Introspection

Introspection is effective when it is shared! Hmmmm...it's just begun to get beautiful. ..there are moments unwinding, words dancing, hearts flaming and a love story being written yet again!

My Smile

The smile returned, I found it yesterday, and called it a day!

It spread across my face but, then faded today!

Buried under flakes of snow, it struggled to find its path,

Raising from the coast it has now tread north! :) 

Human Rights at the Border

Attempted a paper on Trafficking. Still amateur and need to improvise.... 

Focus Area-

Anti-trafficking measures to stop human trafficking among women and children in the rural areas, tribal belts and border areas of India for forced labour, domestic work or sex work.

Overview -

The paper ‘Human Rights at the Border’ proceeds to explain the current status and the action plan towards eliminating the negative aspects of human trafficking and re-inventing the migration process which includes recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring and/or receipt of a person. The paper will strive to trace loopholes and work against the means of human trafficking, i.e., threat or use of force, deception, abduction, the abuse of power or a position of vulnerability, or other forms of coercion. The intention is to bring to light the purpose of trafficking which can include cheap labour, prostitution, forced labour, domestic work, slavery or servitude and then eliminating it. Further, the paper intends to combat human trafficking by engaging the different stakeholders and strategies in the society by lobbying, advocacy, networking, policy action, among other initiatives.

The Issue of Human Trafficking –

Human Trafficking has emerged as a key challenge and risk across diverse industries and sectors including textiles, FMCG, mining & construction, hospitality and more. The different ways in which human trafficking manifests itself and dissects basic human rights is alarming and unimaginable. The push and pull factors existing at the place of origin/ source drives the desire of migration either voluntarily or by force. Trafficking is closely linked to forced migration or prostitution but trafficking also takes considerable magnitude for forced labour, especially domestic work. On the pretext of providing a job, placement agencies/ supply chains run huge network of trafficking girls. These young women who come from interior villages leave their parental security and get exposed to a metropolitan setting which is in contrast with their cultural roots. With this comes vulnerable situations and risks from many unforeseen dangers and because these girls by their very nature are non-judgmental, straightforward and unsuspecting, they become victims of physical, mental, and emotional abuse.

In India, the term trafficking is seen with the limited scope of trafficking in persons for immoral purposes. But in actual reality whatever manifestations trafficking would develop at a later stage initially the bait is the prospect of handsome earning profession as a domestic work. Innocent girls, young women and even to some extent men become victims of trafficking in the hope of getting employment as domestic workers. Even the police and government authorizes perceive trafficking as the phenomena that feeds the sex line of trade. In simple words, trafficking in persons for domestic work is not considered as trafficking at all. This in turn provides a loophole for the agents of trafficking to bypass the law. In fact there are no specific laws in place that ensure protection and justice to the victims of trafficking for domestic work. A special focus is impending towards trafficking for domestic work that is due to it. Therefore it takes all possible lobbying and advocacy efforts to raise a public alarm against the menace of trafficking in persons for domestic work.

The emergence of ‘Domestic Workers’ in co-relation to the issue of Human Trafficking -

Domestic work is one of the oldest professions in India, but unfortunately, it is looked down upon and regarded amongst the lowest status, least regulated and poorest remunerated occupations.

A lethargic outlook towards these domestic workers has also led to some employers putting their domestic workers through inhuman treatment. Many of these domestic workers especially the migrant workers become submissive and their self-esteem is destroyed. There are an estimated 90 million domestic workers in the country, according to the World Bank. These workers have no benefits of work contracts, social security, and security of employment, wage raises, paid leave or medical facilities. As a result of which, they are subjected to long hours of work, arduous menial labour and are under the exclusive control of and totally dependent on the employer and the family, which makes them very vulnerable to abuse (verbal, physical and sexual).

The Plight of Domestic Workers –

India, stands as a fertile source for Human Trafficking today! The plight of the women and children who migrate from tribal areas to metropolitan cities to become domestic workers is a major issue of concern. Domestic work in India is not at all recognized as a profession and disregarded as dignified work. In many instances, society has accepted domestic work as traditional and hence is not regularized. As a result of which, domestic workers are exploited and are being subjected to poor working conditions, less pay, no weekly offs or privilege leave and little or no benefits. Women and young girls from the rural villages, tribal belts and border areas are many a times victims of trafficking for forced labour primarily due to the adverse conditions of poverty and unavailability of employment options.

