Human Trafficking Around the World (32 page)

In India, where the law prohibits slavery, the Scheduled Castes (formerly the Untouchables) and Scheduled Tribes face the majority of caste prejudice and social and economic marginalization. Religion plays a significant role in this hierarchy: under Hinduism all persons are not created equal. Between slavery and debt bondage, NGOs estimate that tens of millions of Indian citizens are affected by human trafficking in India, the majority of whom are members of the Scheduled Castes. At least 2 million persons of the Scheduled Castes are bonded laborers. Unlike the debt bondage that occurs in most of the world, where a person’s debt is a result of exorbitant fees that he himself has been charged, in India a person is born into a position of debt bondage and indentured servitude. Children are forced to work off debts that were incurred even generations ago. In other cases an exchange is made between parents and a trafficker. The trafficker gives the parents a financial advance, sometimes with the false assurance that the child will receive an education and learn a trade. The child is then bonded to the trafficker and must work off the advance. In a study of children in two rehabilitation centers, those most susceptible to trafficking were children of the Scheduled Castes and the Other Backward Classes; the most vulnerable population was female children of the Scheduled Castes. The children were forced to work in a variety of industries such as domestic labor, brick kilns, stone quarries, and agriculture. Children of the slave castes are subjected not just to hereditary slavery and bonded labor but also to sex trafficking. The caste system assures discrimination and marginalization—inferior education, position, and status—of the “low castes” and makes social and economic mobility nearly impossible. As a result even victims who manage to escape a scenario of human trafficking are vulnerable to re-victimization and other forms of exploitation and abuse
.

As in India, traditional slavery and practices analogous to slavery are illegal but continue to be real problems in Niger, where an estimated 8,800 to 43,000 persons are subjected to traditional slavery. Although the Nigerien government acknowledges that slavery does exist, it denies the prevalence of the practice and claims that NGO estimates are exaggerated. Within minority ethnic groups a caste system exists in which slavery is ascribed at birth; slaves are forced to work as agricultural workers, shepherds, domestic servants, and sexual servants. Some female slaves are a fifth wife or
sadaka
and are forced to work as domestic laborers and sex servants. The few victims of hereditary slavery who have turned to Niger’s judicial system have found no redress there; offenders continue to receive suspended sentences and reduced fines
.

In China, the household registration
(hukou)
system, which establishes permanent legal residence, has created a legal two-tier caste structure in which people are defined by the place they were born and whether they are rural or urban. The upper caste is the urban nonagricultural population, and the lower caste is the rural agricultural population. Before 1998 children inherited the
hukou
of the head of household; today children can choose to inherit the
hukou
of either parent. The workers who move to cities but cannot fulfill the requirements to attain permanent residence have a status similar to that of illegal migrant workers in other nations; they face discrimination; are without the free compulsory education, urban employment, public housing, free medical services, and retirement benefits granted to holders of urban hukou registration; and have minimal protection against unsafe working conditions and exploitative employers. There are at least 200 million Chinese migrant workers throughout China. Although these migrant workers can obtain temporary work permits, they often face long work hours and the threat of nonpayment. Their children also face discrimination and inequality; in Beijing alone 400,000 children between the ages of 6 and 18 are without Beijing
hukou
and face restrictions on registering for most public schools. The incentive to maintain the
hukou
system is that it is economically beneficial for local governments; it creates a low-cost labor force that by law does not have to be afforded equal access to public services. Though there is widespread pressure on the government to abolish the system or at least equalize all citizens’ ability to change residence and eliminate rules that bond access to public services to urban
hukou
status, those who speak out publicly face job discipline and expulsion
.

CHAPTER 13

India

When we got hungry we would ask for some food, like biscuits, but they would always refuse it. If we would ask for money they would say “there is no money.” They said if we didn’t work they would beat us.

