India: Trafficking in persons report 2008

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Trafficking in persons report 2008

By The Department of State of The United States of America

Country Narratives. India (Tier 2 Watch List)

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 are

held in debt bondage and face forced labor working in brick kilns,

rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories. While no

comprehensive study of forced and bonded labor has been completed,

NGOs estimate this problem affects 20 to 65 million Indians.

Women and girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of

commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage. Children are

subjected to forced labor as factory workers, domestic servants,

beggars, and agriculture workers, and have been used as armed

combatants by some terrorist and insurgent groups.

India is also a destination for women and girls from Nepal and

Bangladesh trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual

exploitation. Nepali children are also trafficked to India for forced

labor in circus shows. Indian women are trafficked to the Middle East

for commercial sexual exploitation. There are also victims of labor

trafficking among the thousands of Indians who migrate willingly

every year to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States for work

as domestic servants and low-skilled laborers.

In some cases, such workers are the victims of fraudulent recruitment practices

that lead them directly into situations of forced labor, including debt bondage;

in other cases, high debts incurred to pay recruitment fees leave them

vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers in the destination

countries, where some are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude,

including non-payment of wages, restrictions on movement, unlawful withholding

of passports, and physical or sexual abuse.

Men and women from Bangladesh and Nepal are trafficked through India for forced

labor and commercial sexual exploitation in the Middle East. Indian nationals

travel to Nepal and within the country for child sex tourism.

The Government of India does not fully comply with the minimum

standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making

significant efforts to do so. India is placed on Tier 2 Watch List

for a fifth consecutive year for its failure to provide evidence of

increasing efforts to combat trafficking in persons over the last

year. Despite the reported extent of the trafficking crisis in India,

government authorities made uneven efforts to prosecute traffickers

and protect trafficking victims.

During the reporting period, government authorities continued to

rescue victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and

forced child labor and child armed combatants, and began to show

progress in law enforcement against these forms of trafficking.

Overall, the lack of significant federal government action to address

bonded labor, the reported complicity of some law enforcement

officials in trafficking and related criminal activity, and the

critical need for an effective national-level law enforcement

authority impeded India's ability to effectively combat its

trafficking in persons problem. A critical challenge overall is the

lack of punishment of traffickers, effectively resulting in impunity for acts of

human trafficking.

Recommendations for India:

Expand central and state government law enforcement capacity to

conduct intrastate law enforcement activities against trafficking;

consider expanding the central Ministry of Home Affairs " nodal cell "

on trafficking to coordinate law enforcement efforts to investigate

and arrest traffickers who cross state and national lines;

significantly increase law enforcement efforts to punish labor

trafficking offenders;

significantly increase efforts to eliminate official complicity in trafficking,

including prosecuting, convicting, and punishing complicit officials with

imprisonment;

continue to increase law enforcement efforts against sex traffickers,

including prosecuting, convicting, and punishing traffickers with

imprisonment;

improve central and state government implementation of protection programs and

compensation schemes to ensure that certified trafficking victims actually

receive benefits, including compensation

for victims of forced child labor and bonded labor, to which they are

entitled under national and state law;

increase the quantity and breadth of public awareness and related programs to

prevent both trafficking for labor and commercial sex.

Prosecution

Government authorities made no progress in addressing one of India's

largest human trafficking problems – bonded labor – during the year,

but made some improvements in law enforcement efforts against sex

trafficking and forced child labor. The government prohibits some

forms of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation through the

Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA).

Prescribed penalties under the ITPA — ranging from seven years' to

life imprisonment — are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with

those for other grave crimes. India also prohibits bonded and forced

labor through the Bonded Labor Abolition Act, the INDIA Child Labor Act, and the

Juvenile Justice Act.

These laws are ineffectually enforced, however, and their prescribed penalties —

a maximum of three years in prison —are not sufficiently stringent.

Indian authori

ties also use Sections 366(A) and 372 of the Indian Penal Code, prohibiting

kidnapping and selling minors into prostitution respectively, to arrest

traffickers. Penalties under these provisions are a maximum of ten years'

imprisonment and a fine.

During the reporting period, the government did not make significant

efforts to investigate, prosecute, convict, and sentence labor

trafficking offenders.

Despite the estimated millions of bonded laborers in India, only 19

suspects were arrested for trafficking for bonded labor during the

reporting period. In the past several years, the State of Tamil Nadu

reported convicting 803 employers, but those convicted did not

receive significant punishments.

In addition, despite widespread reports of fraudulent recruitment practices, the

Indian government did not report any arrests, investigations, prosecutions,

convictions, or punishments of labor recruiters who participate in or facilitate

the trafficking of Indian workers into situations of forced labor abroad.

In addition, the government largely continued to ignore the pervasive

problem of government complicity in trafficking. Corrupt officers

reportedly continued to facilitate the movement of sex trafficking

victims, protect brothels that exploit victims, and protect

traffickers and brothel keepers from arrest and other threats of

enforcement.

There were no efforts to tackle the problem of government officials' complicity

in trafficking workers for overseas employment. Despite the extent of the

problem, authorities only made five arrests for complicity. India reported no

prosecutions, convictions, or sentences of public officials for complicity in

trafficking during the reporting period.