Nearly 90% of domestic workers in India are women or children (especially girls), ranging from ages 12 to 75 and it is estimated that 25% among them are below the age of 14. The majority of domestic workers are illiterate. Domestic workers are engaged in tasks such as cooking, washing, and cleaning, which are traditionally seen as women’s work and considered subservient in nature. In India, the stigma linked to domestic work is heightened by the caste system, since tasks such as cleaning and sweeping are associated with the people belonging to the ‘so-called’ low castes in the hierarchy of religion. Domestic workers are referred to as ‘servants’ and ‘maids’ which has resulted in their feelings of insecurity and inferiority. This has further added to the undignified status awarded to the services provided by them.

Domestic Workers are highly exploited and denied just wages and humane working conditions. They are paid well below the minimum wages for unskilled or semi-skilled workers. The working hours of Domestic Workers can vary from 8 to over 18 hours a day. Wages, leave facilities, medical benefits, and rest time are at the employer’s mercy. Domestic workers are also victims of suspicion. If anything is missing in the house, they are the first to be accused with threats, physical violence, police interrogation, conviction, and even dismissal.

A great number of live-in domestic workers are recruited from rural or tribal or border areas. They have to adapt to an alien environment, culture, and language. Many of them experience a tremendous sense of loneliness because of the solitary nature of the work. This loneliness is compounded by the fact that most have little or no time off and they are unable to communicate with distant friends and relatives. Often they are not allowed to use the telephone and are prohibited from socializing with friends and relatives who are living and working in the same city.

The paper will discuss the issue of human trafficking by tuning into certain broader areas of functioning.

1.       Gender Analysis and Government Interventions at the Border & Tribal belts –

Domestic workers are workers employed for household chores like cooking, cleaning (dusting, sweeping and mopping the house), washing (clothes and/or utensils), ironing, marketing, running errands, childcare, care of the aged, or disabled, etc. Most of these workers are young girls and women who are otherwise chosen for these jobs due to traditional views that the female gender is expected to carry out these functions in the Indian society, together with the belief that education is not important for them.

There is high risk of human trafficking especially among the children in domestic work. This too takes the gender impact as it is girls who are preferred to have a high profit margin in this shameless profession of human marketing.

The issue of child labour has been a continuing subject of fight and debate in the Indian society with many children below the age of 18 being brought from villages to work in large cities. The low economic status of impoverished rural families pushes them to take the drastic step of sending their children to live in urban households, where they can earn a living and with the hope that they will be looked after by the rich families as their ‘own’ children. On the other hand, allurement by city life, false starry promises of jobs and placement services, lack of proper understanding (total ignorance) about the placement agencies, lack of organized reliable and welfare oriented placement agencies serve as the pull factors. Whatever, may be the means, children suffer under the pretext of employment and go through unimaginable brutalities at a tender age when they are supposed to be going to school and playing.

Children in India suffer, in spite of the Child Labour Act 1986, which prohibited children from working in factories, mines and other hazardous occupations and the Child Labour Act 2006 where the ban was extended on employment of children below the age of 14 years in the areas of domestic help and in dhabas, restaurants, hotels, and the hospitality sectors. The trafficking of children for cheap labour is mushrooming day after day, where most of these children are from drought affected rural areas and from the families that are subjected to severe oppression and exploitation.  The children, who are trafficked for domestic work are treated as slaves in the apartments and bungalows of urban zones and are left with inhuman work load, torture, rape and sometimes even murder. After a period of time, these children even go ‘missing’ or many are found in jails on false theft charges.

There is a compelling urge in the development sector today for lobbying for the formulation of government laws and educate people to understand the adverse effects of human trafficking.

2.       Criminalization of irregular migration -

Women and Children in domestic work are invisible in society and imprisoned behind the closed doors of private household. There are numerous cases of abuse and exploitation of trafficked girls and women falling prey to harsh circumstances. The problem gains more magnitude because of the limitations in the existing legislations to deal with the issues. The Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act, 1956 talks only of trafficking for immoral purposes and not for forced or bonded labour. Similarly the Inter-state Migrant Workmen’s Act, 1979 does not protect the migrant or trafficked domestic workers. There is no specific law to protect trafficking in persons for domestic work. Further, the children and women are sometimes brought to the cities secretly and are at times inaccessible.

