HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND NGOS - WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SANLAAP

Abstract

It is a matter of bitter shame and sorrow and deep humiliation that a number of women have to sell their chastity for men’s lust. Man, the law giver, will have to play a dreadful penalty for the degradation he has imposed upon the so-called weaker sex. When women freed from man’s snares rises to her full height and rebels against man’s legislation and institution designed by him, her rebellion, no doubt, non-violent will be nevertheless effective.  

                                   - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi  

Trafficking is ‘… the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of person 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. Exploitation shall include, at the minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or service, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs’ (UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, 2000). This definition was adopted by the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, to which India is a signatory.  There are various types of trafficking – drug, arms and human.  

 In this paper the focus will be on human trafficking, particularly of women or girl child. The concept of human trafficking refers to the criminal practice of exploiting human beings (here women) by treating them like commodity for profit. Even after being trafficked victims are subjected to long term exploitation and their sorrows know no bounds. This paper will discuss the general features of trafficking and the laws related to it. It will also attempt to show the working of the NGOs in response to trafficking, its limitations, the possible remedies and the reasons to stop trafficking as it is increasing at an alarming rate. I have chosen to explore Sanlaap, a Kolkata-based NGO who has devoted themselves in the area of trafficking and have also tried to observe the way it functions.