17157 TOC

1 | P a g e
RAJIV GANDHI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LAW
PATIALA, PUNJAB
TOPIC: - CROSSING BORDERS AND
BOUNDRIES: CHILD TRAFFICKING AND
ITS DIMENSIONS IN SOUTH ASIAN
COUNTRIES
TRANSNATIONAL ORGANISED CRIMES
SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY
DR. IVNEET WALIA VISHAL KUMAR
(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF LAW) GROUP NO. :- 18
ROLL NO.:- 17157

2 | P a g e
Contents
INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................... 3
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ....................................................................... 4
CAUSES OF CHILD TRAFFICKING IN SOUTH ASIA ......................................... 5
CHILD TRAFFICKING FOR FORCED LABOUR .................................................. 7
FORCEDLABORANDCHILDTRAFFICKINGININDIA’SGARMENTSECTOR........... 9
CONSEQUENCES OF TRAFFICIKING................................................................ 10
INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORK OF LAWS RELATED TO TRAFFICKING:. 11
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 1948: ........................... 12
CONVENTION FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE TRAFFIC IN PERSONS
AND OF THE EXPLOITATION OF THE PROSTITUTION OF OTHERS, 1949:
............................................................................................................................ 12
SUPPLEMENTARY CONVENTION ON THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY,
SLAVE TRADE AND INSTITUTIONS AND PRACTICES OF SLAVERY, 1956
(SLAVERY CONVENTION):............................................................................. 12
ABOLITION OF FORCED LABOUR CONVENTION, ILO, 1957: ................... 12
SAARC CONVENTION ON PREVENTING AND COMBATING TRAFFICKING
IN WOMEN AND CHILDREN FOR PROSTITUTION, 2002:............................... 13
CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 15

3 | P a g e
INTRODUCTION
Trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. Every
year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their
own countries and abroad. Almost every country in the world is affected by trafficking,
whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims.1
Human trafficking has been identified as the third largest source of profit for organized
crime, following arms and drug trafficking, generating billions of dollars annually at
the global level. An estimated 6, 00,000 to 8, 00,000 women and children are trafficked.
This estimate does not include those trafficked within their own countries or missing
children.2
Women and children are generally trafficked for Begging, Organ Trade and Drug
smuggling, Bonded labour, Domestic work, Agricultural labour, Construction work,
Carpet Industry, Forced prostitution, Sex Tourism, Pornography and also for
entertainment and sports which include Beer Bars, Camel Jockey, Circus Troops3.
Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons defines Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of
coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of
vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent
of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others
or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.4
According to the “SAARC Convention On Prevention And Combating Trafficking in
Women and Children for Prostitution”, “Trafficking” means the moving, selling or
buying of women and children for prostitution within and outside a country for
1
Kristina Kangaspunta, Andy Guth, TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS: TRENDS AND PATTERNS, LLICIT TRADE:
CONVERGING CRIMINAL NETWORKS © OECD 2016
2
Isha Mati, Combating child trafficking in South Asia, Dhirubhai Ambani International Model United
Nations
3
ibid
4
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/30364/combating-trafficking-south-asia-
paper.pdf

4 | P a g e
monetary or other considerations with or without the consent of the person subjected to
trafficking".5 So this is clear that the human trafficking means any person transferred,
recruited fraudulently or abducted, kidnapped by other persons for exploitations.
Trafficking in women and children is reported to be on the rise in Asia. Although
accurate figures are hard to come by and that any estimates have to be treated with
cautions, the United States’ State Department, for example, estimates that around 1 to
2 million people are trafficked worldwide, including 150,000 from South Asia and
225,000 from Southeast Asia6. In the scale of organized crime, human trafficking ranks
third behind drugs and arms smuggling. Trafficking involves gross violation of human
rights. People suffer from physical and mental abuse and social stigmatization. They
become isolated, losing ties with their former lives and families. On a large scale,
trafficking subverts development efforts and raises social and health costs.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The trafficking of children bears its roots in ancient history. Based on the principle that
children can be utilized as economic assets for families, children were often sold to
traffickers or forcefully taken to generate economic value. For instance, 19th century
Britain saw the trade of children, as “apprentices”, become the norm. With the
mechanization of industry in the 1800’s, many small cottage industries went out of
business, leaving many families impoverished. Parents had no recourse but to utilize
their children as economic assets- children were sold off to workers for meagre
payments. Often forced to work 14 hours a day in mines and chimneys, and routinely
beaten, these children were severely exploited.7
During the mid-1990’s, several countries in Southeast Asia underwent rapid
industrialization, while others remained stagnant in their development due to political
conflicts, colonization, or other factors. Hence the rates of development in countries
greatly differed some countries benefited from booming economies, whereas other
countries in the region were still suffering from civil wars and poor economic growth.
5
Article 1(3) of the "SAARC Convention On Prevention And Combating Trafficking in Women and
Children for Prostitution.
6
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/30364/combating-trafficking-south-asia-
paper.pdf
7
Nations