3.       Operational Understanding: Violation of Basic Human Rights and Movement of Resources–

Trafficking business is thriving like never before. In the capital city of Delhi alone there are several hundreds of agencies which market/sell domestic workers. It has been discovered that other domestic workers or close relatives often serve as agents of trafficking. This reveals the organized network of the entire racket. Once the girls arrive in the cities, their wages are typically locked or they go unpaid in order to pay the traffickers a fee for securing employment. Trafficking of domestic workers is largely invisible and both inter and intra country.

4.       Transparency and Accountability in Anti-Trafficking efforts –

Anti-trafficking activities in India have been going on in full swing to prevent the trafficking of especially children for domestic work. Rescue operations have been undertaken in coordination with the law enforcers, social organizations in the destination states were trafficking is rampant; Rehabilitation of the rescued has been facilitated with the help of other welfare cells, shelter homes that are being run by different organizations. Efforts are on to start several such interim/transit shelter homes for the benefit of the recued victims of trafficking, Repatriation of the children has been facilitated wherever possible form the destination to the source states as our network of work in several states helps in achieving the same. Tapping all possible opportunities to reintegrate the children who have been caught up in trafficking with the society and attempts are on to restore their lost childhood. Formations of Children’s Parliaments that would become a forum where their voices are heard are being formed.

Other initiatives to bring Transparency and Accountability include –

§  Formation of the Domestic Workers’ Welfare Boards in several states of India and registration of the Domestic Workers in the same.

§  Advocacy and lobbying in support of the ILO Convention 189 and the Recommendation 201 that have been a historic move of the larger international community in favour of the domestic workers especially to facilitate its ratification by the Indian authorities.

§  Fighting for Inclusion of the Domestic Workers in the Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill 2010 in which they had been left out of.

§  Reform Measures like changing employment with family permissions, or at the end of the employment contract.

§  Bridging Language Barriers

§  Fighting Employer Counterclaims

§  Undocumented Workers – left out in census

§  Accessing Limited Mobility of Domestic

§  Inspections at recruitment agencies, usually unannounced.

§  Mediation

§  Fast Prosecution of Abuses against Domestic Workers

5.       Human trafficking and migration prevention policies –

Strong linkage between source and destination states helps check trafficking. Media awareness programs, campaigns and consultations can bring an attitudinal change in source and destination areas about trafficking and forced migration and bring about a responsive action of stakeholders for prevention. Training and formation of Self Help Groups in target areas and the formation of village level committees to prevent trafficking can also prevent trafficking to a large extent. Also networking of NGOs, policy-makers, Government aided Organizations, police and welfare departments in source areas can facilitate rescue, rehabilitation and repatriation of trafficked victims.

6.       Links between Village Vigilant Committees/ Tribal Welfare Boards and trafficking –

Proper linkages ought to be set in place between the different stakeholders - the police, local governing bodies, legal mechanism, families, and community leaders. The recruiters from the villages of the victims are the biggest hindrance to the rehabilitation process. They prevent and restrain the victims from returning to their villages as their evil deeds would be revealed and they would be exposed. If they are exposed their exploitative and profiteering plans would be totally thwarted. The potential risk is for the trafficking agents for whom human trafficking is a lucrative business.

The participation of the village panchayats, comittees, village elders is the most crucial step to be taken with immediate effect. Local government and vigilant villagers play the most significant role to prevent uninformed migration and trafficking of the village youth, women, girls and children.

7.       Interceptions and push-backs, broker/agents' rights, and extraterritoriality -

Children and women from the villages and tribal belts of the North-Eastern and Central states of India are most vulnerable to trafficking for domestic work. The states that often serve as the source areas of trafficking are Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and North-Eastern states of Manipur, Assam, Nagaland, and Meghalaya. The major link that trafficking maintains is between the North-Eastern states to the major cities of India, Orissa to Goa and Chhattisgarh & Jharkhand to New Delhi & Mumbai.

The Push factors including Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy or ignorance often push these women into forced migration and submit them to easy exploitation by trafficking agents. The Pull factors of high buck jobs, star lit lifestyles, better standard of living pull the youth out of the villages. It is important to understand that migration is not bad, but forced migration and exploitation is a cause of worry.

