The US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report has become an influential document globally, ranking countries according to their effort and success in tackling human trafficking, thus giving a useful snapshot each year. The promotion of India from the Tier 2 Watchlist in this year’s report, however, has come under fire.

The source of the criticism is Congressman Chris Smith who wrote the legislation, along with mechanisms for introducing sanctions against countries that were failing to tackle human trafficking, that established the report. He believes that the decision to upgrade India was politically motivated, and designed to avoid the 2008 decision to impose sanctions on any country that remained on the Watchlist for more than two years, in order to maintain good relations between India and USA.

Congressman Smith claimed that “India was upgraded to a Tier 2 country in this report despite the fact that it has one of the largest populations of enslaved labourers in the world, and has only prosecuted and convicted a small handful of labour traffickers”.

Smith, who co-chairs the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus, argued, “The most dangerous three words in that part of the world is, ‘It’s a girl’. If it’s a girl, she may be dead, or if she gets a little bit older, she may be exploited through trafficking”.

India’s record defended

Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, defended India’s record and subsequent upgrade in the TiP Report. He argued that India is showing greater resolve to tackle trafficking, including the issue of bonded labour.

Blake said, “The Government of India increased law enforcement efforts through the establishment of over 80 Anti-Human Trafficking Units, ratified the UN TiP Protocol, achieved landmark convictions against bonded-labour traffickers with punishments of significant prison sentences, and increased rescue and rehabilitation efforts of thousands of trafficking victims in many parts of India.”

He also cited other signs of progress including the move to appoint nodal officers to tackle child labour and bonded labour, the announcement of a new cell to focus government efforts on the elimination of bonded labour and the move to share the Mumbai anti-trafficking court model across India.

Blake concluded, “The Government of India and State governments have taken significant steps in their anti-TiP efforts, responding both to international attention to TiP issues and India’s own robust civil society that seeks social justice and reform”.

The scale of the problem

Luis CdeBaca, the US ambassador-at-large on human trafficking, also supported the upgrade but recognises that much more remains to be done: “Sex trafficking of women and children has not abated and may in fact be increasing in places such as India”, he said in the congressional hearing on the Report. He added, “Our findings continue to show that it is local populations, more than Western ‘sex tourists,’ that fuel the demand for sex trafficking and law enforcement needs to address both sectors for prevention to be truly successful. Widening gender gaps in … India are fuelling the demand for young girls as forced brides or for commercial sexual exploitation”.

Commenting on the debate, Joseph D’souza, International President of Dalit Freedom Network, said, “This exchange demonstrates the tension between the progress that is being made against trafficking in India and how much more needs to be done. We welcome the progress – there have been some significant steps forward – but would encourage authorities to ensure that existing strategies are put into action, and new strategies are developed. Our concern, as always, is that while people argue over rankings, yet more Dalits, who are the most vulnerable to exploitation, are being trafficked into brothels or trapped in bonded labour.”