A Review of Bride Trafficking in India

Introduction

Human trafficking is a criminal practice where humans are used as commodities in exchange for economic gains. It is one of the most extensive forms of organized crime globally and is considered the most significant problem of the twenty-first century (UNODC, 2016). It is also one of the fastest-growing trades, generating huge profits every year. It is also sometimes referred to as the new form of slavery. Human trafficking is a broad term and has many causes. Trafficking for sexual exploitation is the most commonly known. However, it is also carried out for forced labour, for the practice of slavery, forced marriages and organ removal.

Human trafficking is defined globally as ‘the recruitment, transportation, transfer, accommodation or reception of people through threats, force, fraud, coercion, deception, payment or abuse of power or vulnerability for exploitation’ (Kim, 2010). Trafficking of human beings is the third largest criminal industry in the world only after the illegal trade of drug trafficking and weapons. According to some studies, it makes a profit of US$32 billion each year.

Around 21 million humans are into the trade of buying and selling worldwide for prostitution and forced labour services (ILO, 2012). A total of 80% of the victims of human trafficking are women, and 50% are minors (United State Department of State, 2003). Around 2 million minors are in the commercial sex trade in the world (UNICEF, 2005). This organized illegal activity affects almost every country of this world, either as a source or as a destination area of human trafficking (Sarkar, 2014).

Categories of Trafficking

The Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (UNODC, 2016) mentioned four broad categories of trafficking. This classification is based on the Assembly (2000), in which ‘the first category is trafficking in sexual exploitation, which includes the exploitation for the prostitution of others and similar situations. The second category includes trafficking in forced labour or services, slavery, and similar practices and servitude. The third category includes trafficking for the removal of organs, and the fourth and last category is trafficking for ‘other forms of exploitation’ (p. 26). The ‘other’ category is quite broad and includes all other forms of human trafficking that are not written in the ‘UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol’. However, they are recognized by legislation or jurisprudence in several countries of the world and reported to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) through the Global Report questionnaire.

The 2016 UNODC report listed different types of trafficking between 2012 and 2014. These included trafficking for the purpose of begging, for different types of exploitation—sexual exploitation and forced labour in domestic servitude. Human sacrifice, baby-selling/illegal adoption, removal of body parts and child soldiering are some other causes. Production of pornographic material and trafficking of pregnant women for the purpose of selling their babies are also widely prevalent.

Fake and forced marriages targeting adult women and minor girls are also a new type of human trafficking found in several countries such as the Mekong area, Cambodia, China, Myanmar and Vietnam. This form of trafficking involves the recruitment of young women or girls to be sold as wives, often abroad. As many as 15 countries of the world have reported this kind of trafficking between 2014 and 2016 and 1.4% of the total detected victims were trafficked for the purpose of false or forced marriages.

All South Asian countries experience inter- and cross-border trafficking. The primary recipient of humans trafficked in South Asia is India, and the largest sender is Nepal. Bangladesh and Thailand are two other significant source countries. Bride trafficking is a new form of human trafficking, which has a long history in India.

This phenomenon is prevalent in China and Korea (Jiang & Sánchez-Barricarte, 2013). Both countries have low sex ratio, and there is a lack of women available for marriage. This has led unmarried men to extreme measures to get a bride. While the Chinese are turning to kidnap, forced marriage and even returning to the old practice of raising a girl child for subsequent marriage into the family, ethnic Korean girls are imported from Northern China by unmarried Korean men (Kaur, 2004). In Pakistan, women are trafficked through kidnapping, deceiving by the false promise of marriage, forced marriages and prostitution (Hossain & Turner, 2001). They are trafficked internally and used for settling disputes or debts and for forced marriage, labour and sexual exploitation (Palriwala & Uberoi, 2005). Every year, thousands of girls are trafficked to India from Nepal, mainly for prostitution, agricultural work, construction work and forced marriage. This article focuses on bride trafficking in India within the larger context of human trafficking.

