Child Trafficking in India

1 2 | Child Traffi cking in India Child Traffi cking in India HAQ: Centre for Child Rights and Campaign Against Child Traffi cking (CACT) Funded by Krishna Rao Foundation Supported by iPartner -India June 2016 © HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, 2016 For Campaign Against Child Traffi cking (CACT) ISBN no. 978-93-83807-07-9 Published by: HAQ: Centre for Child Rights B1/2 Malviya Nagar New Delhi 110017 www.haqcrc.org Funded by Krishna Rao Foundation Supported by iPartner India Report: Enakshi Ganguly Thukral Research and Content Inputs: Bharti Ali Research Assistance: Anisha Ghosh cking in India Reviewed by: Paromita Shastri Editorial Support: Chitra Goplakrishnan Design and Printing: Aspire Design | Child Traffi ii Preface It was 2000. George Chira of tdh (Germany) approached HAQ: Centre for Child Rights to research and publish a national report on child traffi cking in India. With that began HAQ’s journey on this very important issue. In 2001, HAQ became the national secretariat for the Campaign Against Child Traffi cking [CACT] that was launched the same year with 16 partners. In 2001 itself HAQ was asked to compile the report on Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse of children in South Asia as well as the Strategy Document based on the report in partnership with UNICEF, ROSA- Kathmandu for the Second World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, to be held in Yokohama, 17-20 December 2001. On June 6 June, 2002 we rescued our fi rst child from a traffi cker in Delhi. Today she is 24 years old and a graduate. She taught us our fi rst lessons in dealing with children who are traffi cked. But has a lot changed in these 16 years? Yes, there is a much greater recognition of many more forms of traffi cking. In 2000, the word ‘traffi cking’ was much less known and, at best, was synonymous with prostitution. So much so that posters designed to spread awareness on the issue had to say that “this traffi c is not about movement of cars, but about people, women and children who get bought and sold”. Now there is a law and myriad of different court judgements, government advisories, protocols and SOPs that recognise traffi cking in its different forms and purposes. And yet, the number of children being traffi cked has not reduced. In fact, with the opening up of the markets and globalisation, children are ‘exported’ across continents from, into and through India. We are a source, transit and destination country- which means we not only ‘supply’ children, we also receive them. In the name of rescue operations, children are mopped up from different locations by both government as well as NGOs along with the government. These children either fi nd themselves in badly managed institutions or ‘sent’ back with little or no follow up or rehabilitation to families that are often not ready to have them. So, many simply return to, sometimes, even more exploitative situations. But after 16 years, it was important to document the situation of child traffi cking in India and also examine the way forward. Because, hard as it is, there has to be some light at the end of the tunnel for children who lose their childhood and their lives to the market that trades in them. iii Coincidentally, the report will be released at a time when the Ministry of Women and Child Development is mulling over bringing in a new law on traffi cking and has already put out a draft bill for public comments. We hope the report will help the Ministry in giving the fi nal shape to its Bill. We are grateful to Krishna Rao Foundation and iPartner India for having supported this study. The RTI responses were a huge challenge and we thank our CACT partners who did not give up! As always, our reports are a rush to the fi nish. When every editor refused, Chitra Gopalakrishnan did not. She spent days and nights to give the report as she said a “cleaner form”. She regrets that that is all she could do in the time she had! We thank Paromita Shastri for agreeing to review the report- again in record time and reassure us that it has value and needs to see the light of day. We thank Sonia Suchak, who was interning with us, for carefully going through the never ending footnotes and citations and formatting them. Nishant Singh and Sukhvinder (Bittoo) Singh – how would we ever have our reports in time without you. Thank you as always. Enakshi Ganguly Thukral Bharti Ali Co- Director Co- Director cking in India | Child Traffi iv Foreword Dear Friends As a father of young children, I fi nd it diffi cult to comprehend the daily life of abuse, exploitation, pain and torture that children across the world face. For my family and myself this is unacceptable and we have pledged to do everything in our power and in our lifetimes to strive to end child abuse