Child Trafficking on the Rise in India

India plays as the source, destination and transit country for child selling trade. Majority of this illegal trade happens within India, also in Nepal and Bangladesh. There is no set number of national estimates of the trafficked children every year. Yet 40 percent of children are pushed into prostitution and demand continues for young girls in this trade.

Some numbers are proposed by NGOs estimating the number of women and children trafficked into to the country from neighboring states for prostitution. Around 12,000 to 50,000 girls are smuggled each year, many are from Nepal and Bangladesh. Nepalese girls aged 16 are used for prostitution in India. Around 1,000 to 1,500 Indian children are illegally transported to Saudi Arabia to beg during Hajj. In India Karnataka, Andara Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal show the maximum number of humans trafficked. Intra state or inter district trafficking occurs in high rate in Rajasthan, Assam, Meghalaya, Bihar, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. The major receiving states are Delhi and Goa. High number of trafficking happens from north eastern states in India but is never given proper attention. 529 girls were trafficked in 2008 only from Assam.

There rising demand in urban areas for live-in maids has spiked the smuggling. As a result girls from villages in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh are made to live in extremely poor conditions. First they are kept in placement agencies, then in the employer’s home. The placement agent put these girls in a small, unkempt, completely packed room.