“The Displaced Innocence”

(Rights of Vulnerable Trafficked Children)

ABSTRACT
Human trafficking means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of
persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion of abduction, of
fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or
of receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over
another person, for the purpose of exploitation.1 There are an estimated 40 million people
around the world who are victims of human trafficking, Over 50% of human trafficking
victims are children.These children are mostly used as labours or are prostituted, all the work
done by child labourers are unaccounted in a country’s economy. The income generated by
child labours as share of black in the economy is estimated around 1, 20,000 crores.2

The paper intends on analyzing nature and extent of the issue of trafficked children in India
with special emphasis on the laws pertaining to it, and their effectiveness, it also analyses the
magnitude of the mafia revolving around trafficking of children. The paper also studies the
budding predicament of human trafficking via untraceable areas of the internet, colloquially
referred to as the “Darknet. The study also tries to explore the gaps and suggests
recommendations on the issue. This research paper emphasizes on sensitization of general
public and the government machinery.

The research is based on secondary sources, it involves extensive analysis of data acquired
from various sources including governmental reports, surveys conducted by NGO’s and
information collected from RTI application.

Keywords : child trafficking, trafficking through internet, black money from trafficking,
human rights violation.

"Approximately 600,000 to 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders

annually, and between 14,500 and 17,500 of those victims are trafficked into the United
States each year. More than half of these victims worldwide are children!"

- Child Victims of Human Trafficking, Department of Health and Human Services, USA and
the U.S. Department of State

1
“UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, article 3
2
Capital corruption: child labour in India, BachpanBachaoAndolan
INTRODUCTION
Human trafficking is the trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of sexual
slavery, forced labour, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others.Article 3,
paragraph (a) of the Protocol3 to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines
Trafficking in Persons as the “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of
persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of
fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or
receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over
another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”

Nobody knows the true numbers, but even conservative estimates suggest that at least 2.5
million children, women, and men are lured or forced across international borders every year
and many more are trafficked within their home countries and put to work against their will,
often under deplorable and unsafe conditions, held captive by physical, psychological, or
financial threats.

Human trafficking is one of the most lucrative criminal activities. Estimates of the United
Nations state that 1 to 4 million people are trafficked worldwide each year. Trafficking in
women and children is an operation which is worth more than $ 10 billion annually.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PAPER

The paper intends on analyzing nature and extent of the issue of trafficked children in India
with special emphasis on the laws pertaining to it, and their effectiveness, it also analyses the
magnitude of the mafia revolving around trafficking of children. Thepaper also studies the
budding predicament of human trafficking via untraceable areas of the internet, colloquially
referred to as the “Darknet”. The study also tries to explore the gaps and suggests
recommendations on the issue. This research paper emphasizes on sensitization of general
public and the government machinery.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study undertakes an analytical and descriptive approach. It is primarily based on the
analysis of secondary data from various books, websites of governmental and non-
governmental organizations and agencies, journals, etc. In undertaking this study, the

3
United Nations (2000), Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, Especially Women and
Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (“UNTOC”)
doctrinal method of research has been followed, wherein, the legal issues, laws, case laws and
legal precepts concerning the topic have been analyzed and put to place.

CHILD TRAFFICKING
According to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children (2000), child trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harbouring or receipt of children for the purpose of exploitation. It is a violation of their
rights, their well-being and denies them the opportunity to reach their full potential. The
International Labor Organization’s 2002 estimation of 1.2 million children being trafficked
each year remains the reference (Every Child Counts, New Global estimate on Child Labour).
The forms and purposes of child trafficking may be:
a. Bonded labour;

b. Domestic work;

c. Agricultural labour;

d. Employment in construction activity;

e. Carpet industry;

f. Garment industry g. Fish/Shrimp Export;

h. Other sites of work in the formal and informal economy.

