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Giving a voice to the voiceless

Anywhere between 20 million and 65 million people are thought to be affected by human trafficking in India.

Activists protest in Bengal
India is a source, destination and transit country for men, women and children trafficked mainly for the purposes of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation [EPA]
Published On 18 Sep 2011
Woman at Indo-Burma border
Other purposes include forced marriages, domestic labour, bonded labour, agricultural labour, industrial labour, entertainment, begging, adoption, drug smuggling and organ peddling [EPA]
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Activate - India trafficking
About 20 million to 65 million individuals are estimated to be affected by human trafficking in India [EPA]
Activate - India trafficking
The majority of the world(***)s 10 million trafficked children are from India [EPA]
Sex workers day Calcutta
As much as 80 per cent of the victims of human trafficking are female and 50 per cent are children [EPA]
Protest for missing children
According to media reports, activists allege that more than 6,000 children disappeared from New Delhi, the Indian capital, in 2010 [EPA]
Security forces patrol Indo-Bangladesh border
Many workers leave homes in neighbouring countries, like Burma, Bangladesh and Nepal, hoping to escape poverty and improve their quality of life. India and Bangladesh share a 4,096km frontier that is regarded as one of the world(***)s most fluid borders [EPA]
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Coal worker in Jaintia hills
Many children and adults are smuggled to work in unsafe tunnels in thousands of privately owned and unregulated coal mines. Here they can earn as much as $150 per week, significantly higher than the national average of $15 per day [GALLO/GETTY]
Activist in red
According to some estimates, the annual turnover of human trafficking in India is around 20 billion rupees [EPA]
Rescued child traffic victim
Ela Sangma, a rescued child trafficking victim from Meghalaya state, tells her story. Men, women and children in debt bondage are forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture and embroidery factories [EPA]
Child trafficking protest New Delhi
Hundreds of parents and family members of missing children allege that traffickers are selling children in India for amounts that are often lower than the cost of animals. Most of them end up working as child labourers or commercial sex workers [EPA]
Indian sex workers perform
Sex worker families from the Sonagachi red-light district, the largest in Asia, participate with more than 1,000 sex workers(***) families in a one-day programme for HIV-intervention and against human trafficking [EPA]
Sex trafficking vigil Bangalore
In India, 87 local anti-trafficking units have been set up since last year, with the aim of increasing the number of convictions of people involved in human trafficking for forced labour [EPA]
Flesh trade poster Bangalore
The Indian government has introduced laws like the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956, The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, and many others, although perpetrators of human trafficking often escape punishment [EPA]
Street children and their families protest in Calcutta
In its 2011 report on human trafficking, the US upgraded India to Tier 2, suggesting the country has made steps to combat human trafficking [EPA]