Understanding Bride Trafficking Within the Larger Context of Human Trafficking

The ‘Palermo Protocol’ of the UN, also known as ‘The protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons’ (Assembly, 2000), gave the most acceptable and broad definition of human trafficking. Article 3, paragraph (a) of this Protocol defined human trafficking as ‘Trafficking in Persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, using the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or a position of vulnerability or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs’ (p. 2).

Besides, the UN definition, trafficking is defined as a trade in something that should not be traded in for various social, economic or political reasons. Thus, the researchers use terms such as drug trafficking, arms trafficking and human trafficking to differentiate from the larger paradigm of trafficking. In fact, human trafficking is associated with the purpose of unequal treatment of women and children (Sen & Nair, 2006).

The incidents of trafficking of women and girls for marriage have been reported from time to time in the past, but, now, it has become more prevalent, organized and practised at a large scale. In South-eastern parts of Asia, it involves forced marriages in which the consent of victims is not taken. Trafficking of women for fake marriages was more prevalent in developed countries, but, nowadays, it is prevalent in developing countries like India and China. The women and girls are trafficked from their native areas by the false promise of marriage and jobs (Kara, 2011).

Human Trafficking in India

Many factors make India the ideal place for human trafficking. Some of these are illiteracy, poverty, political corruption, patriarchy and lack of awareness. According to ‘The Protection Project Report’ (2012), India is a country of source, transport and destination for human trafficking. Almost 90% of human trafficking in India is intra-national and targets national markets. Most internationally trafficked Indians are sold in the Middle Eastern countries for sex work, forced marriages and forced labour. Women and minor girls are trafficked to India from other countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan for prostitution. The brothels in India also receive victims from neighbouring counties such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Burma (Srivastava, 2010).

A study by Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) entitled ‘Trafficking in People at the Indo-Nepalese Border’ has estimated that since 2013, the number of trafficking victims illegally brought to India has increased by 500%. The girls are recruited from the Terai region and remote areas of Nepal and trafficked to India. They are sold to the brothels in metropolitan cities such as Mumbai, Calcutta and Delhi (Chauhan, 2018). Thousands of women and children are trafficked from India to the Gulf countries for sex work, labour and camel jockeys (ILO, 2006). Bonded labour and sexual exploitation constitute most of human trafficking in India, although organ removal, forced marriage, child soldiering and forced begging have also been identified (Sarkar, 2014).

Forced marriage through trafficking is known as bride trafficking. The girls from the different parts of the country are trafficked to Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh for forced marriages. Mewat, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Gurgaon, Hisar and Rewari districts of Haryana are major destination areas for women and minor girls trafficked from different parts of the country. A report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC, 2013) has blamed the skewed sex ratio in states like Haryana and Punjab for the trafficking of girls from several parts of the country in great numbers for forced marriages and agricultural labour. Many victims are trafficked several times. The situation looks like a marriage, but it has a specific purpose such as for labour work, for a male child and sexual exploitation. After the purpose is served, victims are sold to another person. The Mewat region, which is spread in three states, is the leading destination area of bride trafficking in India. Any woman or girl who is trafficked as a bride for the purpose of sexual exploitation, labour and domestic work is referred to as a victim of bride trafficking. Women are bought to Mewat through trafficking from states such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Hyderabad, West Bengal and the north-eastern states of India. These women are referred to as Paros (stolen) and Molki (purchased) (Rahman, 2013).The term paro is used in this study for those women who have been the victim of bride trafficking because it is the most popular term used for them.