—A FORCED-LABOR VICTIM

Generally speaking, persons from the most disadvantaged socioeconomic strata are most vulnerable to exploitation, including human trafficking. In India these differences are exacerbated by a strict caste system, leaving many persons born into indentured servitude and slavery. According to Dr. Joseph D’souza of the Dalit Freedom Network, trafficking is a huge problem, both in terms of its negative impact on communities and in terms of the massive size of slavery today: “With all the general information coming from the UN, the U.S. State Department, and various nonprofit organizations, I know it is easy to miss a particular issue like the nexus of caste and slavery. India may appear to be simply another poor country. But it is a very complex culture with a root issue of caste discrimination behind some of our social ills” (Human Trafficking Project, 2010).

India’s constitution explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth; yet prejudice persists. In what is called the silent apartheid, those most marginalized by the caste system are persons of the Dalit/Scheduled Castes (SC), formerly known as the Untouchables; the Scheduled Tribes (ST); and the Other Backward Classes (OBC). “Together these groups are classically known as the Sudras or the slave/vassal castes,” D’souza explained in an article on Dalit emancipation:

Scheduled means they are listed in a special index appended to the Constitution. Backward Castes are those whose rank and occupational status are above that of Dalits, but who still remain socially and economically depressed. The Scheduled Castes were until recently also known as the Untouchables because they were deemed literally untouchable by the upper castes. The Scheduled Tribes were defined as Criminal Tribes because they occasionally challenged, with arms, the dominance of the local landlords. (D’souza, 2006)

Statistically, the Other Backward Classes constitute the majority of Hindus in India and are estimated to be 52 percent of the population. But it is the Scheduled Castes and Tribes who face the majority of caste prejudice and subjugation. India’s 2001 census data reveal that Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes makeup 24.4 percent of the national population, with 66 percent of these from the Scheduled Castes and 34 percent are the Scheduled Tribes (Heitzman & Worden, 1995; NACDOR, 2001; Shahin, 2001; D’souza, 2006; Negi, 2006). The accuracy of the 2001 census was regarded with a great deal of skepticism. One reason was that the census choices were limited. D’souza and John Dayal, the secretary-general of the All India Christian Council, told the press in 2001 that they believed the government had underhanded political motives in dictating that persons who belong to the Scheduled Castes choose from a category of only three religions:

We are deeply apprehensive of the government’s motives in dictating that those people who declare they belong to a Scheduled Caste must choose religious affiliation from a limited three categories arbitrarily fixed by the government. A Scheduled Caste, or Dalit, Indian citizen is being forced to choose only between the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist faiths, and is not allowed to claim that he belongs to the Muslim, Christian, animist, indigenous, agnostic, or no-faith categories. To deny the Scheduled Castes the religion of their choice violates the constitutional provision of freedom of faith. Caste, like parentage and place of birth, is the inalienable primary identity of persons and important to them in their continuing struggle to break free of 3,000 years of suppression. (Shahin, 2001)

Many activists see the limited census classifications as a way to try to force the Dalit people to continue to exist in the caste system of Hinduism, in which all persons are not created equal. The Dalit have utilized a rejection of Hinduism at least since the 1930s as a means to break away from a caste system that has oppressed them and offered no socioeconomic mobility. In the 1931 census more than 450,000 persons registered themselves as members of the new Dalit faith called Ad Dharam (Original Religion), and as recently as February 2010 a new faith called Ravidassias was announced by persons of the lower castes in the Punjab region to counter the continued social discrimination that they face in the region (Shahin, 2001; Singh, 2010).

NGOs estimate that tens of millions of citizens are affected by human trafficking in India, most of whom are from the Dalit population. At least 2 million of these victims are Dalit bonded laborers; many born into indentured servitude and forced to work off the “debts” of previous generations (Asian Development Bank, 2002; Anti-Slavery International, 2009; U.S. Department of State, 2009, 2012).

TRAFFICKING WITHIN INDIA

The most prevalent form of trafficking in India occurs within the nation to its own citizens, mainly for forced labor. The victims are men, women, and children forced to work off debts by laboring in brick kilns, rice mills, and embroidery factories or by toiling as agricultural workers or domestic servants. Additionally, Naxalites, a Maoist communist armed group, have forcibly recruited children into their ranks (U.S. Department of State, 2009, 2010).