State governments continued to make efforts to address forced child

labor, but failed to punish traffickers. In January, the government

sponsored 22 state and federal officials to attend an ILO training

program on child migration and trafficking. Since 2005, the

Government of Maharashtra, through its task force against child

labor, rescued 2,058 children and arrested 358 suspects. The State of

Andhra Pradesh also reported rescuing over 9,000 children in a door-

to-door campaign and prosecuting 17 suspected traffickers in the same

time period.

During the reporting period, raids throughout the country yielded 333

children rescued and five individuals arrested. Nonetheless,

government authorities did not report convicting or sentencing any

individual for trafficking children for forced labor.

In addition, although the government enacted a ban on children

working as domestic servants and in hotels or tea stalls, the

government did not demonstrate efforts to enforce this law.

State governments sustained efforts in combating trafficking for

commercial sexual exploitation, but convictions and punishments of

traffickers were extremely infrequent, especially given the extent of

the problem. During the reporting period, state governments arrested

1,289 suspects for sex trafficking. Nonetheless, only four

traffickers were convicted and received prison sentences.

In June, the State Government of West Bengal established a police Anti-Human

Trafficking Unit, specializing in fighting sex trafficking, in Kolkata.

The State Government of Bihar established three similar

units in November. India's Central Bureau of Investigation

incorporated anti-trafficking training into its standard curriculum.

In November, the State of Maharashtra developed an action plan to

combat trafficking; it did not, however, allocate appropriate funding

to accomplish the objectives of this plan.

During the reporting period, the Ministry of Home Affairs developed a

system to track ITPA arrests, prosecutions, and convictions at the

national level in order to develop a baseline from which the

government could measure progress.

The government does not break down these statistics by sections of the law,

meaning that law enforcement data regarding trafficking offenses may be

conflated with data regarding arrests of women in prostitution pursuant to

Section 8 of the ITPA.

Protection

India's efforts to protect victims of trafficking varied from state

to state, but remained inadequate in many places during the year.

Victims of bonded labor are entitled to 10,000 rupees ($225) from the

central government for rehabilitation, but this program is unevenly

executed across the country.

Government authorities do not proactively identify and rescue bonded

laborers, so few victims receive this assistance. Although children

trafficked for forced labor may be housed in government shelters and

are entitled to 20,000 rupees ($450), the quality of many of these

homes remains poor and the disbursement of rehabilitation funds is

sporadic.

Some states provide services to victims of bonded labor, but NGOs provide the

majority of protection services to these victims. The central government does

not provide protection services

to Indian victims trafficked abroad for forced labor or commercial

sexual exploitation.

Indian diplomatic missions in destination countries may offer temporary shelter

to nationals who have been trafficked; once repatriated, however, neither the

central government nor most state governments offer any medical, psychological,

legal, or reintegration assistance for these victims.

Section 8 of the ITPA permits the arrest of women in prostitution.

Although statistics on arrests under Section 8 are not kept, the

government and some NGOs report that, through sensitization and

training, police officers no longer use this provision of the law; it

is unclear whether arrests of women in prostitution under Section 8

have actually decreased.

Because most law enforcement authorities lack formal procedures to identify

trafficking victims among women arrested for prostitution; some victims may be

arrested and punished for acts committed as a result of being trafficked.

Despite instructions that law enforcement authorities should protect minors who

are exploited in prostitution, in at least two instances during the reporting

period, police officers released minors into the

custody of their traffickers. Some foreign victims trafficked to

India are not subject to removal. Those who are subject to removal

are not offered legal alternatives to removal to countries in which

they may face hardship or retribution.

NGOs report that some Bangladeshi victims of commercial sexual exploitation are

pushed back across the border without protection services. The government also

does not repatriate Nepali victims; NGOs primarily perform this function.

Many victims decline to testify against their traffickers due to the

length of proceedings and fear of retribution by traffickers. The

government does not actively encourage victims to participate in

investigations of their traffickers.

The central government continued to give grants to NGOs for the

provision of services to sex trafficking victims with funding

available through its Swadhar Scheme and the recently developed

Ujjawala Scheme. No such efforts were made to assist victims of labor

trafficking. Government shelters for sex trafficking victims are

found in all major cities, but the quality of care varies widely.

In Maharashtra, state authorities operated a home exclusively for minor victims

of sex trafficking this year. The Governments of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and

Andhra Pradesh also operated similar homes.

Though states have made some improvements to their shelter care, victims

sheltered in these facilities still do not receive comprehensive protection

services, such as psychological assistance from trained counselors.

Prevention

India made inadequate efforts this year aimed at the prevention of

trafficking in persons. Several times during the year, the Ministry

of Labor and Employment displayed full-page advertisements against

child labor in national newspapers.

The government also instituted pre-departure information sessions for domestic

workers migrating abroad on the risks of exploitation. Nonetheless, the

government did not report new or significant prevention efforts addressing the

prominent domestic problems of trafficking of adults for purposes of forced

labor and commercial sexual exploitation. The government also did not report any

efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts.

Similarly, the government failed to take any steps to raise

awareness of trafficking for nationals traveling to known child sex

tourism destinations within the country. India has not ratified the

2000 UN TIP Protocol.

Page 139- 141. Trafficking in persons report 2008. The Department of State of

The United States of America

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/105501.pdf