5 | P a g e
This economic disparity between nations laid the groundwork for traffickers, as it
incentivized children from less developed countries, and their parents, to migrate to
foreign nations in the hope of a better standard of living. Richer countries became
destinations for trafficking victims, while less affluent nations were victim to domestic
and regional trafficking.
At present, South and Southeast Asia are well-known trafficking hotspots. The general
trafficking trend in this region constitutes of children being transported for sexual
exploitation and forced labour. Other reasons for trafficking include forced marriage,
debt bondage, and organ removal, but these are not nearly as prevalent as the previously
mentioned forms of trafficking. With 50% of trafficking victims being trafficked for
sexual exploitation and 49% for forced labour, South Asia faces these two issues almost
equally. In East Asia, however, 60% of victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation,
while 38% are trafficked for forced labour.8
CAUSES OF CHILD TRAFFICKING IN SOUTH ASIA
 Poor awareness and education amongst children and parents:
The most common means used to control children being trafficked in Asia is
false promises. False promises could be utilized on both parents and children.
In most cases, traffickers befriend the child or their family, and promise them
that children will work in a well-paid industry and have a better standard of
living. The reality, however, is that the children’s labour is underpaid, and they
may work in a different industry from what they were promised. Hence, greater
awareness of the schemes traffickers use to lure children could deter potential
victims from befriending traffickers. Also, there are several cases in which
parents willingly sell their children to traffickers for money. In these cases,
minimal access to education decreased parent’s job opportunities and hence
incentivized them to utilize their children as economic assets. Aside from this,
there is an evident correlation between trafficked children and their education
level: a significant majority of the victims of child trafficking (45%) are those
8
Nations

6 | P a g e
who have only completed primary education, and children who have not been
educated at all make up an entire 10% of victims.9
 Financial necessity:
Poverty is arguably the leading cause of child trafficking in South Asia. Often
times, victims have no choice but to cooperate with traffickers, as it is their only
means of generating an income. Parents cannot afford to send their children to
school, as income generated by children is also essential for the sustenance of
the family. This desperation for income entices children’s parents to send them
away with traffickers who promise a “reliable source of income”. Moreover,
debt bondage is also a major cause of trafficking. According to Anti-Slavery,
debt bondage is most widespread in South Asia. Children may inherit or be
forced to work off parents’ debt to certain individuals, and hence may be
trafficked by these individuals for labour exploitation.10
 Demand for Labour:
One of the driving factors behind the growth of child trafficking is the demand
for labour. Given the fact that children are easier to manipulate and less likely
to take industrial actions against people/ organizations, they are seen as highly
desirable workers. With the great economic disparity between the rapidly
developing and less developed countries in the region, the ease of outsourcing
cheap labour from poverty-stricken regions is increasing.11
 Gender Inequalities:
According to UNICEF, there are drastic gender inequalities present in South
Asia. The continual belief of females and the female child being subservient is
one of the root causes of sex trafficking in children. In several Southeast Asian
countries, like Cambodia and Thailand, taking a young girl’s virginity is of
immense economic and cultural value, and hence the demand for child
prostitutes is high. Moreover, cultures in this region place a huge emphasis on
each child’s “duty” to serve their family.12
9
https://www.savethechildren.in/news/causes-of-child-trafficking-in-india/
10
11
Ibid.
12

