Human trafficking constitutes one of the leading categories of violence in the world today. It is estimated that each year “1 to 2 million people are trafficked worldwide of which 225,000 are believed to be from South Asia. Other estimates show that over the last 30 years trafficking for sexual exploitation has victimized some 30 million Asian women and children.” The United Nations reports that the international trade in humans/trafficking is now the fastest-growing business of organized crime. It has become a $7 billion industry, ranked with the sale of illegal drugs and guns as the most lucrative criminal enterprises.
Human trafficking is the modern day name for slavery. As defined in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime: “. . . trafficking in human beings is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by means of force. It may also involve abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or the giving and receiving of payments for purposes of sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery-like practices, servitude or the removal of organs.”
Various studies show that “although human trafficking in South Asia is a centuries-old phenomenon current issues such as poverty, war and conflict, globalization, improved communication and transport links have accelerated the speed, magnitude and geographical coverage of human trafficking.” Patriarchy, power imbalances, and domineering systems are the pre-existing conditions that pave the way for human trafficking around the world. This complex phenomenon is fueled by multiple factors including: poverty; lack of substantial livelihood/lack of employment opportunities; structural inequities in society; gender-based discrimination; war/armed conflict; illiteracy and lack of education; present development model; and globalization/consumerism.
A relational pattern can be seen between developing and developed countries as consumption trends become more pronounced in developed countries, a corresponding increase also takes place in developing nations. The increased demand for goods by developed countries has subsequently resulted in an increased demand for cheap labor from developing countries to supply the necessary goods. As developed countries’ demand for goods has increased so has their demand for female labor from developing countries. In order to fill the demand women are often trafficked for domestic labor, arranged marriages, prostitution or forced labor. Consequently developed countries have not only become consumers of goods produced in the developing world but consumers of the “new human cash crop.”
The Naga society riddled with protracted conflict, poverty, patriarchal institutions, pervasive nature of unemployment, degeneration of social values, break down of family systems, domestic violence and weak economy is fertile ground for human trafficking. The alarming note is that most of the trafficking is being carried out under the cover of employment and education opportunities. The recent reports wherein young children were brought to Dimapur with the hope for education, only to find themselves in homes as labor are clear indicators that the demand for cheap child labor is only going to further encourage human trafficking, and more precisely child traffickers.
The common practice in Naga homes to keep child helpers is becoming chronic and not only does it violate the rights of children, but there are further repercussions as well. The observation that ‘Naga mothers’ are abetting in the cycle of cheap child labor and indirectly child trafficking is an insight that just cannot be taken lightly, nor can it be simply ignored. Addressing the roots of this predicament is essential. Organizations working on child issues must take the initiative to organize community or locality meetings and engage in direct dialogue with the mothers and initiate a process of co-learning, not just on the ills of child labor and trafficking, but also on how it affects the development of their own children.
Community education is the key in further enabling the people to understand the manner in which they are violating the Child Labor Act and how they could be liable for prosecution. Paramount to this need is to bring the issue of child labor and child trafficking out into the public arena and to recognize that such a problem exists. For now even acknowledging the presence of the problem is being resisted by people who do not wish to interpret the employment of young children for domestic labor as child labor, while this is clearly in contravention of legality. Nagas can no longer remain indifferent or conveniently go into denial, as if the problem does not exist. It is now time to act. The next time, it could be one of yours!