Causes of Bride Trafficking and Problems Faced by Paros

An assessment report entitled ‘Current Situation of Victim Service Providers and Criminal Justice Actors in India Anti-Human Trafficking’ of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 2013, states that women and girls from north-eastern states are trafficked to Punjab, Haryana and some parts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan for marriage and agricultural work. This report also mentioned that bride trafficking is also prevalent in some parts of Madhya Pradesh and in the Kutch district of Gujarat. In Haryana, brides are trafficked in all districts; however, in the Mewat district, it occurs in large scale. The trafficking of girls from outside Haryana and Punjab is not a new phenomenon. According to scholars like Shams (1983), bride price existed as a custom in the Mewat area. However, bride trafficking only became prevalent post the 1970s. The largest numbers of cases of bride trafficking were reported in the Mewat district of Haryana.

In regions such as Haryana, Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, the terms Paro (stolen) and ‘Molki’ (purchased) are quite popular. People also call these women by derogatory words such as Jugad and Biharin (Rahman, 2009, 2013). The caste system and the gotra system in the northern states of India is strictly followed. Inter-caste and same gotra marriages are not permitted in Haryana, Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh. Even among Muslims of the Mewat region, caste system and gotra system are strictly followed and inter-caste and same gotra marriages are not allowed (Sikand, 1995). It is also one of the reasons for bride trafficking. If anyone does not find a bride in his caste, he gets married from outside his area with different caste women. Even, in some cases, from another religion.

If a person gets married to someone outside Haryana or Rajasthan, whatever caste the bride belongs to, no one opposes or objects to it (Chauhan, 2003). Haryana is a patriarchal state, and the caste and gotra system is strictly followed to maintain the social and cultural hierarchy. It is a society where the Khaap panchayats have a strong hold. These Khaap and caste panchayats pronounce caste-exiles and, in some cases, death sentences (popularly known as honour killing) to local lovers and inter-caste marrying couples. However, they do not object to bringing of girls from other castes, region, religion and social background through bride trafficking (Rahman, 2009).

It is very difficult for poor, widowed and elderly people to marry a local woman due to the shortage of marriageable women and girls. They buy a paro from outside by paying certain amount of money. For a widower, remarriage with local women is very difficult. Local people rarely marry their daughters with a widower. They can easily find a bachelor because of the low sex ratio of the area. Therefore, a paro becomes a good option for a widower. The price of a paro ranges from US$60 (₹4,000) to US$1,000 (₹70,000), depending on her sexuality, beauty, virginity and age (Raza, 2014). The large part of victims of bride trafficking belongs to the poor and backward areas of Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Hyderabad. Most of the victim’s families are very poor and need the money and, therefore, fall into the trap of traffickers (UNODC, 2013).

The legal age for marriage in India is 18 years for females and 21 years for males. Generally, the age difference between the groom and bride in India is 2–5 years, but in the case of paros, the groom’s age goes to double and triple. A large part of victims of bride trafficking are trafficked as minors. Most of the paros are the second, third and fourth wives that is why their marriage is not seen as respectable. They are treated as second-class citizens. In only a few cases, paros are the first wife, but still they do not get respect from society (Rahman, 2013).

The victims of bride trafficking are re-victimized several times in their lifetime, and with each passing day, they become more vulnerable and traumatized. Due to the lack of social support systems for them, these vulnerabilities have become permanent and a part of their lives. Rasidan (name changed) was kidnapped from Assam in 1995 when she was 12 years old and trafficked to Mewat, where she was sold to 10 different buyers in the past 24 years as a paro. The last buyer of the victim was a 68-year-old widower with eight children. The victim had four children of her own. She was rescued by an organization after villagers found her in a critical condition (Sharma, 2012). This is just one example to understand the seriousness of the problem.

The matter of concern is that the government, law enforcement agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are not sensitive to the alarmist nature of the problem prevailing in the many regions of the country. Empower People, Shakti Vahini and HAQ: Centre for Child Rights (2016; an NGO that is working on women-related issues) are some organizations that are working on the issue of human trafficking in this affected areas. The ‘Empower People’ works particularly on bride trafficking. Most NGOs see the trafficking of women and girls as an effect of decreasing sex ratio in the destination areas. It is a fact that the skewed sex ratio is one of the main reasons for bride trafficking, but the data refute this in the context of Rajasthan. For example, Bihar (918), one of the major source areas of bride trafficking has a lower sex ratio than Rajasthan (928), a destination area for bride trafficking. In fact, both states have a lower sex ratio than the national average (940), according to the census of 2011. The above-mentioned data indicate that there are several other factors for the trafficking of brides besides skewed sex ratio that are yet to be explored.

