all day long, in many cases for up to 14 hours a day. Those were the average working conditions for the children of Magadi. No one in their town had heard of children’s rights, let alone of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Young flesh in the trade Malvika Kaul, Women's Feature Service WFS, [accessed 12 February 2011] Every year, an average of 22,480 women and 44,476 children are reported missing in Take the story of Parvathi Vinayak, a young girl in Maharashtra who was reported missing. She was abused and sexually exploited in a beer bar, according to the report. Even when it was confirmed that PV had been trafficked, the police records still had her name listed in the 'missing' list. Similarly, Suhasini Lakshmi, a Class 9 student in Karnataka, was brought to Mumbai by herneighbour for a job. While her parents complained to the police that she was missing, SL was sold to a brothel-owner in Mumbai and was rescued after 20 days when the brothel was raided by the police. - htcp Child labourers speak out Ayanjit Sen, BBC News, [accessed 12 February 2011] BEATEN UP - For 11-year-old Mansoor, life was hellish. "I used to work 15 hours a day and earn about 20 rupees (less than $0.5) per week," he said. Mansoor, who is from Muzaffarpur district in Bihar, said he used sleep hungry in a small dingy room on most days after work. He has been working for the past nine months. "My parents came into contact with a middleman who had promised good money for working in Delhi," he said. SOLD THREE TIMES - Narayani, in her 50s, said she had been sold three times during the last three decades by her employers. "I was working with my husband and three children in the northern state of Haryana in a factory, and all that we used to get as salary was food," said Narayani. Combating Trafficking Of Women And Children In South Asia - Regional Synthesis Paper for This book was prepared by staff and consultants of the Asian Development Bank, April 2003 [accessed 12 February 2011] FOREWORD - Every year, millions of Asian men, women, and even children, venture to new pastures—from the village to the city and sometimes to another country. They are driven by poverty, social exclusion or civil unrest. Their goal is to survive and earn money for their families. For many—disproportionately women and children—these journeys end tragically, as they fall into the hands of traffickers. Modern Slavery Ricco Villanueva Siasoco, infoplease, April 18, 2001 [accessed 12 February 2011] CHILD "CARPET SLAVES" IN INDIA - Kidnapped from their villages when they are as young as five years old, between 200,000 and 300,000 children are held captive in locked rooms and forced to weave on looms for food. In India—as well in other countries—the issue of slavery is exacerbated by a rigid caste system. The Enslavement Of Dalit And Indigenous Communities In UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, February 2001 At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] SUMMARY - This paper describes the gross and continuing violation of the rights of millions of people in The Dark Side of Football - Child and adult labour in India's football industry and the role of FIFA India Committee of the Netherlands, June 8, 2000 At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 6 September 2011] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - The NLI report estimates the average daily earning of an adult male in the sports goods industry to be around Rs.20 (less than half a US dollar) which is about one third of the present minimum wage of Rs.63 a day. Stitchers are normally not aware of the concept of minimum wage and are not organized by any trade union. Any protest or attempt to organize themselves can be easily crushed as they are dependent on the contractors for work. The Small Hands of Slavery - Bonded Child Labor in Human Rights Watch, September 1996, ISBN 1-56432-172-X, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 96-77536 [accessed 12 February 2011] SUMMARY - With credible estimates ranging from 60 to 115 million, India/Nepal: Rape for Profit Human Rights Watch, [accessed 12 February 2011] In a report released today, Human Rights Watch, the New York-based human rights organization, charged that women and girls trafficked from Nepal into India for the purpose of prostitution are kept in conditions tantamount to slavery. Held in debt bondage for years at a time, they are raped and subjected to severe beatings, exposure to AIDS, and arbitrary imprisonment. Both the Indian and Nepali governments are complicit in the abuses suffered by trafficking victims. Child Labour Persists Around The World: More Than 13 Percent Of Children 10-14 Are Employed International Labour Organisation (ILO) News, [accessed 6 September 2011] "Today's child worker will be tomorrow's uneducated and untrained adult, forever trapped in grinding poverty. No effort should be spared to break that vicious circle", says ILO Director-General MichelHansenne. Among the countries with a high percentage of their children from 10-14 years in the work force are: Mali, 54.5 percent; Burkina Faso, 51; Niger and Uganda, both 45; Kenya, 41.3; Senegal, 31.4; Bangladesh, 30.1; Nigeria, 25.8; Haiti, 25; Turkey, 24; Côte d'Ivoire, 20.5; Pakistan, 17.7; Brazil, 16.1; India, 14.4; China, 11.6; and Egypt, 11.2. | |||
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