Tribal Women : Path of Darkness in Illusion of Light
Tribal women taken to the path of darkness in illusion of light. Tribal Women and Human Trafficking.
Author : Khuloos Aziz Chawla
Abstract
Human Trafficking is another name for present day slavery that takes place by the means of coercion, force, and fraud. It is mainly done to exploit people to extract commercial benefits out of them, especially women. The women are treated as badly as they could be as they are thrown into prostitution as there are many cases acting as the evidence to this statement. The tribal people are targeted the most, the reason being that they aren’t aware of the evil mindsets of the urban people, and they are comparatively illiterate than them. Tribal women are usually shown an illusion of the modern world and urban areas, to which they get attracted and carried away resulting in getting trapped by the kidnappers performing human trafficking. The light shown to them is completely a false image just to lure the innocent minds by culprits. The other aspect here is that tribal people who are needy usually go to urban cities to earn more money and fulfil their family needs with the best. Then these people are forced to work as domestic labor, factory labor or slavery and any other kind of forced labor. Moreover, this act is done by a trusted individual as they guarantee a victim to have a satisfying and well playing occupation. This paper aims to provide the causes behind human trafficking of tribal women, how it is done, what are the laws pertaining to it and how it can be avoided. This is a boiling frog syndrome leading to abhorrent crimes against women.
Introduction
Human Trafficking is referred to trading of human being to indulge them in activities like forced labor or prostitution or any other. The individuals who are being transported and sold for the said purpose are usually taken against their own will. They are forcefully dragged by means of coercion, fraud, or misinterpretation, in the hope of better and sophisticated employment. There is no age or gender which is restricted to come under the definition of human trafficking, it can be associated with any age, gender, or cast. The special targets of this evil practice are children and women. Out of all the people who come into the false dreams, mainly are illiterate and belong to low poverty areas associated with tribes. The tribal people are usually not much literate to understand the thin line between being trapped and going to the safe zone. They come into words of culprits, allowing themselves to be exploited to the fullest that too unintentionally. Women are the soft targets here. They are tricked easily by young boys making moves towards the young girls, promising them to give the best life in modern cities. These catching tricks are taught to them by the rackets run for these purposes. The human trafficking is done in such a way that these ladies are also transported to other countries for the purpose which fits them best. Furthermore, lack of knowledge and sources makes these women feel that they cannot really do anything, they are unaware of the laws and rights that they are blessed with, and these traffickers also make them believe that they have no means of communication or going back to their families making them believe that this is their fate.
Human Trafficking in India and around the Globe
Human Trafficking is practice throughout the world, in some or the other way even when it is prohibited in all the countries. The statistical record of 2016, observes that 71% of trafficking victims around the world are women and girls and 29% are men and boys, 15.4 million victims (75%) are aged 18 or older, with the number of children under the age of 18 estimated at 5.5 million (25%),[1] in the whole work.
The Human trafficking is common in every continent and country; hence it is everywhere. Enslavement is the main goal of trafficking. This crime can be termed as a global crime and as well as a domestic one, global in the sense when people are moved from one country or continent to another and domestic when people are trafficked within their own country. All the three genders throughout the world are exploited in different ways, males are pushed into forced labor, females are mainly taken as the sex slaves or for prostitution and domestic help and lastly, children are used for making pornography, forced begging or child labor. Out of every 5 people being trafficked, one is child.[2]
Human Trafficking in India is mainly due to the poverty. People who stay in rural areas are very attracted to the lifestyle of urban people. Rural people usually approach or are approached by the traffickers in such a way that they are shown the dreams of being as rich as they think. They are offered and promised good employment with a high pay scale. Having a greed to earn money to improve the lifestyle they agree to move from their place of living or origin to the new area. This is the usual plan for every human trafficker to trap an innocent soul. India has areas where poverty is such that, in those villages whole family incomes are also so low that they fall below the poverty line. Families who do not even have a meal to eat are automatically forced to move because of their circumstances that they live in. The whole family is bound to work due to poverty and hence women also move in search of work. This is how human trafficking is linked to women and specially people belonging to tribal areas. Tribal people have less resources to educate themselves, their minds are also not as developed to be corrupted as other, so they are easily fooled by the rackets of Human trafficking who are in search of such opportunities to trap people. Therefore, in India Human Trafficking is mainly done for prostitution and specially targeting women from weaker sections of the society.
