Human Trafficking in Vulnerable Districts of India: National Report

A national research on human trafficking in the country was last conducted and commissioned by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) during 2002" 2004 (with Dr. P.M. Nair as the Principal Researcher), which made a yeoman contribution to understand the various facets of human trafficking in India and highlight the issue before the concerned authorities, civil society and media. It also led to a concerted attempt by the government at both the central and state levels to develop a plan of action and put into place monitoring mechanisms to implement the plans. Over a period of time, while combating human trafficking, the greatest challenge confronting policy makers was that information about the magnitude of the problem was limited. With no official, evidence-based estimates of the scale, magnitude and dimensions of human trafficking, the process of an appropriate policy response was not only delayed but at many times incomplete. There was wide agreement among experts that there is a need for more data in order to fight trafficking and to estimate its scale in particular at the national level. To address this issue, in 2014, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, under the guidance of NHRC began a research study at the national level to understand the dimensions of trafficking and the nature of the anti-trafficking initiatives. This research aimed to provide a clear understanding of the circumstances leading to human trafficking and ways of addressing the context to prevent trafficking, and developing policies, programmes and services to rescue and rehabilitate victims of trafficking and combat human trafficking. The goal was to develop a roadmap to reverse the processes of trafficking and to provide a comprehensive framework to provide adequate support to victims of trafficking to rebuild their lives outside the exploitative network.