In 2012, Drishti Stree Adhyayan Prabodhan Kendra conducted a study on the ‘Impact of sex ratio on the pattern of marriages in Haryana’. Covering more than 10,000 homes, the study found that there were around 9,000 married who were bought and trafficked to Haryana from several parts of the country. This study was conducted in 92 villages of Mewat, Sirsa, Karnal, Mahendragarh and Sonepat districts of Haryana, and it also revealed that many people accepted that bride trafficking is a very common practice, but they denied having a paro in their family. This study shows that almost all districts in the state are affected by this phenomenon, and it has become an acceptable practice. The girls are trafficked on a large scale from different parts of the country and sold in Haryana.

Provisions in the India Constitution, the Indian Penal Code and Legislations to Tackle Human Trafficking

There is no specific law to deal with the issue of trafficking of brides, but there are several provisions in the Indian Constitution and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) through which this problem can be addressed. The Constitution and the laws of India expressly prohibit human trafficking. The Indian Constitution provides the right to equality, which is a fundamental right under Article-14 and guarantees equality for all citizens of the country. Article-15 prohibits any discrimination based on religion, sex, caste, race or place of birth. Any state, individual or institution cannot be discriminated against by sex. Victims of bride trafficking suffer several discriminations within society and by people. They have a stigma because they are the victim of bride trafficking (paro) and belong to a particular place. The Constitution gives all citizens the right to equality, but they do not enjoy equality at all. They face discrimination, injustice and violence at every stage of their lives. Article-23 prohibits human trafficking in any form and forced labour. This article clearly speaks of the prohibition of trafficking in persons in any form and forced labour or bonded labour, but the condition of bride trafficking victims in Haryana and Punjab is exactly the opposite. The victims are trafficked and used as labourer by the buyers, but no law enforcement authorities have helped these victims to escape from this inhuman situation.

For the protection of victims of trafficking, the IPC has some sections such as Section-366 (A), procreation of underage girls; Section-372, which sells minor girls for prostitution; Section-373, buying minor for prostitution; Section-366 (B), importation of minor girls from abroad and Section-376 (2) (G), committing gang rape. All these crimes are non-bailable and punishable up to life imprisonment according to the Indian laws. If any victim who is below 18 years of age is trafficked and rescued when she is 21 years old, then all sections of the IPC such as 166 (A), 172 and 173 are applicable. The Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act (SITA) 1956 was passed according to Article-35 of the Indian constitution to inhibit or abolish the immoral trafficking of women and girls. It was also as per the Trafficking Convention, which India signed on 9 May 1950. The main aims of this law were to protect trafficked women from exploitations, prevent the decline of public morals and end commercial sex work, which is prevalent in many parts of India (Sen & Nair, 2006).

In 1986, the SITA was amended and renamed as the ‘Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act’ (ITPA). The ITPA is a special legislation that deals exclusively with trafficking for prostitution and abolishes sex work as a mean of living. The law defines several terms such as child, brothel, prostitution and corrective institutions. Section-5 of ITPA (1986) even speaks of procuring, taking and even inducing a person for prostitution. According to this section, the attempts to acquire and to make or continue a person with prostitution also amount to trafficking (Gupta & Sinha, 2007). The definition of human trafficking in ITPA (1986) has limited scope as compared to the Palermo Protocol’s definition, and it deals only with trafficking in women for prostitution purposes. The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, defines the terms forced labour or bonded labour, bonded labour system and has provisions to starting appropriate action against perpetrators. It is one of the important laws that exclusively deals with bonded and forced labour. This law is very helpful to address the social evil of bonded labour, which is very common with victims of bride trafficking.

