HUMAN trafficking is a crime that strips the rights and life from innocent people. There are many different shapes and forms of human trafficking such as child labor or bonded labor. But the most common form of human trafficking is for sexual abuse and exploitation. Its victims are both adults and children who have been taken against their will to red light districts and enslaved in horrific conditions from which there is no escape or hope of being rescued.
National Human Trafficking Awareness Day is observed each January 11th to highlight the fact that this horrific crime exists and needs to be ended. Human trafficking crushes the lives of its victims and destroys families, communities and entire nations. But the reason traffickers continue their criminal activities is because the “buying” and “selling” of human beings for sexual exploitation is a “lucrative business” and traffickers have no regard for their victims as human beings.
Educate yourself
The first step toward fighting human trafficking is to learn what human trafficking is. Human trafficking is the abuse and exploitation of human beings for forced labor, forced servitude but most commonly for sexual exploitation. Traffickers use various methods to trap their victims such as luring them on social media or using methods such as kidnapping and abduction. Once these criminals snatch their victims, they are often transported across state lines where they are sold into red light districts and the process to enslave them in sexual servitude begins. The more you learn about human trafficking and its prevalence in India, you are better equipped to think about and implement practical ways that you can keep yourself and people around you safe from abuse and exploitation.
Use social media to spread awareness
To spread the message on all you have learned about human trafficking, social media is an effective tool. Whether you are sharing posts of other organizations to your followers or directly talking to your followers through Instagram Live or other features, you can use social media to write articles, create posts or make videos containing information that you think is important for your followers to know. Human trafficking is a crime that affects girls and women from all backgrounds and our heightened awareness can help to stop this crime in its tracks before it spreads. Being equipped with information is the first line of defence since it allows people to thwart the efforts of traffickers and adopt measures to keep themselves safe while online, in public places and when talking to strangers.
Be vigilant in your neighborhood
We can each take ownership when it comes to keeping ourselves and others around us safe. When we are equipped with knowledge about how to be safe and share it with others around us, our small suggestions and advice can make all the difference between life and death, in some cases. For example, you can write down emergency numbers such as the police helpline number and share it in your WhatsApp groups, store it on your friends’ phone numbers or even put it up on refrigerator doors of your friends and family members. You can also come up with a method to make sure that when heading out, everyone gets home safe and on time. This includes carpooling to make sure everyone has a ride home or making sure that no one travels home at night without someone to accompany them in a cab.
Push for stronger laws and law enforcement
India has a long history of great changes being brought about through the people’s demand for change. From the freedom struggle to the demand for safer workplaces for women, people have the ability – and the responsibility – to push for stricter laws and more efficient law enforcement. There are many ways that you can do this. If you see that there are gaps that are making it easier for criminals to operate, you can demand, for example, more streetlights, more CCTV coverage, an increased female police presence outside women’s educational institutions and more accountability when it comes to criminal prosecutions. Joining NGOs, civil society organizations or even adding your name to online petitions can go a long way toward creating change.
Support anti-trafficking NGOs
The most effective organizations fighting human trafficking are NGOs that address different aspects of ending trafficking such as prevention, rescue, rehabilitation or awareness. These NGOs are based across the country and are mostly situated in and around red light districts where traffickers “sell” people who have been abducted by criminal gangs. These NGOs conduct daring raids in brothels, rescue innocent trapped victims and rehabilitate them through education, nutrition, medical care and trauma counseling to help them recover and rebuild their lives. These organizations also hold sessions amongst the local public to inform people about the presence of traffickers and equip them with the tools to keep themselves and others around them safe from those who would seek to abuse and exploit them.
This National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, think about the ways that you can end this horrific crime in your own ways, which are sure to go far. When you support anti-trafficking organizations, you help these NGOs rescue more victims, rehabilitate them and help to shut down brothels and prosecute traffickers. Go through this list of organizations below and lend your support to end human trafficking in India.
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Shirley has been in the development sector for over 10 years and is passionate about making a change in the world around her, including adopting dogs and writing to make a difference.