Destiny Foundation tackles Human Trafficking in India

Did you know that between 20 and 65 million people are victims of slavery in India? Human trafficking is a real issue and represents one of the main concerns of the most populated democracy. Although this practice is considered illegal under the Indian law, human rights violations are legion, especially among women and girls. Let's take a look at this predominant problem.

Modern-day-Slavery

Trafficking human beings means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person by means of force, coercion, deception or other means, for the purpose of exploitation. This crime can take several forms of exploitation of human beings such as prostitution, slavery, forced labour, organ trafficking or sexual trafficking. Trafficking in human beings is a global problem. In India, the observation is irrefutable. The country faces very high levels of poverty, especially in Calcutta. This metropolis of 14 million inhabitants in West Bengal is marked by the existence of huge slums. There, women are forced to work illegally due to the lack of economic opportunities. A total of nearly 200,000 women and children were forced into prostitution in 2016. Some families are forced to sell their own children. Indeed, 65,000 children under the age of 16 are exploited every year. India is suffering from widespread poverty, lack of education and the number of victims is constantly increasing over the years, making the phenomenon virtually uncontrollable by authorities. Human trafficking, an unstoppable problem?

Photo of an Indian girl

The intervention of the Destiny Foundation

Although human trafficking is a challenge recognized by the United Nations, very few solutions are offered by the Indian Government. Indeed, from a penal point of view, the Ministry of Labour only provides a sentence of 7 years imprisonment under the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA). The Government also offers women the possibility of living in shelters, where they can live, study until the age of 18 and have access to first aid. Beyond that medical, psychological protection and reintegration services are provided. Therefore, it is very complicated for a slavery survivor to consider a "new life" without access to such support. There is a constant risk that she may return to the shantytowns at any time with the only way out being an illegal worker in order to make a living. How can these victims be provided for without recourse to the Government? Non-Governmental Organisations such as the Destiny Foundation intervene at this particular moment. Destiny is a social enterprise that works with vulnerable women who are victims of sexual trafficking or who are at high risk of exploitation. Its main objective is to strengthen its beneficiaries emotionally, socially and financially, in order to reintegrate them into society. By providing shelter, education and employment to these women, Destiny Foundation fights to promise them a better future.

⚠️ Moreover, Destiny Foundation is organizing a crowdfunding campaign for the purchase of a computer and the recruitment of a digital trainer in order to develop its activities and allow these women to acquire computer skills that will integrate them into the professional world! You can participate in this project by clicking on the following link: https://www.kisskissbankbank.com/en/projects/destiny-foundation