Major Reasons for Child Trafficking in India

08/04/16

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Child trafficking in India is fueled by poverty, lack of awareness, and organized crime. With over 40% of the population struggling for basic needs, many families, driven by desperation, fall prey to traffickers. Children are forced into labor, servitude, and exploitation, while weak enforcement and corruption allow this billion-dollar industry to thrive.

Stronger laws and better enforcement are crucial to dismantling trafficking networks. Education and awareness can empower vulnerable communities to protect their children. Economic support and sustainable livelihoods can prevent families from resorting to desperate measures. Rescue and rehabilitation programs provide survivors with the care and opportunities they need to rebuild their lives.

Organizations like Bal Raksha Bharat (Save the Children India) are leading the fight against child trafficking. Supporting their work can help rescue and protect vulnerable children. Donate, advocate, and be a part of the change.

Most Common Causes of Child Trafficking in India

Bal Raksha Bharat identifies and works with disadvantaged local communities by training Children’s Groups to stand up against various forms of exploitation such as child marriage, child trafficking, child abuse and child labour. Young, at-risk children are empowered to join school via enrolment drives, and kept safe, while children above the age of 14 receive skill-based vocational trainings to create job opportunities for them.

Along with protecting lakhs of children from different forms of harm, especially in vulnerable situations including natural calamities, the NGO also fights for child rights through advocacy reforms guided by the United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child.

Read Also: Child Labor: What are the Health and Social Implications?

Following are some of the most important causes of child trafficking:

Girls as objects of desire

Indian society finds sons more ‘valuable’ than their daughters, simply because they carry on the family name, aren’t subjected to dowry and are obliged to take care of them in their old age. Since girls are also seen as weak and only objects of desire, it is clear why most girl victims of child labour end up in prostitution or some kind of sexual slavery. According to a September 2015 report in India Today, girls are “sold openly” in Agra and Patna and auctioned for their virginity.

Lack of education

While the Right to Education act, supplemented by initiatives of both NGOs and government bodies, attempts to drive school enrolment, the truth is poor school conditions discourage children from being interested in school. This is worsened by teachers who have no incentive in teaching in villages, due to these conditions and low salaries. With a rote learning-based educational system that doesn’t make children employable, parents see labour a better proposition. This is why there are 8.33 lakh children trapped in child labour in India. This is a ripe environment for traffickers to lure parents with lies about the possibility of better education, domestic work, and a nurturing atmosphere, with just a small sum of money.

Caste System

The caste system is also one of the reasons behind child trafficking, it is still a contemporary reality. While urban India fights for reservation, it is rural India which reels under caste based discrimination, with reduced access to opportunities for advancement.

With the high profits associated with child trafficking, it is not surprising to see low caste families being coerced and bullied into selling their children, or out rightly having their children stolen overnight. The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) has even reported cases where children have “disappeared”, with a frequency of one in eight minutes.

Exploitation resulting from sex discrimination

As girls are seen as meek, loyal and submissive, they are trafficked by ‘placement agencies’ into working as servants. Upon maturity, they can then be used as prostitutes, sold again to brothels, while the unknowing family which hired them as a maid buys yet another girl as a servant.

Alternatively, they’re also rented out to foreign tourists looking for minor girls. Minor girls are in huge demand in illegal sex trade in different parts of India and they’re easy targets to exploit. Traffickers also create an illusion that one day; the entire family will follow their sons and daughters into the city. They aren’t aware of the link between the placement agencies and brothels.

Political instability

India has seen a series of political parties coming to power. There has been a general lack of will amongst the political class to pass a strong anti-child trafficking legislation. The list of pending cases in Indian courts, including the Supreme Court, goes into the hundreds of thousands. This creates a lack of strong legal precedent against child trafficking and emboldens the traffickers.

Dysfunctional family and society structure

Dysfunction in Indian family and society structures is another common reason for child trafficking. It often results from alcoholism and gambling, as well as a rigorous patriarchy which exercises power through the panchayat as well as informal societal norms. This is worsened by poverty and neglect, compelling children to leave home, only to find themselves trapped by traffickers.

Corruption in India

While the span of corruption, going into thousands of crores, is part of the everyday news, its reach is far more pervasive in rural India, triggering off poverty, human trafficking, inequality and casual bribery. More importantly, it has created mindsets where people seek to become rich overnight, even going as far as joining gangs and committing crimes. In this atmosphere, the highly lucrative human trafficking business seems quite an obvious choice.

Read Also: Role of Awareness in Promoting Basic Rights of Children

Conclusion

It is not hard to see how these factors, and their interplay is a potent cocktail that has poisoned India’s rural ecosystem to make high incidence of child trafficking a sad reality. Aggressive steps by the government and sound groundwork by NGOs are required to mitigate what is definitely a crisis of epic proportions. It is therefore important to vehemently support the work of NGOs. One can donate online as well. Every donation has a two-pronged effect. Not only do you make a difference to a child’s life, you also get tax benefits.

Gaurav Sharma

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“I am an editor and technical specialist at Bal Raksha Bharat, responsible for publishing articles and posts. My role involves evaluating content for consistency, and ensuring a positive user experience across the website."