Exploring the causes, types, and impact of human trafficking and strategies for prevention
Human Trafficking is the enrollment, conveyance, transfer, sustaining, or acceptance of individuals through vigour, fraud, or subterfuge, with the desire to exploit them for payback. Men, women, and children of all generations and from all backgrounds can become victims of this illegal act, which occurs in every nook and corner of this planet. It is an unlawful act that calls for pressurizing a person to provide labor or services, or to engage in commercial sex acts. The harassment can be devious or apparent, somatic, or psychological. Human trafficking has five stages: Luring, Grooming and Gaming, Coercion and Manipulation, Exploitation and Recruitment.
There are many causes by which human trafficking starts. Some of its causes are poverty, oppression, lack of human rights, lack of social and economic opportunity, dangers from dispute, uncertainty and similar conditions. One of the famous International Indian Human Rights Activists, Kailash Satyarthi, has been at the forefront of the Global Movement to end Child Slavery and Exploitation. He is the founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan. In 2014, Kailash Satyarthi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Malala Yousafzai for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people. During the pandemic, he wrote an article about human trafficking in which he wrote that about 9 thousand women and children were used for human trafficking.
There are three types of human trafficking: Sex Trafficking, Forced Labour, and Debt Bondage.
Sex Trafficking: The steps or methods of banning transporting individuals from one territory or region to another for the motive of Sexual exploitation.
Forced Labor: It is any work connection, particularly in the present day, in which people are employed against their will, with the threat of impoverishment, imprisonment, brutality including demise, or other forms of utmost privation to either themselves or members of their families.
Debt Bondage: It is the misuse parallel to enslavement in which people are guaranteed to work either for a usurer or a proprietor to compensate for a debt or loan. It applies to children who work either for a money lender or for an owner as bonded labourers to pay off the debts of family members.
Some effects on women and girls are: Trafficked women and girls also run into high rates of bodily and sexual brutality, memory loss, sexually transmitted diseases, and traumatic brain injuries. Depression, anxiety, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse. Rates are also high among sex and labor trafficking with high rates typically reported by female survivors.
Some effects on men are: Many migrant men in labour trafficking are given only one choice to work long hours for little or no pay due to machoism mixed with racial and gender inequality. Traffickers prey on masculine identity and the responsibility to care for one’s family.
Some common effects of human trafficking on men, women, and children are: Loss of basic human rights, loss of one’s childhood, Disruption in families, and severe mental health consequences including anxiety disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD), Depression, and Substance Abuse.
Effects on Mental Health: Studies show that individuals who have experienced trafficking may exhibit signs of anxiety, impassiveness, memory loss, and depression. They may develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD), dependence on substance or alcohol use, or eating disorders.
Ways to prevent Human Trafficking: Encourage companies to take steps to prevent human trafficking in their supply chains and publish the information, including supplier or factory lists for consumer awareness.
The writer is a Class 9 student at Sabir Abdullah Public High School Wanihama, Anantnag. She has thanked Aijaz Sir and Azhar Sir for their guidance. Feedback at wi***********@***il.com