Human trafficking is a hideous reality that most of us, cocooned in our safe, insulated little worlds are quite unaware of. Infant trafficking for meeting the demands created by childless people is just one reality of the phenomenon where human beings are sold for various purposes ranging from sex work, to forced labour, to begging, or for theft. There are some statistics about modern slavery that will shock and alarm:
Human beings are bought, abducted or lured under various pretexts and then transported and sold into forced prostitution, forced labour. Human trafficking and human enslavement are terms used for people made to perform work or sexual acts under threat, coercion, fraud and so on.
This criminal activity is extremely widespread and it is estimated that there are more people living in slavery than at any previous point in history; even though slavery was abolished so long ago. It is thought that between 20 million and 30 million human beings live as slaves globally.
Over 80% of trafficked humans are female. Over half of those trafficked are children. Poverty is the biggest risk factor. Often desperate parents sell their children in the belief that they will have a better life elsewhere. The ignorant and uneducated are lured by the promise of better life someplace else.
According to estimates by the International Labour Organisation, this is a $150 billion industry and most of the revenue comes from trafficking for forced prostitution. Forced labour and exploitation and domestic servitude are other components.
These figures date from a couple of years ago. The reason why this is such a lucrative criminal activity is because humans are not an end product, like say drugs (thought to be the biggest criminal activity in the world). Humans can be sold repeatedly. When babies are trafficked and sold, traffickers, doctors, border officials and lawyers all make money.
The highest number of humans are trafficked from India. Girls and women and trafficked in the country for prostitution, forced marriages, bonded labour. Men and boys are trafficked for sex work, factory work, as domestic servants, beggars, bonded labour and also as armed combatants for terror and insurgency groups.
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