Tehelka report: Human trafficking is the third largest illicit industry after arms and drugs

Human trafficking is the third largest illicit industry after arms and drugs. Neha Dixit went undercover to meet the traffickers and the young victims sold by their own families to pimps and placement agents

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: TORTURE AND DOMESTIC SERVITUDE

PM Nair’s Trafficking in Women and Children in India indicates that nearly 75 percent of the victims of trafficking are tricked into it by the promise of a lucrative job.

SAMIRA KHATOON AGE 8 SOLD BY HER BROTHER FOR RS 2,000 IN WEST BENGALSLAVED FOR A DOMESTIC PLACEMENT AGENT IN NEW DELHI Photo: SALMAN USMANI

Transit area A victim sits amidst her luggage in a cramped hostel room Photo: SALMAN USAMNI

With the nuclear family fast becoming the norm among the urban middle-toupper classes, the demand for the live-in maid servant (euphemism: ‘domestic help’) has exponentially risen. In response, domestic placement agencies have mushroomed across the country’s metros. Posing as the mother of a three-year-old, we visited several such agencies in Delhi and saw at first hand how easily minor girls are brought from villages in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to live under extreme exploitation, first at the placement agency’s ‘transit area’, and then at the employer’s house.  more

read more From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 43, Dated Nov 01, 2008