Causes of Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking is not only due to a specific reason but equally due to all three reasons that is economic, social, and political. The economic aspect is higher in India as there are regions where the majority of the population comes below the poverty line. The need to feed the family makes tribal people move from their hometown to the modern areas where they usually get trapped. Females or young girls are targeted by the young boys who are paid for getting these females transported and sold. They are usually given in for domestic work, sex slaves or prostitution. Children are mainly kidnapped or tribal people who have a lot of children send their kids deliberately to make them earn. These kids are seen on the tea shops or roadside shops working with their small hands and they are also forced into commercial or domestic labor where they are exploited to the core, also they are made to beg on the streets which is a criminal offence. Lastly, men themselves get into this unintentionally as they get fascinated by the stories of an urban land. They tend to rush there in search of work by trusting the agents of the human trafficking gang and get landed in the world of exploitation. They are misused in the best possible ways, they are made to work more than their capacities and paid even less. Here, people fail to understand that life is better even in early life rather than falling into a well which is full of problems and selfishness. These traffickers forget the humanitarian grounds and human rights, they do not follow any labor laws as well because they take these tribal people as machines. Hence this inhuman activity is prohibited throughout the world.
Trafficking supplies human beings for prostitution, sweatshop labor, street begging, domestic work, marriage, adoption, agricultural work, construction, armed conflicts (child soldiers), and other forms of exploitive labor or services; around the world.[3]
Laws related to Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking is a penal act in every country. It is considered an offence in every part of the world, under the different laws subject to the legal fraternity of the area. The recent initiatives which include United Nations are :
The Global Action against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants: This act is mainly related to the Asian and Middle East Countries. It is also supported by IOM, UNICEF and UNODC. There is a knowledge portal for the issues relating to the Human Trafficking. It is also set up by the UN under the Convention of Transnational Crimes. It helps people to gain knowledge mainly about child trafficking. The convention on Child rights is also there to protect children as well as women.
The ILO has played a major role to eliminate the forced labor and child labor. Moreover, there is a voluntary fund created by UN for the victims of Human Trafficking. Trafficking as a crime has been included in the Statute of International Criminal court under Article 7 1(c) and (g).[4]
All these initiatives are globally helping the victims to build themselves. These works have also led to decrease in cases and tighter mechanisms for the traffickers, making it difficult for them to trap people.
The Indian Laws are stricter when it comes to Human Trafficking. The Indian Constitution that is the bible of all laws of India, also contains provisions which prohibits human trafficking under Article 23(1). There are other acts such as Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act 1956 are there to prevent trafficking for commercial exploitation specially into the sexual field. There was an amendment in 2013 under Indian penal Code, with this Section 370 and 370A were made for Human Trafficking of children and any forms of exploitation of them shall be a criminal offence leading to penalization of the same. Adding to this, there is POCSO Act 2012 for the protection of children covering the norms for child pornography also. Furthermore, there are other specific legislations enacted relating to trafficking in women and children Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, apart from specific Sections in the IPC, e.g., Sections 372 and 373 dealing with selling and buying of girls for the purpose of prostitution.[5]
Conclusion
The tribal people are the most vulnerable as they belong to the backward societies that are not privileged with amenities and knowledge. They usually are needy and fly into urban areas by entrusting the traffickers. Women are the special targets, and this is leading to a major portion of Human Trafficking. The exploitation of women is beyond imagination. Females are forcefully sent by their families also to earn, be it for prostitution or domestic labor or anything. They are burdened with responsibilities of family without thinking of themselves. There can be steps to educate people in such tribal areas about whom to trust and not to trust and how to keep checks if they send their family members to different areas. The people should also know about the existing law in India and otherwise. There are women and children helpline numbers which should be given to everyone in case of any mishappening or help. Lastly, the government should also level up its mechanism in implementation of existing laws.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/human-trafficking-
numbers#:~:text=71%25%20of%20trafficking%20victims%20around,at%205.5%20million%20(25%25).
2. https://www.crs.org/stories/stop-human-trafficking
3. Bales, Kevin & Ron Soodalter. (2007). The slave next door: Human trafficking and slavery in America today. Berkley: University of California Press.
4. Statute of International Criminal court under Article 7.1(c) and (g) https://www.icc-cpi.int/resource-
library/documents/rs-eng.pdf
5. https://www.mea.gov.in/human-trafficking.htm
FOR ANY QUERY MAIL US AT info@edumound.com
