Not just Jharkhand: India's dirty tale of human trafficking is widespread

Disturbing information that has come to light has shown that the state of Jharkhand is slowly turning into a haven for “intermediaries and traffickers” who roam in haats (weekly markets) and melas (exhibitions) in search of young girls to work as domestic help in metros outside the state. Ambika Pandit in a piece titled ‘Jharkhand haats, melas hotbeds of traffickers in The Times of India writes: “The presence of sleuths of the anti-human trafficking unit from Khunti district at the Jagannath mela further underlines the dangers confronting the youth from poverty-stricken villages of this region. Aradhna Singh, inspector, AHTU, Khunti said that the number of minors reported missing often increases after melas and haats.” [caption id=“attachment_1628067” align=“alignleft” width=“300”]  Lost childhood. AFP[/caption] According to reports, “Estimates put domestic workers in India at 50 million. Delhi alone has an estimated 10 lakh workers. Most are migrants. There’s no law to regulate domestic work and placement agencies at the Central or state level.” The plight of domestic workers in India has been repeatedly brought to the limelight but hardly anything has changed on the ground. “For various reasons, official statistics tend to undercount domestic workers. The case of India is particularly striking given the magnitude of the difference: estimates of the number of domestic workers in this country range between 2.5 and 90 million. Domestic workers play an important part in the economy and they allow others to go out and earn money. Yet they remain invisible, unprotected and their contribution is often not recognized"—Neelam Agnihotri, communication and information officer in the ILO Country Office for India wrote in a piece Recognition for India’s invisible workers. The instances of human trafficking have sharpened the focus on safety of women and children in the country. Lack of work opportunities near home, poor economic conditions and a tendency to help their distressed families out of poverty have also contributed to the rise in human trafficking. “An increasing number of job placement agencies lure adults and children for sex trafficking or forced labor, including domestic servitude, under false promises of employment. Activists estimate 20 percent of domestic workers who are rescued from Delhi homes complain of sexual abuse, either by the employer or those in job placement agencies"—the United States Department of State said in its report 2013 Trafficking in Persons Report - India. The problem is not with the human traffickers or the placement agencies alone. Lack of proper government policies, absence of a mechanism to monitor these illegal activities besides apathy from the people who employ this helpless lot as domestic workers cannot escape scrutiny. The problem of trafficking of children has reached such a fearful proportion that even the Supreme Court of India has stepped in and have asked the government to deal with the matter urgently. “But there has been little effort to link increasing cases of missing children with the flurry of trafficking. The country is now faced with an epidemic of child trafficking."—Biswajit Ghosh said in his piece India’s child trafficking epidemic at EastIndiaForum. No country with a heart can afford such an epidemic.