of any sort – child traffi cking being at the worst end of the spectrum of that. In the light of that, I am delighted to share this report on the Child Traffi cking in India. As we all know sound evidence, hard facts and statistics should underpin action and this report aims to do just that. It is indeed shocking that government fi gures state that every eight minutes a child goes missing in India and forty percent of them are never found! Another statistic hard to come to terms with is that Of the three million people engaged in sex work, more than forty percent of them are below the age of eighteen years, some as young as fi ve. Many traffi cked children remain unreported, untraced and invisible. Though some statistics are available, they are inconsistent and huge chunks of data are missing. Without consistent, comparative, scientifi c data to capture the real scale of child traffi cking in India, the efforts to limit this growing crime remains fragmented and under resourced. This report, Child Traffi cking in India, is therefore a landmark step in the movement against child traffi cking. The report is signifi cant on many counts. One, through the process of data collection and research it engaged with frontline organisations under the banner of Campaign Against Child Traffi cking (CACT), to collect, document and validate reports of missing children at the district levels across thirteen states of India. The collected statistics are extensively compared and analysed against available government records on child traffi cking from the district and state to national level, giving us sound background evidence. And fi nally, it validates the fears that available national fi gures reporting child traffi cking has many contradictions. There are differences in understanding the defi nition of child traffi cking and recording cases of traffi cked minors, to lack of a uniform working mechanism to record, analyse and report comparable child traffi cking data across India. That said this is an excellent fi rst step in using this data and recommendations from this research as a signifi cant advocacy agenda with relevant government agencies. I congratulate my colleagues at iPartner India and HAQ: Centre for Child Rights for the courageous work they continue to do in upholding and protecting v the rights of traffi cked children. My warmest wishes to all the partners of the Campaign Against Child Traffi cking who remain at the frontline and fi ght against the odds every single day. In the fi nal analysis, whilst numbers are important it is the individual lives and stories of children that continue to haunt me and push me to remain committed to this cause. Ayesha (name changed), a young woman who we have supported, has lived and fought through nights of getting raped, is now attending college and dreams of joining the performing arts. Or Devi (name changed), who was married as a minor, sold by her husband, spent months in a brothel and forced to give up her child for adoption. Devi now goes to school and dreams of getting reunited with her child one day. At the public hearing, you will meet and hear many more stories of human resilience demonstrated by young people. I urge you to listen to their stories and dreams of a better future. I urge you to stand by them. With best wishes Krishna Rao Krishna Rao Foundation cking in India | Child Traffi vi List of CACT Partners 1. Ankuram Woman and Child Development Society, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh Contact: Ms. Sumitra Makkapati 2. Bhoomika Vihar, Patna, Bihar Contact: Ms. Shilpi Singh 3. Sakthi Vidiyal, Madurai, Tamil Nadu Contact: Mr. Jim Jesudoss 4. Pepole's Cultural Center (PECUC), Bhubaneswar, Odisha Contact: Ms. Anuradha Mohanty 5. Jabala Action Research Organisation, Kolkata, West Bengal Contact: Ms. Baitali Ganguly 6. Association for Development, Delhi Contact: Mr. Yogesh Kumar 7. Ganatar, Ahmedabad, Gujarat Contact: Ms. Nirupa Shah 8. Participatory Action for Community Empowerment (PACE ), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Contact: Ms. Rajvinder Kaur 9. Sakhee, Pune, Maharashtra Contact: Ms. Anjali Pawar 10. Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra, Hazaribag, Jharkhand Contact: Mr. Satish Girija 11. KIDS – Dharwad, Dharwad, Karnataka Contact: Ms. Pankaja Kalmath 12. Peoples Action for Creative Education (PEACE), Nalgonda, Telangana Contact: Mr. K. Nimmaiah 13. RIGHTS A Society for Human Rights, Trivandrum, Kerala Contact: Mr. V.B. Ajay Kumar vii viii | Child Traffi cking in India Content Preface iii Foreword v 1. Introduction 1 2. Human and Child Traffi cking 10 3. The Numbers 18 4. The Law 44 5. Anatomy of Child Traffi cking 60 6. Combatting Traffi cking by the Government: Efforts, Gaps and Challenges 87 7.

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