7 | P a g e
CHILD TRAFFICKING FOR FORCED LABOUR
Trafficking for the purpose of forced labour cannot be analysed as a single form of
trafficking, as it includes a variety of different methods of exploitation, victim profiles
and economic sectors. This form of trafficking is characterized by its infiltration in the
legal economy and its possible interaction with daily life. Victims can be trafficked in
sectors that are part of a population’s ordinary consumption, such as food production,
construction and textile manufacturing. Traffickers involved in this form of exploitation
may not necessarily work underground in illicit markets, but instead may be associated
with officially registered companies or operate in a broader informal economic system
where working conditions resort to exploitative practices to increase profits.13
Boys and girls are generally trafficked for different purposes. In South Asia, the main
industry that young boys are trafficked into is agriculture. Estimates for the percentage
of child labourers employed in this industry vary between 46% in Bangladesh to 94%
in Nepal. Aside from this, some boys are trafficking into the fishing industry,
particularly in Thailand. Girls, on the other hand, primarily enter the domestic servitude
and garment industries. However, there are few estimates of the exact number of
children working in domestic servitude, as this form of child labour is less often
documented. Thailand is one of the key markets for labour trafficking in Southeast Asia,
with children being trafficking from Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia primarily. In the
mid-1990s, UNICEF estimated that Thailand housed approximately 200,000 foreign
child labourers, with about 70% of them being male, from Burma, Laos, Cambodia,
and South China. India is the regional hub for child labour trafficking in South Asia,
with children being lured from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. However, in terms of
proportion with the child population size, India has the lowest percentage of child
labourers in South Asia.14
Trafficking for the purpose of forced labour accounts for about 38 per cent of the total
trafficking cases detected globally in 2018. Some regions of the world, namely Sub-
Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, detect more cases of
13
https://www.ilo.org/asia/areas/forced-labour/lang--en/index.htm
14
Nations

8 | P a g e
trafficking for forced labour than other types of trafficking.15 The UNODC estimates
that 53% of detected trafficked victims are sexually exploited, while 40% are exploited
in forced labour activities. However, it also contends that the percentage of reported
forced labour trafficking cases is trending up, rising from 32% of reported trafficking
cases in 2007 to 40% in 2011 (UNODC, 2014)16
17
Globally, the majority of detected victims trafficked for forced labour are adult men.
Meanwhile, adult women account for about one fourth, while children account for more
than one third of detected victims (15 per cent are girls and 21 per cent are boys).
However, it is important to note that there are regional differences that affect these
figures. Like, Sub-Saharan African countries mainly detect girls and boys trafficked for
this purpose. Children, especially girls, also represent the main profile identified as
trafficked for forced labour in Central America and the Caribbean. Adult women
represent the main profile of detected victims trafficked for forced labour in North
Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. European countries mainly report adult men
among detected victims of trafficking for forced labour.18
15
https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/tip/2021/GLOTiP_2020_Chapter4.pdf
16
ECONOMICS BEHIND FORCED LABOUR TRAFFICKING Comprehensive Case Studies of Child Domestic
Labour and Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Global March Against Child Labour
17
18

9 | P a g e
FORCED LABOR AND CHILD TRAFFICKING IN INDIA’S
GARMENT SECTOR
The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that 168 million children
worldwide are considered child laborers. This means that almost 11 percent of the
world’s children are working, which interferes with their ability to get an education,
and jeopardizes their safety and their ability to experience childhood. The largest
number of laborers in the 5 to 17-year-old age group is still found in the Asia-Pacific
region.19
India’s garment sector employs about 40 million workers directly and 60 million
indirectly, and is the second largest provider of employment, after agriculture. India’s
overall textile exports during 2015-16 stood at $40 billion. The Indian textiles industry,
currently estimated at around $108 billion, is expected to reach $223 billion by 2021.20
India’s 2011 census reports there are 8.2 million child laborers in the 5-14-year-old age
group. Civil society organizations have reported that figure to be much higher, and have
reiterated the presence of trafficked children and children in forced labor in India’s
garment sector, working across all supply chains in cotton fields, mills, factories, and
home-based operations.21
Despite these high figures, a number of national legal frameworks surrounding human
trafficking and forced child labor have been put in place in India since independence.
Article 24 of the Constitution prohibits employment of children under 14 in factories,
mines, and other hazardous employment. The Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act enacted in 1986 and amended in 2016, aims to regulate the
engagement of children in certain “hazardous” occupations including handling of toxic
or inflammable substances or explosives, mining, and other hazardous processes.
The 1986 Act deals only with the organized sector, which accounts for only 10 percent
of the child labor force, leaving the other 90 percent in the unorganized urban and rural
sectors and family units outside of the Act’s regulations. In response to ongoing
criticism, India’s government strengthened the Act in 2016.
19
https://asiafoundation.org/2017/09/20/forced-labor-child-trafficking-indias-garment-sector/
20
Ibid.
21
ibid