Trafficking can also be for illegal activities such as:

a. Begging;

b. Organ trade;

c. Drug peddling and smuggling;

Trafficking can be for sexual exploitation, i.e.

a. Forced prostitution;

b. Socially and religiously sanctified forms of prostitution;

c. Sex tourism;

d. Pornography;

Child trafficking can be to aid entertainment in sports:

a. Circus/dance troupes;

b. Camel jockeying;

Human trafficking is the third largest profitable industry in the world. Child trafficking unlike
many other issues is found in both developed and developing nations. Trafficked children are
used for prostitution, forced into marriage, illegally adopted, used as cheap or unpaid labour,
used for sport and organ harvesting. Some children are recruited into armed groups.
Trafficking exposes children to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. According to
UNICEF a child victim of trafficking is "any person under 18 who is recruited, transported,
transferred, harboured or received for the purpose of exploitation, either within or outside a
country". Trafficking is one of the hardest crimes to track and investigate hence data is hard
to obtain.

CHILD TRAFFICKING IN INDIA

Anti -slavery activists say thousands of children are going missing from some of India’s
remote tribal areas as human traffickers respond to a surge in demand for domestic child
labour in booming urban districts.

NGOs estimate that 12,000 - 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the country
annually from neighbouring states for the sex trade. Thousands of girls are trafficked from
Bangladesh and Nepal. 200,000 Nepalese girls under 16 years are in prostitution in India. An
estimated 1,000 to 1,500 Indian children are smuggled out of the country every year to Saudi
Arabia for begging during the Hajj. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal and Tamil
Nadu have the largest number of people trafficked. Intra state/inter district trafficking is high
in Rajasthan, Assam, Meghalaya, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu and Maharashtra. Delhi and Goa are the major receiver states. Trafficking from north
eastern states is high but often over looked. In 2008, 529 girls were trafficked from Assam
alone.
LAWS PERTAINING TO CHILD TRAFFICKING IN INDIA

India has a fairly wide framework of laws enacted by the Parliament as well as some State
Legislatures.

Article 23 (1) of the constitution specifically prohibits traffic in Human beings and forced
labour and makes their practice punishable under law. Article 24 of the Constitution prohibits
employment of children before 14 years of age in factories, mines or other hazardous
employment.

Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act 1956 has severe penalties for those engaged in
trafficking and is India’s most comprehensive anti-trafficking statute. It is pertinent to note
that ITPA envisages only trafficking for CSE (Commercial Sexual Exploitation).
Commercial activity need not be in a brothel, but could also occur in places including a
residential dwelling or a vehicle. In the existing scenario, trafficking is usually confused with
prostitution and therefore, there is no proper understanding of the seriousness of trafficking.4

Section 370 of Indian Penal Code, defines the offence of trafficking thus replacing the prior
Section 370, which deals with the buying or disposing of any person as a slave. The new
Section 370, criminalises anyone who recruits, transports, harbours, transfers or receives a
person using certain means for purposes of exploitation. Punishment ranges from 7 to 10
years, rigorous imprisonment with fine. Further, Section 370 criminalises anyone who
engages a trafficked minor or adult for sexual exploitation.

INTERNET AND TRAFFICKING

Deep Web, also known as “Deepnet,” the “Invisible Web,” the “Undernet” or the “hidden
Web,” are parts of the Internet that are not considered part of the “surface web,” or the
portion of the World Wide Web that is indexed by conventional search engines, these areas of
web are untraceable as the users identity remains anonymous. Many deep web sites are not
indexed because they use dynamic databases that are devoid of hyperlinks and can only be
found by performing an internal search query. About22 million photos and
videos involvingchild pornography have been reported on such sites , largely due to the use
of the dark net, making child pornography one of the largest industries to date; grossing US

4
“ Anti-Trafficking Laws in India – Issues and Perspectives”, TasimKundan Patel
$20-30 billion a year, the eventually is giving riseto trafficking of children both directly and
indirectly.

In its press release on 6th June 2014 the Europol identified The Internet and e-commerce as
key crime enablers, with trafficking in human beings (THB) specifically identified as a
vulnerable crime area in relation to this. Certain sites like silk roads, Gramm etc. are
identified by the FBI as online black markets.

