Globaleyes

Human Trafficking and Globalization: A Perspective from India

By Julie Chaudhuri

This is the first in a series of articles on economic globalization with an international perspective sponsored by the Peace Ministries Program of MCC Canada.

 

Life seems so very normal to me walking down the crowded streets of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). I barely notice the wild riot of colour and activity spilling out onto my path: tea vendors, cobblers, a fruit seller, and the barber, whose customers sit on an old battery while he snips away. There are also street children playing by the curb groups of men and boys bathing at the overflowing hydrant, and women cooking over coal fires on the sidewalk.

These scenes that assault the senses of first-time visitors leave me – born and raised in India – feeling nonchalant. But when I pause for a moment I feel a sense of discomfort. That’s because I know the underlying reality of these scenes – the exploitation of the poor and the ugliness that goes with it.

Desperation

Most street people (families and individuals who, without homes of brick or mud, have claimed a spot of sidewalk as their own private space) in Kolkata come from West Bengal’s neighbouring states or from Bangladesh, India’s next-door neighbour. They are often landless, displaced from their lands, or small farmers whose land does not produce enough food to sustain the family. They come in desperation, searching for a job that will keep their children fed.

Their impoverishment makes them the most vulnerable of all people. Not only are they victims of frequent street ‘cleanings’, which force them to find new sidewalk spots, but they are at risk of much greater exploitation – trafficking (being ‘sold’ to work as a sex worker or as a servant).

Migration to the city and trafficking in women and children are intrinsically linked, as the poor who move from place to place, desperate for any job, are the ready-made candidates for the traffickers. These serious problems are also linked to globalization.

Trafficking flourishes because of poverty. And poverty flourishes for many reasons, including non-sustainable farming practices promoted among farmers. But globalization has made matters worse for India’s poor.

Cost in quality of life

Globalization has tended to increase consumerism and urbanization at the cost of the rural (and better) quality of life. Corporate farming for commercial crops and the purchase of agricultural land by industries displacing more people has only exacerbated the problem, increasing the poverty and the number of people made poor.

Girl children are lured into cities with job offers or the promise of a good marriage arrangement, and they end up in prostitution. In my work with MCC, I was one day in the home of an elderly farmer, Tapan Das, and wife Ruma. He earned a meagre income from his half-acre of land. Pensively, he told how he had arranged to have his two daughters marry at an early age, thus saving on dowry (gifts and cash given to the groom and his family).

For the first daughter’s marriage, Mr. Das sold most of his land for the dowry, leaving no financial resources left for his second daughter’s marriage. So when a middleman with an offer of a dowry-less marriage – ostensibly offered by a good boy’s parents – approached Mr. Das, it seemed like a miracle. He quickly agreed to the marriage. Now, with tears in his eyes, he said he had no idea where she was.

A staff person from MCC’s partner organization, which worked in that village, told me later that Mr. Das’s second daughter had, in fact, been sold into prostitution. The organisation could not trace her, but they worked hard to make the community aware of the situation, and to make the villagers more wary about marriage offers such as this one.

Alarming Facts

Sadly, there are many stories like that told by Mr. Das. The facts are alarming!

• India has approximately 400,000 child prostitutes working every day
• Each day approximately 200 women and children are forced into prostitution as new recruits.
• Of children rescued from prostitution and other ‘trafficked’ labour, 60 percent test HIV positive.
• Most of the women and children who are trafficked in India come from India’s neighbours, Bangladesh and Nepal.
• Trafficking is a coercive and exploitative process that involves recruitment, movement, transportation, and the buying and selling of children and women to provide the buyer with cheap labour, prostitutes or beggars (who collect money from the public for the buyer).

What can one do?

The problems associated with globalization, and its links to migration and trafficking, are bigger than one person. But we keep asking, “What difference can I make?” We – you and I through organisations such as MCC India and its partner groups – can help village parents succeed in educating their children. We can help them talk together as villagers to determine their needs and strategize to improve their villages.

Perhaps they will choose to excavate village ponds for fish production and build water-harvesting structures; perhaps they will learn how to do organic farming or contour farming. Maybe the women will organize themselves to save money as a group and avoid having to use village moneylenders. Perhaps their active participation in village decision-making will result in women having a valued place in society.

As Christians, we believe that when we do our work in Jesus’ name, every interaction and assistance – financial and otherwise – is blessed. We need to step out and take a clear stand for what is right and fair in His name. And perhaps then only can we truly “free the captive.”

 

Juliana Chaudhuri staff with MCC India since 1992, works with local partners engaged in community development, HIV AIDS and peace. She has a Masters degree in social work, is married and attends Christ the King Church in Kolkata.

 

The perspectives included in Globaleyes do not necessarily reflect MCC opinion.