10 | P a g e
The concern today is not over an absence of laws, but the lack of strict enforcement of
the existing laws to deter perpetrators who exploit young women, girls, and children
through trafficking and exploitative work conditions. A number of recommendations
have been made in this regards, like:-
 Stronger implementation of existing laws to prosecute fraudulent labor
recruiters and employers of child labor.
 Investigate credible allegations of official complicity in trafficking, forced, and
child labor, and prosecute officials to break the impunity of perpetrators.
 Implement stronger outreach to communities to shift engrained cultural
mindsets away from acceptance of child labor.
CONSEQUENCES OF TRAFFICIKING
 The covert nature of human trafficking makes it difficult to assess the full
impact it has on society (Dixon, 2008). Its consequences and costs emerge at
the individual, community, national, regional and global levels. It affects
source, transit and destination countries; democratic, transitional and
authoritarian regimes; and countries in conflict. Trafficking undermines states’
control over their borders and over who lives in their country.22
 The economic and labour consequences in destination countries include
depressed salaries; poor working conditions; increased work injuries; economic
development based on trafficking (e.g. sex tourism); increased income
inequality; an expansion of the illicit economy; a drain on the resources used
for prevention, prosecution and punishment of offenders and treatment and
support of victims; diversion of the economic benefits of the victims’ labour
from them and their, families, communities and governments to criminals and
corrupt officials; loss of remittances to the source country; reduced foreign
investment; and so on.23
22
S. Huda, regional and national perspectives sex trafficking in south Asia, International Journal of
Gynecology and Obstetrics (2006) 94, 374 — 381
23
ibid

11 | P a g e
 Macro-economic trends appear to affect human trafficking. In many countries,
a correlation has been observed between a rise in unemployment in a given
country and the number of reports about victims of human trafficking from
those countries. The worsening economy in Russia has been accompanied by
an increase in trafficking from Central Asia, as well as the departure of migrants
back to their source countries. Other studies found that a decrease in
unemployment rates in Russia and the Ukraine was correlated with a reduction
in the number of Russian and Ukrainian victims detected in the Netherlands.24
 Individual consequences include physical and psychological abuse and scarring;
death; torture; education foregone at a crucial age; inability to fully function in
society as an adult; inability to marry and/or have children; stigmatization by
the community; increased debt; disease; forced marriage; suicide; food and
sleep deprivation; and being forced to kill family members.
 Family consequences include traumatized family members of victims; familial
bonds broken due to family members trafficking other family members; and
financial losses to smugglers who betrayed the victims and their families.
 Political consequences include undermining of the rule of law; increased
corruption that facilitates the trafficking; providing funds to warring parties,
which increases conflict; decreased stability; national security threats; reduction
in human rights and freedoms; and funding insurgents and terrorists, which
undermines political stability.
INTERNATIONAL FRAMEWORK OF LAWS RELATED
TO TRAFFICKING:
An overview of selected international conventions regulating trafficking in human
beings is presented below.
24

12 | P a g e
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 1948:
Article 4 of the Declaration prohibits all forms of slavery and the slave trade. Article
13 recognises the right of persons to freedom of movement and residence and Article
15 recognises the right to nationality.25
CONVENTION FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE TRAFFIC IN PERSONS AND
OF THE EXPLOITATION OF THE PROSTITUTION OF OTHERS, 1949:
This convention is a compilation of four previous international conventions
(Conventions of 1904, 1910, 1921 and 1933). This convention made procurement,
enticement, etc. for purposes of prostitution punishable irrespective of the age of the
person involved and his/her consent to the same (Article 1). Brothel keeping was also
denounced to be illegal and punishable (Article 2). The convention provided for
repatriation (Article 19) and rehabilitation (Article20) measures. However, the 1949
Convention is limited to trafficking for prostitution and related activities.26
SUPPLEMENTARY CONVENTION ON THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, SLAVE
TRADE AND INSTITUTIONS AND PRACTICES OF SLAVERY, 1956
(SLAVERY CONVENTION):
This convention condemned a variety of slavery-like practices, including debt bondage
and forced marriage. States Parties undertook to establish suitable minimum ages of
marriage and registration of marriages.
ABOLITION OF FORCED LABOUR CONVENTION, ILO, 1957:
Under this convention, States Parties undertook to suppress any form of forced or
compulsory labour as a means of political coercion, economic development, labour
discipline, or racial, social, national or religious discrimination.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 forced labour and slavery
are prohibited by Article 8 of the ICCPR. Article 24 outlines the rights of children.
25
26
Ibid.