Trafficking is not a new phenomenon, the Internet is a new resource for Traffickers to find
vulnerable children, sell them for sexual exploitation, and do all this under concealed
identities. The nature of this sites are such that they are highly unregulated, perpetrators who
purchase trafficked children are able to use this platform for criminal purposes with minimal
risk of prosecution. Furthermore the Internet allows those who exploit enslaved women and
children to share experiences with an expansive World Wide Web audience, thereby
normalizing the victimization of trafficked women and children.5

Anonymity in Transaction- Enabling Factor of Human Trafficking

To make a purchase on the darknet, you must exchange your local currency for bitcoin using
an exchange website.Bitcoin is a form of digital currency, created and held electronically. No
one controls it. Bitcoins aren't printed, like dollars or euros,they're produced by people, and
increasingly businesses, running computers all around the world, using software that solves
mathematical problems.6

Coinbase is such a bitcoin wallet and exchange service, used in the United States and
eighteen European countries for a fee of about 1% of the value of the transaction.to purchase
and sell using bitcoins the customers have to provide photo identification and bank details,
setup two-factor authentication on a mobile phone, and wait seven days. Further there is a
PGP encryption system enables to transmission of personal information and address securely
using a system of symmetric-key encryption. While this isn't always necessary, many vendors
in the darkwebrequire it in order to purchase a product.

Laws against such offences in India

5
Sex Trafficking Via The Internet: How International Agreements Address The Problem And Fail To Go Far by
Enough Erin I. Kunze
6
www.coindesk.com
The cybercrime in India has not seen expansion from hacking and basic malware attacks,
however overtime there have been rising concerns regarding drug peddling through internet,
such offences are not only covered under the Indian penal code but are also covered under the
Information and Technology act of 2008,chapter XI and are hence are punishable.

Under section 67 B Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children

in sexuallyexplicit act, etc. in electronic form is provide

“Whoever,-

(a) publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted material in any electronic

form which depicts children engaged in sexually explicit act or conduct or
(b) creates text or digital images, collects, seeks, browses, downloads, advertises, promotes,
exchanges or distributes material in any electronic form depicting children in obscene or
indecent or sexually explicit manner or
(c) cultivates, entices or induces children to online relationship with one or more children for
and on sexually explicit act or in a manner that may offend a reasonable adult on the
computer resource or
(d)facilitates abusing children online or
(e) records in any electronic form own abuse or that of others pertaining to sexually explicit
act with children shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either
description for a term which may extend to five years and with a fine which may extend to
ten lakh rupees and in the event of second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of
either description for a term which may extend to seven years and also with fine which may
extend to ten lakh rupees:

Provided that the provisions of section 67, section 67A and this section does not extend to
any book, pamphlet, paper, writing, drawing, painting, representation or figure in electronic
form-

(i) The publication of which is proved to be justified as being for the public good on the
ground that such book, pamphlet, paper writing, drawing, painting, representation or figure is
in the interest of science, literature, art or learning or other objects of general concern; or
(ii) which is kept or used for bonafide heritage or religious purposes”
Such laws ensure the action against the crime pertaining to trafficking through internet but
there lacks a preventive action in terms of active movement against such offenses.there is a
need for introducing laws that may regulate such activities which are non-traceable

CONCLUSION

Darknets have become a major menace and a breeding ground for unregulated anti-social
activities. Laws pertaining to this sort of ofcyber-crimes are extremely outdated, and in turn,
criminals on darknets have adapted. One of the biggest online drug markets, known as the
Silk Road, was only shutdown after 2 years of data collection by the FBI . Human trafficking
is only the tip of the iceberg of the crime on the deep web, with much more disturbing
markets for contract killers,human organs, child porn,drug sales, and etc. available. it may
seem the deep web, being an outlet for complete online anonymity, needs to be more highly
regulated by the government.

Agencies such as the CBI, RAW etc. and others with cyber divisions should not only increase
their capacities, but also work together seamlessly in monitoring and taking down these
darknets. This may involve heavy monitoring of TOR servers. While this would sacrifice the
complete anonymity of the Deep Web, it would reduce time for agencies to collect evidence.
All in all, when it comes to the extremely complicated task of shutting down illegal deep web
activity and global crime, the respected authorities need more power and resources are
required in order to do so effectively. Crime divisions need to adopt new policy and adapt to
the ever changing world of cyber-crime. Moreover, instead of the punishments more
preventive and regulatory guidelines are required so as to enable complete monitoring of such
sites.In conclusion the current laws to control the new means of human trafficking needs
more modernisation and this is only possible if the leakages are identified properly.