After seven consecutive years on the ‘Tier 2 Watch List’, the annual Trafficking in Persons (TiP) Report has taken note of India’s progress in tackling human trafficking and removed it from the list of countries causing major concern.

The Report grades countries into three categories, with Tier 3 the worst status. Countries on Tier 2 Watch List are in danger of dropping into Tier 3 unless they make significant progress on addressing human trafficking. This will come as some encouragement to the Indian government as it has made efforts to improve police training, set up specialist anti-trafficking units, and has finally ratified the United Nations Protocol on Human Trafficking this year.

The TiP Report is issued by the US Department of State and has become an international benchmark of anti-trafficking measures. The Report assesses countries against the minimum standards of the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which is roughly equivalent to the UN Protocol. Countries on Tier 1 have met these minimum standards. Although yesterday’s announcement (27-6-2011) will please the Indian government, the Report makes clear that there is still much to be done: ‘The Government of India does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so’.

Bonded labour still a major cause for concern

The Indian Government’s ‘Comprehensive Scheme for Strengthening Law Enforcement Response in India’ was specifically highlighted in the report, as was an improvement in the rescue and rehabilitation of bonded labourers. The Report noted, ‘Overall law enforcement efforts against bonded labour, however, remained inadequate, and the complicity of public officials in human trafficking remained a serious problem, which impeded progress.’

Looking ahead, the Report made a wide range of recommendations, including:

• Strengthening central and state government law enforcement capacity to fight against all forms of human trafficking;
• Working towards ensuring that national legislation prohibits and punishes all forms of human trafficking;
• Encouraging states to establish specialist courts to deal with sex trafficking similar to the one in Mumbai;
• Improving protections for trafficking victims who testify against their traffickers;
• Taking more effective action against bonded labour through encouraging and empowering the newly established Anti-Human Trafficking Units to address labour trafficking, filing cases under the appropriate laws and increasing public awareness of bonded labour;

The specialist court in Mumbai which deals with Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act cases, came in for special praise. Magistrate Swati Chauhan, who presides at the court, was named as one of the ‘TiP Heroes of 2011’ for clearing hundreds of backlogged trafficking cases, issuing rehabilitation orders for 1,200 rescued women and girls, and ensuring that sex-trafficking victims were not prosecuted. 164 convictions were secured at the court in 2010, a high percentage of all India’s successful cases.

Announcing the report, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton noted that more than 120 countries have enacted anti-trafficking laws in the wake of the UN Protocol. She called for a ‘Decade of Delivery’, encouraging countries around the world to act, by delivering on the promise of the last ten years with the rise of the modern abolitionist movement.

Dalit Trafficking

Dalit Freedom Network UK is urging the Indian government to deliver on the promises of recent progress, so that, for example, the police training and new anti-trafficking units begin producing results on a scale necessary to make a significant dent in India’s modern slavery.

DFN UK also urges the compilers of the Trafficking in Person Report to specifically highlight the plight of Dalits and Tribals (who fall below India’s caste system) as the main victims of trafficking and slavery. The Report states that those most vulnerable to bonded labour and sex trafficking are from ‘India’s most disadvantaged social economic strata including the lowest castes’, but it does not acknowledge the toll taken on India’s outcastes. We believe that this step will draw much needed attention on the burden of trafficking that Dalits in particular have borne.

Download the 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report here.