NOT FOR SALE

Gitali Borpatra Gohain

MACJ

Buying and selling of children for sexual and non sexual purposes is very much expanding, involving gross human rights violations. India is fast becoming a transit point for the traffickers and this is a great cause of concern. Available information indicates that women and children are becoming more vulnerable to trafficking because of decreasing livelihood options. Often being unaware of their rights, economically and socially deprived populations, thus it has become easy prey for the traffickers. Migrating populations are also vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers. Due to the secret nature of trafficking, this system has not been systematically studied. There is a wide gap between the official data obtained from government sources and that given by NGOs. Often research methods are unclear.

In the human rights paradigm, gender and child rights are a basic component of human rights. Therefore a human rights orientation to trafficking must be responsive   and must focus on realizing human rights equally for children.

Therefore the main focus is on the violation of child rights that occur in the trafficking trade. Trafficking-the criminal practice of exploiting children who has not attained 18 years of age (purpose of this study) by treating them like commodities for profit. Even after being trafficked they are subjected to long term exploitation.  Traffickers of course are the most difficult to find.  The culprits are the traffickers about whom relatively little is known. Though there is a large amount of information available, the reality of the trafficking in children in India continues to remain hidden.