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U.S. Department of State 2004 Trafficking in Persons Report - India

India (Tier 2 Watch List)

India is a source, transit, and destination country for women, children, and men trafficked for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. Indian men and women are placed into situations of coerced labor and sometimes slave-like conditions in countries in the Middle East and children may be forced to beg or work as camel jockeys. Bangladeshi women and children are trafficked to India or transit through India en route to Pakistan and the Middle East for purposes of sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and forced labor. Nepalese women and girls are trafficked to India for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and forced labor. India is also a growing destination for sex tourists from Europe, the United States, and other Western countries. Internal trafficking of women, men, and children for purposes of sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, bonded labor, and indentured servitude is widespread.

The Government of India does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Considerable progress was made in the area of prosecutions this past year, but police efforts continue to be hindered by a lack of coordination among different state police departments, weak interstate networking among the police, and lack of access to information technology for collecting information and surveillance. India needs to disseminate and share information better; create a data collection system for detecting interstate and cross border trafficking; and improve the collection and analysis of data on trafficking-related arrests, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences. Sensitization and anti-corruption training linked to trafficking should be delivered down to the lowest level law enforcement officers. Adoption of comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation, or amending existing legislation to remove sections used to punish victims, would significantly improve India's fight against trafficking.

India is placed on Tier 2 Watch List this year as the result of its failure to demonstrate increased central government law enforcement response to India's huge trafficking problem and inadequate local prosecutions in Mumbai and Calcutta. Sustained and improved law enforcement efforts at the state level were again not matched by central government efforts to investigate and prosecute the most significant criminal forces behind India's trafficking industry. The vast majority of trafficking in India occurs across state lines, making these crimes inherently difficult for state police agencies to investigate and prosecute without central coordination. Trafficking across India's international borders remains significant. The central government in New Delhi has not made sufficient efforts to use its national law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute inter-state and international trafficking. There remain no prosecutions of trafficking offenses by the federal government. The Indian Government should recognize trafficking as a federal offense and prosecute it accordingly, bringing its considerable resources to bear against the problem.

Whereas the Government of India's efforts to combat trafficking in persons is uneven, Indian NGOs are world leaders in their activities to fight trafficking.

Prosecution

The number of local arrests, convictions, prosecutions, and sentences increased considerably in 2003, particularly in New Delhi, and Chennai. There were numerous reports of victims charged as criminals, brothel owners paying bribes to law enforcement officials, tip-offs of upcoming raids by corrupt officials, and border officials turning a blind eye to trafficking. Continued anti-corruption and sensitization training linked to trafficking for law enforcement and government officials in addition to severe penalties for complicity is essential for India to strengthen its law enforcement efforts against traffickers in the future.

Precise law enforcement statistics relating to arrests, prosecution, and convictions are difficult to obtain in India, and the time between arrest, trial and case conclusion can vary greatly. Trafficking is prosecuted under many different laws, making it very difficult to identify which cases are prosecuted as trafficking cases. From January to May 2003, various Indian states initiated prosecutions of at least 2,504 cases against those employing child laborers, of which a significant proportion may be trafficked, and reported 318 convictions; most were the result of prosecutions begun in 2002.

Mumbai police established a special anti-trafficking squad of over 30 officers focused on combating sexual exploitation of women and children and trafficking in Mumbai's bars. Fifty-seven women and 10 girls were rescued in a sweep of the Jamuna Mansion brothel in Mumbai last July. The police brought charges against 18 brothel owners for kidnapping a minor for prostitution. In November 2003 the Mumbai police carried out a coordinated raid on seven brothels. Twenty women, including minors, were rescued and brothel owners and customers were arrested. A criminal lawyer was also arrested for selling a 15-year-old girl to a brothel after obtaining bail for her. Mumbai city police together with NGOs recently rescued over 100 children aged 9-12 employed in sari factories. A judge in Mumbai sentenced two brothel owners to five years' imprisonment and a fine of 65,000 rupees each.

In February 2004, the Mumbai police unit conducted a raid on 52 bars across the city and arrested 1,500 people. It is unclear how many traffickers were arrested or how many victims of trafficking were rescued in these raids. Together with the Mumbai and Navi police, an NGO assisted in conducting 36 raids and rescued 120 girls trafficked into prostitution. These raids resulted in 19 prosecutions and only three convictions. Considering Mumbai is home to one of the largest red light districts in the world, the number of convictions handed down in the past year is grossly inadequate.

The state of Tamil Nadu established two anti-trafficking squads. Over a five-month time period, the Tamil Nadu police investigated 28 cases of trafficking, in which 49 people were arrested and 118 girls were rescued. Twenty-five cases against sex traffickers are pending in the Tamil Nadu courts. In the past year, 90 traffickers were arrested under Sections 4 and 5 of the ITPA, and 19 were convicted. There is no information on the sentences handed down to these traffickers. The Tamil Nadu Railway Police arrested six people for trafficking children for labor exploitation. In February 2004, the police and Social Defense Department rescued 27 children brought to Chennai for sexual exploitation and arrested five suspected traffickers, whose cases are ongoing. The state government of Tamil Nadu also initiated prosecution against 550 employers over the last year for employing child labor, the majority of which is believed to be trafficked.

In 2003, over 180 traffickers were arrested in New Delhi, of which 35 were convicted. Of those convicted, 27 were sentenced to prison terms of seven years or more – the maximum penalty. New Delhi police also permanently closed three brothels for repeated offenses related to holding minors on their premises. Three people were sentenced for kidnapping and forcing a boy into bonded labor. Police in New Delhi arrested a man running a fraudulent manpower agency that sent 73 people to Libya for non-existent jobs.

