India stands as the largest democracy around the globe populated by 1.3 billion people. This democracy has outlawed human trafficking constitutionally and has manifested the fundamental right of being free from exploitation for every person. On the 9th day of January 1953, India had endorsed to the trafficking convention and was prompted to the “Convention for the suppression of the traffic in persons and exploitation of the prostitution of others” of 1949. This convention was established with the view to bring awareness for proclamation that human trafficking and prostitution is not a dignified act for the worth of humanity.
Later, India implemented that treaty into its domestic legal system via the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act (SITA) 1956.Afterwards, this Act was amended and came to be known as Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) 1986. It is extensively reported about thousands of females in India being trafficked per year with the intention of commercial sexual exploitation and are forcibly kept as slaves. These victims predominantly belong from the peripheral sections of highly discriminated groups of cast or tribal and those who are deprived socio-economically. They include girls of tender age from 10-14 yrs or even less and people who are tricked and captured from the neighboring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. India’s alliance to international human rights treaties and its own domestic laws have been hampered with the increased number of these sufferers living in brothels.
Servitude which is a state in which one person is enslaved by another more powerful person has been consistently practiced on these women who have been persistently bought and sold as slaves. They are forced to undergo such heinous and brutal practices that include ongoing physical and mental violence by their perpetrators.
According to human rights watch and non- governmental organizations, the trade and traffic of women in the brothels in India is done by incarcerating them inhumanly and kept captive in working conditions where they endure sexual malfeasance by the brothel owners, traffickers, police and pimps. As per the reports, these sufferers are controlled by the brothel owners who tyrannize them if these captives refuse to do so against their will. Innumerable enslaved females are wrecked with various diseases including sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) as these detainees cannot refuse to have sexual intercourse with customers who they are well aware of,aware of, suffering from chronic infectious diseases including HIV (+ve) and AIDS. Also, they are supplied with inadequate quantity of food and negligible amount of medicines.
As per the reports these women were usually given only one meal at a brothel and were forced to toil from 8am until 2am the next day. They were ordered to rely on extra tips earned from the customers for their other survival needs including food. These features represent how horrendously they were condemned to slavery, where their lives are controlled by brothel owners. These women who are trafficked from various part of the world and exploited as prostitute are victims of “Right to be free of slavery and servitude “. Although most parts of the world nurture the essential human rights but these women could not be absconded from the cruel traffickers and neither could these rights be provided to them.
Prostitution is a victimizing tradition prevailing since the age old days in India. From the period of middle ages in India, women have been discriminated as sex workers and were called as ‘devdasi’, ‘tawaifs’, ‘apsara’ etc. The significant reason behind this family occupation practice was the poor condition of the families and their urge to recover from debt. In various part of India prostitution is considered as a tradition, after the adolescent girls hits her puberty she is under taken into a ritual ‘Nathi utarna'(to take out the nose ring) or ‘sar dhakwana’ (covering the head). These rituals symbolized a girl stepping into her womanhood and commenced her into the life of being a commercial sex worker.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.
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