India Country Report - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Trafficking – Situation in <strong>India</strong>
<strong>India</strong> is a Republic comprising 28 States and seven Union Territories, and has
a population of more that one billion. The Constitution of <strong>India</strong> envisages a
parliamentary form of government and is federal in nature, with unitary features.
The States of <strong>India</strong> vary greatly in terms of language, culture, religion and
tradition.
Substantial efforts have
been made in the last
decade or so in the
area of Anti-Human
Trafficking by government
institutions/state
machinery, the civil
society organizations,
the judiciary and the law
enforcement authorities.
Over the years, <strong>India</strong> has emerged as a source, destination, and transit country
for trafficking for varied purposes such as for commercial sexual exploitation and
labour. While intra-country trafficking forms the bulk of the trafficked victims,
cross-border trafficking also takes place, especially from Nepal and Bangladesh.
Women and children are also trafficked to the Middle Eastern countries and other
parts of the world for purposes of cheap labour and commercial sexual exploitation.
The number of trafficked persons is difficult to determine due to the secrecy
and clandestine nature of the crime. However, studies and surveys sponsored by
the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) estimates that there are
about three million prostitutes in the country, of which an estimated 40 percent
are children, as there is a growing demand for very young girls to be inducted
into prostitution on account of customer preferences.
A few alarming trends that have emerged in recent years are sexual exploitation
through sex tourism, child sex tourism, paedophilia, prostitution in pilgrim
towns and other tourist destinations, cross-border trafficking (especially from
Nepal and Bangladesh) etc.
Substantial efforts have been made in the last decade or so in the area of
Anti-Human Trafficking by government institutions/state machinery, the civil
society organizations, the judiciary and the law enforcement authorities. The
purpose of this <strong>India</strong> <strong>Country</strong> <strong>Report</strong> is multi-pronged:
Primarily, it documents the journey traversed by <strong>India</strong> in addressing the
issues of trafficking in women and children from World Congress II
(WCII – Yokohama, 2002) to World Congress III on Sexual Exploitation of
Children and Adolescents (WCIII – Rio de Janeiro, 2008) 1 .
It elucidates the good practices in the area of anti-human trafficking in the
country and also acknowledges the efforts of the government, civil society
organizations, international, bilateral and multilateral agencies, survivor
groups, as well as dedicated individuals in the country to combat this
heinous crime.
Finally, the document also explicates the processes through which
prevention, protection and prosecution efforts, towards anti-human
trafficking, have evolved in <strong>India</strong>.
The report will not only be a tool for presenting the anti-human trafficking
efforts in <strong>India</strong> at the World Congress III (Rio de Janeiro, November 2008), but
also act as an advocacy document to identify and influence future programming.
1
For more information on World Congress III, please visit the official website
http://www.iiicongressomundial.net/
4 <strong>India</strong> <strong>Country</strong> <strong>Report</strong>