Sex Slavery in India

Introduction India is an Asian country with an emerging economy and a population slightly hovering over one billion people. Despite posting impressive economic growth figures, a large section of the population still lives under the poverty line. Additionally, the country has high incidences of social ills mainly brought by its unique demographic trends and sometimes failure or laxity of law enforcement.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Sex Slavery in India specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More One of the social ills affecting the Indian society is human trafficking especially for sex slavery. Sex trafficking which involves coerced recruitment, transportation transfer and receipt of men people for sexual exploitation propagates sexual slavery1. Sexual slavery can be defined as situations where unwilling people (both men and women) are forced to sexual exploitation for low or no pay at all. Sexual slavery arises when some people have the right of ownership over others and induce repeated sexual abuse, rape and forced performance of sexual acts on other people. Various organizations including the international Organization for Immigration and UNICEF estimate the number of individuals involved in sexual slavery to range between 400,000 to 1.75 million2. Sex Slavery in India Asia has been identified as one of the trouble spots as far as human trafficking is concerned. The US State Department considers India a source, transit point and destination of sex trafficking victims in Asia and the world. The Supreme Court of India famously declared in the year 2010 that the country was becoming a hub for child trafficking and prostitution and urged urgent measures to curb the vice. The government of India through the Ministry of Women and Child Development estimated in 2007 that the country had about 3 million sex workers with approximately 35% of them aged below 18 years3. According to authorities an d international organizations such as the UN, human trafficking for sexual exploitation in India is mainly internal with the country low income and lower cast communities providing the major source of victims.Advertising Looking for research paper on gender studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In the country, there is major trafficking ring of women and young girls trafficked within the country mainly for sexual exploitation. Most of these sex slaves work in the tourism industry in the country with major town and cities acting as the hub of sex tourism. Surprisingly, authorities and nongovernmental organizations concur that sex slavery in India does take place within the confines of religious pilgrimage in centers such as Tirupati and Puri4. There is an intricate connection between the prostitution cartels operating in the country especially, Nepal and Thailand. While a good number of girls are kidnapped and forced to pros titution, a large number from north eastern India are normally duped with promises of regular and high paying jobs in larger cities only to end up in forced commercial sex work5. Additionally, some of the men and women especially in Tamil Nadu are trafficked out of India through fraudulent employment bureaus that mainly send them to Middle East where they end up as sex slaves. The presence of Maoist rebels in neighboring Nepal exacerbates the problem as the group operates a well established cartel that operates brothels in India to source funds for their operations. According to NGO sources, as many as 200 thousand girls have been trafficked from Nepal to India’s red light district with the rate being 5000 girls annually whose ages range ages between 10-12 years6. Indian Authorities’ approach to Sex Slavery The Indian government acknowledges the existence of human trafficking in the country and forced sexual exploitation as a rampant problem. Many government officials also admit that compliance by to the government to the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking have been below par. According to the US State Department, government response to sex trafficking in India has not demonstrated sufficient progress and there are concerns with law enforcement, protection and prevention efforts that have been put in place.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Sex Slavery in India specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Notably, the government admits that there have been few convictions of the real people behind human sex trafficking and most of the raids on brothels and other trafficking hot spots are mainly masterminded by concerned nongovernmental organizations. Additionally, there are fewer shelters for rescued sex slave victims and those that have been set up are of poor quality. Some officials acknowledge that corruption is a major hindrance in the fight against sex slave ry in the country. It is an open secret that some officials are complicit to the prostitution cartels as they receive payouts to allow their illegal operations. On the other hand however, there has been some progress in the fight against sex slavery in India especially through the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA) with a string of raids, arrest and convictions masterminds of sex slaves. It is important to note that most of these raids are however initiated by NGO and assisted by police. There is consensus that sex slavery is rampant in the country and perceived laxity by authorities is exacerbating the situation. It is therefore necessary that the government puts in place comprehensive measures to curb the vice which infringes on basic human rights and mainly disadvantages women and children. Bibliography Kara, Siddharth. Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. New Delhi: McMillan Publishers, 2010. Kirkham, George, and Territo, Leornard. International Sex Tra fficking of Women Children: Understanding the Global Epidemic. London: Sage Publications, 2009. Kunjakkan, KA. Feminism and Indian realities. New Delhi: Thomson Learning, 2002.Advertising Looking for research paper on gender studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Manian, Sabita, and McCabe, Kimberly. Sex trafficking: a global perspective. New York: Cengage Learning, 2010. Footnotes 1 Siddharth Kara, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, New Delhi: McMillan Publishers, 2010, pp. 90-104. 2 Sabita Manian and Kimberly McCabe, Sex trafficking: a global perspective, New York: Cengage Learning, 2010, P. 99. 3 Sabita Manian and Kimberly McCabe, Sex trafficking: a global perspective, New York: Cengage Learning, 2010, P. 99. 4 KA Kunjakkan, Feminism and Indian realities, New Delhi: Thomson Learning, 2002, P. 53. 5 Sabita Manian and Kimberly McCabe, Sex trafficking: a global perspective, New York: Cengage Learning, 2010, P. 101. 6 George Kirkham and Leornard Territo, International Sex Trafficking of Women Children: Understanding the Global Epidemic. London: Sage Publiocations, 2009, p. 264. This research paper on Sex Slavery in India was written and submitted by user Damari Herman to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. 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