Other Indian states have also taken action against traffickers. In 2003, the Calcutta City police arrested and charged 30 people for kidnapping for prostitution under the Indian Penal Code. The Calcutta police also arrested 168 people under the Immoral Trafficking Protection Act (ITPA), charged 99 people, and convicted only 10. Calcutta police efforts to rescue minor trafficking victims have been stymied by efforts of the city's "sex workers union" to block police access to major red-light areas. Violence and mob tactics by the "sex workers union" against police and prosecutors may contribute to the low rate of arrests and successful prosecutions in Calcutta.

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu state police working together with an NGO rescued 33 child victims and arrested two traffickers. The Karnataka police and an NGO collaborated on anti-trafficking actions resulting in 66 trafficking arrests, of which 62 resulted in prosecutions. In 2003, the Andhra Pradesh state police charged 130 people with trafficking related offenses, 68 were under sections four, five, six, and seven of the ITPA. In the state of Haryana, 23 trafficking-related arrests took place in the last eight months. In Nagaland, six people were charged under ITPA statutes over the past year and there are three ongoing cases in the state of Meghalaya.

The four principal laws that address trafficking are the ITPA, various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Juvenile Justice Act, and the Child Labor Act. Legislation also exists in numerous states to prohibit the dedication to religious shrines of girls for exploitation. India's Constitution establishes law enforcement as a state responsibility, so state police forces take the lead in fighting trafficking, although much of the trafficking crosses several state or international borders. One weakness of the ITPA is that it permits the arrest of prostitutes for soliciting (Section 8) as well as arrest of traffickers (Section 7). In the past, victims were arrested far more frequently under Section 8 of the ITPA than were traffickers under Section 7. The Ministry of Law and Commerce, in consultation with the National Law University in Banglalore and non-governmental organizations, drafted amendments to the ITPA to remove Section 8. These amendments are awaiting approval by the government before submission to the Parliament.

Endemic corruption among law enforcement officials impedes India's progress in combating trafficking in persons. Many low-level border guards take bribes or turn a blind eye to cross-border trafficking. Some police officers have been implicated in tipping off brothels to impending raids. NGO's have conducted anti-trafficking training for state and federal police officials, reaching many high level officers; it is critical that lower-level officers also receive this training on trafficking. In July, police arrested a Punjab police officer for trafficking a minor into his home for labor and sexual exploitation. Lucknow police arrested a civil judge and six others for running an interstate trafficking ring. In March 2004, a New Delhi city court charged two sub-divisional magistrates and two others for their role in trafficking people abroad by forging documents and facilitating the trafficking of illiterate, unskilled laborers.

Protection

The central government over the past two years has opened 80 Protective Homes that provide custodial care, education, vocational training, and rehabilitation to victims of trafficking. The Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) established a network of over 350 short stay homes for the protection and rehabilitation of victims. The quality of rehabilitation and care facilities at government sponsored shelter facilities varies widely. Many government homes have been criticized for their lack of professional staff and harsh treatment of victims. To improve victim care at government-run facilities, some state governments, such as West Bengal, New Delhi, and Bihar allow qualified non-governmental organizations to place counselors in the shelters or manage the facilities. These public-private partnerships should be expanded. The Central Social Welfare Board provides financial assistance to NGOs to run development and care centers for the children of trafficking victims. The DWCD continues to sponsor the "Swadhar" program to provide services to women, including trafficking victims. The state of Maharashtra received $1.25 million to construct a new shelter facility for rescued trafficking victims. A Calcutta-based NGO received Swadhar funding to expand its shelter for minor victims of trafficking.

State governments implemented a number of projects targeting the rescue and rehabilitation of victims through their own agencies and in collaboration with NGOs. The Karnataka government's devdasi rehabilitation program offers training in different vocations. The Andhra Pradesh state government runs six short stay homes. In addition, the Andhra Pradesh state government provided land to an NGO to build a shelter and rehabilitation center for trafficked women and girls in the area that constitutes Andhra Pradesh's major source of trafficking victims. The Maharashtra state government established a Guidance and Monitoring Committee for state-run juvenile homes enabling them to be co-managed by social welfare and anti-trafficking NGOs. As part of this effort, Maharashtra's Social Defense Department increased staff; added nurses, physicians, and psychiatrists to the facilities; improved diets; and increased recreational, vocational and literacy opportunities and individual counseling. The Maharashtra state government established special Juvenile Homes with facilities for vocational training, counseling, and health care for sexually exploited victims. Victims are provided monthly financial assistance and their children receive free educational materials. The Tamil Nadu state government runs five shelter homes for women, including trafficking victims, with a capacity of 500. Besides rehabilitation, the Tamil Nadu state government operates a fund to assist female victims of trafficking and other forms of violence.

Prevention

The central and state governments continue to support a variety of prevention programs begun in pst years. A joint program of the U.S. and Indian Governments will provide $40 million for programs to move child laborers, of whom many are trafficked, into the schoolroom. The Central government also approved and began implementing a $133.78 million plan to eliminate child labor from hazardous occupations by 2007.

To prevent the commercial sexual exploitation of children, the state of Goa passed the Children's Act of 2003, which criminalizes child labor, child prostitution, child abuse, and child trafficking. A unique clause in the law prevents tourists from escorting an unrelated child. The Act does not allow a child to enter any room of any hotel or establishment which provides boarding or lodging, unless with a family member. Hotels must ensure that children are protected on their premises, and also in adjoining beaches and parks.

Topics: Trafficking in persons,