Human trafficking involves use of force, fraud, harassment to obtain some type of labour or commercial work. Every year, we witness that millions of females and children are trafficked worldwide – including India too. The victim can be of any age, gender, race and nationality but are usually young women and children.
Due to caste system and discrimination, there are millions of people in India, especially women, who are below the poverty line and as a result of which they are vulnerable to human trafficking. This makes it important to understand how common is female trafficking in India and what can be done to address it.
In this blog, Helpocal – trusted for discovering women upliftment NGOs in India will share statistics, data, and geographical insights on female trafficking. Let’s start:
Female trafficking in India: Introduction
Women are one of the most vulnerable groups to human trafficking. For purposes of sexual or commercial exploitation, young women and teenage girls are kidnapped, sold in nearly every country of the world.
Though human rights and government organisations agree that trafficking in women is a serious crime that needs to be fought, the complex and widespread operations of human trafficking make capture and punishment of traffickers nearly impossible in many cases.
Human trafficking, including the exploitation of females, is a significant issue in India and it takes many forms such as forced labour, sexual exploitation, and domestic servitude.
Female and Human Trafficking in India Statistics
- According to a survey in 2022 by the National Crime Records bureau of India, 6500+ human trafficking victims were identified of which 60% were females and children.
- Odisha earned the status of being the state with highest number of victims of human trafficking in the country in 2022, revealed by National Crime Record Bureau of India with 11,20 victims where 502 were women.
- In 2021, 111 human trafficking cases were found in Bihar specifically in Gaya, Kishanganj, Patna, Katihar, Purnea, Araria and Madhubani
- In north India, the figure of female trafficking cases is rising at alarming rate especially in Lucknow, Maharajgunj from Uttar Pradesh with the 98 cases in 2020 out of which 97 victims were teen girl child and the rest were adults,
- In Maharashtra, the number of female trafficking was 805 in which many were raped, forced to work as sex workers and do labour work.
- United Nation Crime and Drugs IN 2024 published a story of a 14 year old girl who got missed and was trafficked from Darjeeling to Delhi.
- Indian women and girls who fall victim to trafficking are mostly shipped to Thailand, Kenya, South Africa and Middle East countries like Bahrin, Dubai, Oman, Britain, South Korea and the Philippines. They are forced to work as sex workers.
- With a tribal population of 9+ million, Jharkhand is one of the primary human trafficking hotspot in India, according to the Economic Survey of India of 2017 and the NCRB.
Prevention of Female Trafficking in India
With a view to tackle female trafficking in India, the government has taken multifarious measures to eliminate this menace from grass roots. Here are some of them:
1. Anti Trafficking Cell: ATC was set up in the Ministry of Home Affairs to act as a focal point for communicating various decisions and follow ups actions taken by the state government to combat female trafficking. MHA conducts coordination meetings with the Nodal Officers of Anti Human Trafficking Units nominated in all States/UTs periodically.
2. Establishment of Anti Human Trafficking units: Ministry of Home Affairs in India against Trafficking in Persons through Training and Capacity Building, has released funds for establishment of Anti Human Trafficking Units for 270 districts of the country.
3. Set up of Nodal Cells: Ministry of Home affairs has also made provision for the setup of Nodal cells in India in different states where the victims are brought up safely and provided with all the basic facilities including food, shelter, training and most importantly education.
How to prevent human trafficking
Governments can only achieve so much without the support of the public and NGOs. Here are some ways you can help check the menace of female trafficking in India:
1. Volunteer for helplines and help booths: Helplines and help booths are very important for providing timely help to any person in distress. While Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is considering collaboration between government agencies and NGOs for setting up helplines and help booths to provide timely assistance, you can volunteer to work with local NGOs to check women trafficking if your region has a high rate of the same.
2. Eliminating discrimination: Gender discrimination are important constituents of the vulnerability of women and girl children. This manifests itself in several serious violations of women’s rights such as high incidence of female feticide and infanticide and also the discrimination against women in healthcare, education and employment. Talk about gender based discrimination in your circles to create awareness about the same.
3. Prosecution and Protection: The best method of prevention is its integration with prosecution and protection. Prosecution includes several tasks like the identification of the traffickers and taking necessary legal action against them. Protection of the trafficked victim includes all steps towards the listening to their grievances thus helping the victim survive, rehabilitate and establish herself.
NGOs working for trafficking victims in India
Poverty and illiteracy are the root causes of human trafficking. Thankfully, the number of non-governmental organisations working in the field have increased enormously during the decade. Here are some trusts and NGOs that are working in India to eliminate female trafficking and support victims:
Freedom Firm, Ooty
Freedom Firm is an anti-sex trafficking NGO in India that is working to rescue minor girls sold into the commercial sex trade in India, and seek justice against those who were involved in their sexual exploitation. This is one of the most renowned nonprofits working for victims of trafficking.
Vihaan, Maharashtra
Vihaan works at the grassroots level to fight human trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Vihaan works with social workers, counsellors, lawyers and researchers to fight the menace of human trafficking with an end-to-end approach to facilitate the rescue, legal support and rehabilitation access and reintegration of survivors.
Guria Swayam Sevi Sansthan
The Varanasi-based NGO fights child prostitution, second-generation prostitution, trafficking of women and forced labour. Working primarily in north India, the organisation was started in 1993 by Ajeet Singh when he adopted three children of a woman from a red-light area.
Prajwala, Hyderabad
Prajwala is a Hyderabad-based NGO devoted to eradicating forced prostitution and sex trafficking. Founded in 1996 by Sunitha Krishnan and Brother Jose Vetticatil, the organisation actively works in prevention, rescue, rehabilitation, reintegration and advocacy to combat trafficking and restore dignity to victims of commercial sexual exploitation. They are recognised for Rape Vctim Support Program (RVSP).
Vipla Foundation
According to Vipla Foundation, after the COVID-19 pandemic, women in sex work and victims of trafficking were at greater risk of “re-trafficking” as they were more vulnerable to indebtedness, violence and exploitation, than ever before. The programs of Vipla provide vocational skills training for women aged 18-30 years, residing in urban settlements in Maharashtra and Delhi NCR.
Prerana
This Mumbai-based nonprofit runs initiatives to rescue, protect and rehabilitate human trafficking victims in the city and outside. It also works to prevent the second-generation trafficking of victims. The NGO also rehabilitates sex trafficking survivors by skilling them to take up jobs and lead a dignified life.
Human and women trafficking in India
We hope that you gained some perspective about women trafficking and exploitation happening in India. If you want to help eliminate female trafficking from India, we recommend partnering with NGOs active in your region. The ones we have listed are doing amazing work in the field of women trafficking and rehabilitation. So, do consider volunteering with them!
Feel like reading more? Here are some other blogs which will help you to know more on women upliftment and will provide you with an expanded view about women empowerment.
