Name- Alifya Bhanpurawala

Roll number- 205

Semester 3
Year (2021-2022)
FYBA B Division
Topic- Critical Analysis of Child Trafficking

Critical Analysis of Child Trafficking

According to the United Nations Palermo Protocol, Child Trafficking is defined as
the “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt” of a child for the
purpose of exploitation. A child as defined by the Palermo Protocol and the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is any person under the age of
18.

Child trafficking can take place both within and across national borders. Child
trafficking affects all children who are trafficked from one location to another for the
purpose of exploitation. Child trafficking can take place in a variety of forms. When
children are kidnapped or parents are lied to, duped, forced, or persuaded into
allowing their children to leave their homes, this is known as child trafficking. Sexual
exploitation, forced work in restaurants, factories, etc., domestic slavery such as
cooking, cleaning, etc., forced begging, and committing crimes such as theft, drug
trafficking, or scams are the most prevalent ways in which children are exploited.
Human trafficking affects every country on the planet, and minors account for about
a third of all victims.

Worldwide, an increasing amount of public attention is being directed toward the

problem of child trafficking. The media are more frequently covering trafficking, anti-
trafficking activism has risen, and most countries have created new policies, laws and
enforcement mechanisms to address the issue. Despite this recognition, there is a
shortage of technical solutions that practitioners and analysts can use to analyse
data, perform impact assessments and assess decisions related to anti–human
trafficking efforts. Child trafficking is a compound societal issue that involves the
exploitation of humans for monetary gain or benefit. As a modern form of slavery,
human trafficking violates human rights, presents a global public health concern, and
is prevalent in both impoverished and wealthy nations. 
 Child trafficking can be caused by a multitude of factors. The fundamental reason
for child trafficking is that it is financially advantageous for child traffickers. Child
trafficking generates an estimated $150 billion in revenue each year around the
world. Poverty, a lack of education, a lack of birth certificates, humanitarian crises,
and unlawful adoptions are all factors that put children at risk of being trafficked.
Due of high demand and ineffective legislation, this practise continues. Some
countries lack sufficient legislation, or it is simply not implemented. Child exploitation
and trafficking have profound social and psychological consequences. Children are
frequently bought and traded as commodities. These child trafficking organisations
are part of a multibillion-dollar industry that operates with near-complete impunity
in many cases. Children are trafficked for the purpose of commercial sex work,
pornography, and other forms of child labour. A single child can be sold into a variety
of child slavery situations.

Child traffickers use coercion and psychological manipulation to keep their victims
under their control. They do this in order to break a child's will to flee. It's done
through physical, emotional, and verbal abuse, isolation, violence, and forcing them
into situations they're unfamiliar with. To keep children under control, they deploy
video cameras, dogs, and firearms. In child trafficking, food and water are even
utilised to compel obedience. A typical tactic among child traffickers is to starve a
youngster who refuses to follow. This can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD), dissociative adaptations, emotional management issues, decreased cognitive
functioning, and distorted self-concept. Dreams, flashbacks, melancholy, remorse,
shame, helplessness, anxiety, and loss of confidence are frequent in children who
have been victims of human trafficking. Any child who has been sexually or physically
abused is more prone to experience social isolation, substance misuse, and suicidal
tendencies.

When it comes to child trafficking, India has served as a source, destination, and
transit country for the illegal trade. While speaking at the National Conference on
Anti-Human Trafficking 2015, Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh emphasised
that human trafficking is a highly sensitive and severe subject, adding that it is a
borderless organised crime. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, more
than 1.5 lakh people were recorded as victims across South Asia in a single year in
2012. According to reports, India receives an estimated 150,000 women and girls
from South Asia who are smuggled into the country to feed the commercial sex
industry. In addition, India is said to be a source and transit country for women and
children being trafficked from and to the Middle East. In India's red-light districts,
however, more than two million women and children are enslaved in commercial sex
exploitation.
In other words, while children are moved from one country to another through
procurement and sale, with India serving as both a supplier and a "consumer," there
is also internal movement of children inside the country — from one town to
another, one district to another, and one state to another. It is carried out in a
planned manner, by syndicates or individuals, and occasionally by informal
organisations. Relatives and parents are also involved.

On March 24, 2020, the Indian government enforced the world's toughest
lockdown on its 1.4 billion inhabitants, putting millions of migrant workers and daily
wage workers out of work. Faced with a grim future, these hordes of people
travelled hundreds of kilometres to return to their native villages. Children suffered
the brunt of the crisis as their jobless parents fled from shuttered cities and
workplaces. Soon after, heart breaking accounts of children being sold for money
began to appear. A jobless father in India's poorest state, Bihar, sold his four-month-
old new born to a wealthy couple without his wife's knowledge in one such case. At
the last moment, the mother interfered to save the infant with the help of some of
the neighbours. The man revealed that joblessness and his inability to feed his family
had driven him to despair. There were 92,000 cases of child abuse reported to a
government helpline at one point during the lockdown, over the course of 11 days.

Children are more vulnerable when their families are financially insecure, according
to studies. False promises of a new job, increased income, improved living
conditions, and financial assistance are made to such vulnerable families by
traffickers. It's no surprise that child labour continues to thrive throughout large
swaths of India, with over eight million youngsters aged five to fourteen toiling in
fields, dangerous factories, shops, and homes, according to industry studies.

Despite the fact that India has severe laws prohibiting underage labour and
prostitution, over 5,000 people are trafficked each year. In 2018, the eastern state of
Jharkhand had the most cases of human trafficking, followed by the western state of
Maharashtra.

Policymaking is critical for long-term societal development, and effective laws can
be extremely beneficial. However, in a big country like India, there are no simple
answers due to the problem's complexity. Empowering first responders, such as
police officers, child protection service personnel, child welfare committees, medical
personnel, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), can go a long way toward
ensuring that traffickers are reported and survivors are adequately supported from
the initial response to the rehabilitation phase.

The Indian branch of Save the Children proposes that communities be informed
about the dangers of child labour in order to avoid disruptions in schooling and
prevent children from being forced into labour. There are various methods for
preventing child trafficking; now is the time to put them into action and make the
world a safer place for children.

REFERENCES

https://www.globalasia.org/v16no1/feature/indias-child-trafficking-nightmare-
deepens-in-the-pandemic_neeta-lal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafficking_of_children

https://www.humanium.org/en/child-trafficking/

https://liberatechildren.org/blog/what-is-child-trafficking