Poor parents are betrayed and entangled in the prevailing socio-economic conditions in the villages, thus forcing them to send their children outside for better jobs, education or livelihood. However, if the children landed into the hands of traffickers, they are kept in illegal homes or in servitude along with depriving them from proper food, cloths, or forcing them into sex trade.

8.       Analysis of rights-based border-related programs –

Workshops and sessions are organised to help the children and women to dream of a better future, and to empower and motivate them to achieve their dreams. The children are educated on children’s parliament, their rights as well as responsibilities and trained to be catalysts of change. Awareness programs are organised to educate civil society on the rights of children. Rescue operations, rehabilitation, and repatriation and re-integration along with smooth functioning of transit homes further build the movement stronger in their vision. The need of the hour is to actively synergize the efforts in the different states and regions in building up the movement for domestic workers and their basic rights. Right from keeping constant pressure on the government, appealing for the rights for women and child domestic workers and representing domestic workers at public forums, there has to be an unstoppable quest to curb this menace in the society.

9.       The Effect of ‘National Social Security Measures’ -

Today, the women in rural India have joined hands in solidarity with other unorganized workers to voice out the demand for social security. Organized groups of women have also proved to be beneficial in receiving social and welfare schemes from the government. Initiatives to make livelihood at the source points more lucrative and perky can do the trick of abolishing the trade of humans and curbing the brutality associated with it. Just to list some such steps put into motion in India to elevate the position of domestic workers and curb human trafficking include -

§  Livelihood Opportunities - Skills/vocational training like embroidery, tailoring, handicraft, karate, gardening, cooking etc

§  Bridging Schools or Non-formal education - bridge education is provided to children in order to have them integrated into mainstream education.

§  Transit/ Shelter homes for rescued children and women

§  Launch of programs and welfare schemes from the central and state governments

§  NGO’s aiding domestic workers in obtaining ration cards—BPL/APL through the networks of Rationing Kriti Samithi.

§  Adoption of International Standards & Public Policy addressed to Human Trafficking & Supply Chains from time to time for better standing in the society.

§  Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana - Smart card based cashless health insurance to domestic workers.

§  Launch of NREGA, Swadhar Schemes and other employment schemes.

§  Self Help Groups: Women are supported to form Self Help Groups, which is a strong tool for

Human development and working in teams. In addition, women are encouraged to save.

The savings accounts from these groups help them take loans for small-scale entrepreneurial

work, like vegetable selling, etc.

§  Issue based street plays on “Social Protection against Human Trafficking and Child Labour”

§  Initiatives to including  domestic workers under the Minimum Wages Act

§  Steps to include domestic workers in the Unorganized Sector of Workers. This would enable them in solidarity with other workers of the sector to fight for the Unorganized Workers’ Social Security Bill, which will provide for government welfare schemes and social security.

CONCLUSION:

The perils of human trafficking have to end. The fight to STOP this illicit trade which takes its toll on the lives of many innocent children and women covers Anti-trafficking measures which ought to be more organized to challenge the organized and dangerous shape that trafficking is taking. The people of tribal origin and those from rural & border areas ought to be made aware of how to escape and foresee the harsh realities of trafficking. Also very importantly it needs to be ensured that tangible progress be gained in the direction of the formulation of strong legislations that would protect the rights of those caught up in trafficking especially for domestic work. These ought to be implemented well and put in place and ensure that none of the offenders is able to bypass the law and escape legal action.

The movement with the domestic workers has been steadily gaining momentum in India and all across the globe. The fight magnifies on the common ground - “Domestic work is work! Domestic work is not slavery! Domestic workers are, like other workers, entitled to wage rights and decent working conditions!”

Crushed

The rustle sound of dry leaves being crushed under the shade of a tree,

The brittle way of breaking old fences in the pretext of bridge-building,

Life does plot against you,

It tis you to smiles,

It rips you of cries.

The memoirs of a broken dream

The memoirs of a broken dream, shattered and battered,

No one heard it break; No one heard it clutter…..    

                      

It tore to patches; worn and mourned,

It languished, scorned; but, lay trapped in vain…..

For a heart which painted in ave, a life of gail,

It dreamt of touching the clouds of gleam…..

The memoirs of a broken dream come to haunt me,

As stars adorn the nights and moon rules the sky…..

When dawn breaks, drifting the clouds apart, and

When rain falls drawing the clouds nearer……..