Rethinking trafficking

Rethinking trafficking

Context:

• Last India protested against the release of a report, ‘Global estimates of modern slavery: forced labour and forced marriage’, a collaborative effort of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Walk Free Foundation, and the International Organisation for Migration.

Highlight of the report:

• The report estimated that there were 40.3 million “modern slaves” worldwide in 2016, with 24.9 million in forced labour and 15.4 million in forced marriages.
• It did not name countries, but the writing on the wall was clear as 17,000 interviews had been conducted in India, and 61.78% of the “modern slaves” were in Asia and the Pacific.
• The report forms the baseline for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 (eradicates forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking, and end child labour by 2025).

Indian laws:

• Indian government is set to introduce the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016, which exemplifies neoabolitionism.
• India has a complex patchwork of anti-trafficking laws, ranging from the Indian Penal Code and the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA), 1986, to social welfare legislation on contract and bonded labour, and inter-state migrant work.
• In India, a combination of penal, labour and contract laws are used to impose obligations for better working conditions.

Definition of trafficking:

• The current definition of trafficking in Section 370 of the IPC is not limited to sex work.
• It pursues the classic raid-rescue-rehabilitation model, with stringent penalties for trafficking, including life imprisonment for its aggravated forms, reversals of burden of proof, and provisions for stripping traffickers of their assets.

What should India do?

• There should be a multi-faceted legal and economic strategy
• Robost implementation of labour laws
• Universal social protection floor
• Self organization of workers
• Improved labour inspection, including in the informal economy
• Corporate accountability for decent work conditions.
• Need for systemic reforms to counter distress migration
• End caste-based discrimination
• Enforce the rural employment guarantee legislation
• Avoid the indiscriminate rescue of voluntary sex workers
• Protect migrants’ mobility and rights.