There is no law or legislation, which directly deals with the problem of bride trafficking because the government does not recognize bride trafficking as an independent form of trafficking. But UNODC (2013) report has recognized bride trafficking as a new type of human trafficking. Even the UNODC (2016) report placed the trafficking of women for marriage in the ‘other form’ of trafficking category. The ITPA Act, 1956, is the main act, which deals with the human trafficking issue in India, but the drawback of this Act is that it only deals with human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution. Also, the Act does not include the definition of UN’s Palermo protocol, which has a broad definition of human trafficking. The problem of bride trafficking can be addressed through some sections of IPC such as section-366 (A) and (B), 370, 372, 373 and 376 (NCRB, 2016).

The problem of bride trafficking can also be addressed through the Bonded Labour Act, 1976, and the Child Labour Act (Prohibition and Regulation), 1986, because many victims of trafficking are used as bonded labourers and forced to work in agricultural fields in Haryana, Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh. The prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, can be applied because several bride trafficking victims are minors. The reporting of human trafficking cases is very low across the world because most of the victims belong to very poor families and deprived areas and the secretive nature of the problem (Sindhu, 2015).

The conviction rate in the reported cases of human trafficking is near to negligible. In some cases, it found that police officials were also involved and helped traffickers. According to UNODC 2016, that covered 136 countries of the world, 40% of the countries reported 10 or less than 10 convictions each year from 2012 to 2014. About 15% of the136 countries covered did not record a single conviction for human trafficking per year during the 2012–2014 period, a share that has also remained stable.

In India, the rate of convictions in human trafficking cases continues to fall. Some states have no conviction in human trafficking cases. Authorities have persecuted 302 suspected traffickers in 2016 as compared to 481 in 2015. Only 3 traffickers were convicted in 2016 as compared to 4 in 2015 and 15 in 2014, according to a report by the US State Department. According to the data provided by the Telangana Crime Investigation Department, there are almost 1,134 cases of human trafficking in the past 4 years that have been registered in the state, and 1,081 traffickers arrested, and none of them have been convicted. Hyderabad is the centre of human trafficking networks in Telangana (Reddy, 2017). In spite of having strict laws to address human trafficking, the Indian government has not achieved its goal to curb human trafficking due to the strong network of traffickers and corruption in law enforcement agencies.

Conclusion

Human trafficking is a global phenomenon, millions of people are victims of human trafficking and thousands of people have become victims in the past years; most of them are women and children. Bride trafficking is one of the newest forms of human trafficking. In India, several states have already been affected by this phenomenon, and it has also spread to other states. Although trafficking for the purpose of commercial sex work has always been an area of concern for the government and civil society, there is an increase in cases of trafficking in women and children for forced labour, servitude, slavery and marriages.

Most of the literature considered skewed sex ratio as root causes of the problem and did not talk about various other factors such as cultural factors, poverty and dowry. It also did not explore several aspects of bride trafficking such as cultural acceptance of the practice, socio-economic status, health condition, narratives of paros, etc. Most of the studies on bride trafficking discuss the problem in terms of numbers and lacked an in-depth understanding of the problem. There is no official data on bride trafficking because the Indian government does not consider bride trafficking as an established phenomenon. That is why most studies do not consider bride trafficking as an independent phenomenon. Bride trafficking is looked at as an antisocial activity and a major social problem, but the state and central government do not pay much attention to it.

Every social problem emerges as a result of other social problems, and if these social problems are not addressed, the current problem will continue to persist and proliferate. Due to the lack of specific provision to address bride trafficking, there is an urgent need of a legislation that can deal with the bride trafficking exclusively. The government should consider bride trafficking an independent form of trafficking so that it can be addressed effectively.