13 | P a g e
International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) 1966:
Article 10 of this convention stipulates that States are responsible for protecting
children from exploitation and must lay down the minimum age for their employment.
Minimum Age Convention, 1973: The aim of this convention was to prohibit and
regulate child labour and restrict engagement of children in hazardous work.
SAARC CONVENTION ON PREVENTING AND
COMBATING TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND
CHILDREN FOR PROSTITUTION, 2002:
The aim of this convention is to promote cooperation amongst member states to
effectively deal with various aspects of prevention, interdiction and suppression of
trafficking in women and children; repatriation and rehabilitation of victims of
trafficking and preventing the use of women and children in international prostitution
networks, particularly where the SAARC member countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan,
India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) are the countries of origin, transit and
destination. The convention is legally binding on its signatory parties and is the first
regional antitrafficking treaty to emerge from the Asian continent. As of March 2004,
the convention has been ratified by all member countries except Nepal and Sri Lanka.
The SAARC Convention defines ‘child’, ‘prostitution’, ‘trafficking’, ‘traffickers’ and
‘persons subjected to trafficking’ under Article 1. It provides for ‘aggravating
circumstances’, which are factual circumstances that enhance the gravity of the offence
(Art. 4). It also provides for the protection of victims (Art. 5), mutual legal assistance
(Art. 6), training and sensitisation of enforcement officials (Art. 8), rehabilitation of
victims (Art. 9). Offence sunder the Convention are extraditable (Art. 7). Article 8(3)
requires the States Parties to establish a Regional Task Force comprising officials from
the Member States, to facilitate implementation of the provisions of this Convention
and to undertake periodic reviews. The main criticism levied against the SAARC
Convention is its narrow definition of trafficking, which is limited to prostitution, also
that it makes no distinction between women and children. Trafficking has been defined

14 | P a g e
to include the moving, selling or buying of a person, but does not include recruitment,
labour, transfer or receipt that does not essentially constitute buying or selling.27
27
Kumar, Chanchal. (2015). Human Trafficking in the South Asian Region: SAARC's Response and
Initiatives. 1. 14-31.

15 | P a g e
CONCLUSION
Trafficking in human beings, especially children, is a form of modern day slavery and
requires a holistic, multi-sectoral approach to address the complex dimension of the
problem. It is a problem that violates the rights and dignity of the victims and therefore
requires essentially a child rights perspective while working on its eradication. In the
fight against trafficking government organizations, non-governmental organizations,
civil society, pressure groups, international bodies, all have to play an important role.
Law cannot be the only instrument to take care of all problems. To prevent the human
trafficking the government, society, and individuals should have taken many measures
like various legislations have been implemented both at national level and
internationally.
Given the fact that trafficking is a transnational crime, adopting a common definition
of trafficking would improve regional and international cooperation. A mechanism to
measure conformity to implemented measures could help solve the issue of poor
compliance. Moreover, as supported by the IMF (International Monetary Fund),
regimes to share information, and coordinate policies and efforts to criminalize
trafficking and victims at regional levels should be encouraged.
Secondly, on a national scale, measures for increasing the identification of victims must
be increased and reducing the prosecution of children must be undertaken. This can be
accomplished through strict birth registration laws, such as Bangladesh’s 2001 Birth
Registration Project. Of course, adequate steps must be taken to ensure that commonly
undocumented people, such as those living below the poverty line and in remote
regions, are also able to register all births. In accordion with this, ensuring access to
criminal justice lawyers to prevent children from being prosecuted is essential.
Awareness programs, particularly in vulnerable regions (ie: orphanages, slums, and
rural regions) may decrease the instances of child trafficking. Since the general trend
in South Asia is the consensual sale of children by parents, these awareness programs
must target parents and communicate to them the perils of selling their children.
Furthermore, the destigmatization of victims of trafficking in these regions may aid
their reintegration into community.

17157 TOC

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to 17157 TOC

Similar to 17157 TOC (20)

More from pdf uploader

More from pdf uploader (14)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

17157 TOC