The Veritable Significance of NGOs Working against Child Trafficking in India

1. The Veritable Significance of NGOs Working against Child Trafficking in India The deep-seated evil of child trafficking has prominently clutched India as estimates suggest that 135,000 children are trafficked every year within the country. India is quickly becoming a source, transit point, a destination for traffickers of women and children for sexual and non-sexual purposes. The problem, despite its pervasiveness, is layered and covert and thereby very tough to eradicate and challenge. Several government measures and international mandates coupled with the robustness of NGOs working against child trafficking in India are helping to address the issue. What is Child Trafficking? Child trafficking is a type of human trafficking premised on the recruitment, transportation, transferring, and consequent harboring or receiving a child for adoption, exploitation, bonded labor, or slavery. It is noteworthy to highlight that female children are primarily trafficked for marriage, sex work, criminal activity, adoption, and organ trade. In contrast, the primary motivation to traffic male children is labor, exploitation as beggars, and recruitment into illegal activities or armed conflict. The first significant international mandate in ending child trafficking was introduced in the UN Palermo Protocols of 2000. As per ILO estimates, approximately 980,000 to 1225000 children were in forced labor contexts due to trafficking in 2005. Child trafficking is all about taking children out of their protective environments and preying on their vulnerability and naivety for exploitation. It is imperative to remember that the traffic of children –internally, trans-nationally, and across continents is closely associated with the demand for cheap, docile, and malleable labor.

2. Children who are victims of trafficking fall prey to the most brutal and harrowing forms of exploitation such as bonded labor, child domestic labor, prostitution and commercial sexual exploitation, child soldering, drug peddling, and other slavery-like practices in the unorganized sector. ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) collaborates with national governments, workers and employers’ organizations, and NGOs to tackle child trafficking, offer comprehensive safeguard to vulnerable children and victims, and rehabilitate and counsel victims. Child Trafficking in India – An Ever-expanding Evil The extent and magnitude of child trafficking are pretty severe in India. Statistics of the National Crime Record Bureau suggest that as many as one child disappears every eight minutes. The rudimentary causes of child trafficking in India are poverty, lack of education, absence of regulation in the unorganized sector of the economy, female foeticide and infanticide, historical prevalence, and continued influence of bonded labor agrarian relations, and so forth. The primordial reasons for child trafficking in India include bonded labor, begging, and sexual exploitation. Moreover, although many children are trafficked internally, a certain proportion of children are also trafficked from Bangladesh and Nepal. As per statistics, the trafficking of young girls below 18 has grown by 14 times in the last decade. The states with the largest concentration of child trafficking figures are Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka. The state has the most significant proportion of child trafficking in Assam, with 28 percent of all cases. Estimates suggest that 76 percent of the entire trafficked cohort in India consists of girls and women, and 2 million women and children are trafficked into sex work and prostitution. Due to the widespread prevalence and expansion of child trafficking, the Indian government has formulated several measures to curb the evil. Various NGOs working against child trafficking in India also play a pivotal role in handling the situation. Laws and Interventions to Tackle Child Trafficking in India The Ministry of Women and Child Development of India has undertaken and laid out several initiatives to mitigate and curb the trafficking of women and children. ● The National Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children was formulated in 1998 to mainstream the phenomenon of trafficking and integrate victims into society. ● The Central Advisory Committee was constituted to offer pre-rescue, rescue, and post-rescue trajectories and guidelines for victims of trafficking. ● The Ministry of Home Affairs of India has formed a dedicated cell to prevent trafficking.

3. ● The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act was formulated in 1965. It was recently ratified to widen its scope, focus on traffickers, concentrate on the human rights of victims, and ensure proper implementation of rescue and rehabilitation measures. ● Short Stay Homes and Swadhar Greh Scheme were started to provide shelters to trafficked victims. Role of NGOs in Tackling Child Trafficking Non-governmental organizations work at the grass-root level to tackle child trafficking. They raise awareness about the evils of child trafficking and engage in conversations with vulnerable communities and cohorts. They also conduct raids and rescue missions and help thousands of women and children break free from their exploitative environment. The nature of trafficking as a crime is such that it is difficult to track, and coupled with poor enforcement of the law, the problem accelerates. Nevertheless, a subjective and specificity-based approach that considers the particular reasons, motivations, and vulnerabilities of trafficking is essential. Satyarthi.org is an NGO working on human trafficking in India, and it aims to eradicate child trafficking in India and make the country more child-friendly. Source: https://mytrendingstories.com/neha-naayar/the-veritable-significance-of-ngos-working-against-child- trafficking-fziiqh