India has the largest number of child laborers in the world (Asian Development Bank, 2002; U.S. Department of State, 2009). According to India’s 2001 census, there were 12.67 million child laborers in 2001. The 2010 Census numbers are more challenging to interpret because while, under the Juvenile Justice Act of 2000, persons are deemed to be children until 18 years of age, the census divides the labor age groups into 5–9 years of age, 10–14 years of age, and 15–19 years of age (the latter being the obvious challenge). If all categories are added together, then it appears that there were 45 million child laborers in 2010. The obvious flaw is that this includes laborers who were 19 years old. The number of child laborers drops to 12.6 million, similar to the number in 2001, when the 15–19 age group is excluded, but this too does not accurately reflect the number of child laborers, as it excludes those that are ages 15–18. Therefore, it can only be accurately said that the number of child laborers in 2011 ranged somewhere between 12.6 million and 45 million (Kumar, 2011). One such case of child labor is that of a boy who accepted a job under the promise of legitimate employment but instead faced forced labor and inhumane treatment:

They came and told us to go with them, and said they’d give us 3,000 Rupees [roughly $65] a month. That we’d work for two or three hours a day and live on the premises. But they took us there and made us work for 12 or 13 hours. They’d wake us up at six in the morning, and only allow us to come back at nine or ten at night. There they would make us do polishing work for two days then stitching work for two days. Sometimes they would make us drag sacks that would weigh 45 or 60 kilos. When we got hungry we would ask for some food, like biscuits, but they would always refuse it. If we would ask for money they would say “there is no money.” They said if we didn’t work they would beat us. (Bamforth et al., 2009)

Kailash Satyarthi, founder of the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), helps rescue trafficking victims and has found that children often become the victims of forced labor through fraudulent placement agencies. Through these agencies traffickers sell and buy children for a minuscule amount of money. “There are many children who have been sold and bought even for less than animals,” Satyarthi told
The Guardian
(Bamforth et al., 2009). The BBA not only helps rescue trafficked children but also establishes rehabilitation centers where the children can obtain an education as well as social, leadership, and vocational training. The objective is to help the children overcome the delays and detriments trafficking has caused in their education and health, so that the children will eventually be able to integrate back into mainstream society (BBA, 2010). In 2007 and 2008 Patricia Aliperti, a Rotary World Peace fellow at the International Christian University in Tokyo, interviewed 40 children at the three BBA rehabilitation centers, Mukti Ashram, Balika Ashram, and Bal Ashram. The results give a glimpse into the various types of exploitation that children face as well as the classes or castes most affected by child labor and trafficking. Thirty percent of the children interviewed were identified as bonded laborers because they received few to no wages. These children were either bonded with their families or returned home nightly. Five of these children were from OBC, three were from SC, one was from ST, one was from the Upper Caste, and two were of unknown status.

Debt bondage in India develops in several ways, Aliperti explained: “Many children are born into it, having to work off debts that were incurred generations ago. Others have parents who are deceived by traffickers who offer them money with a false promise that the child will receive an education and can learn a trade, bonding the child to work off the advance. Additionally, some parents pledge their children’s labor in return for a financial advance, which also results in the child having to pay off the advance.”
¹

Twenty of the children whom Aliperti interviewed had been sent away from their families during their trafficking experience. Of these children, 9 belonged to the SC, 4 were Muslim, 3 were of the OBC, 1 was of the ST, and 3 were of unknown status. Caste plays a large role in shaping who is most vulnerable to human trafficking in India. Unsurprisingly, Aliperti’s data reveal that the interviewees most susceptible to trafficking were children of the SC (12 children) and the OBC (8 children), with the most vulnerable population being female children of the SC (7 children). During their trafficking or child-labor experience, the children worked in various industries such as domestic labor (5 boys, 4 girls), brick kilns (3 boys, 4 girls), hotels (5 boys), stone quarries (4 boys), and agriculture (3 boys). Other areas of labor were jari embroidery factories (1 boy), school hostels (1 boy), carpet looms (1 boy), and trucker helper (1 boy) (Aliperti, 2009).