US cautions India of human trafficking

June 13: For the fourth consecutive year in a row India has been placed on a ‘Tier 2 watch list’ by an annual U.S. state department report on human trafficking. The report was released on Tuesday, by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, which revealed that India is failing to confront successfully with this ‘modern-day slavery’.

The report on human trafficking cites merciless human exploitation within a state. The reprimand follows a fierce debate within the administration to downgrade India to the lowest Tier 3 category, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stood against it for improving ties in other spheres.

“Tier 2 Watch list should be a warning. Unfortunately, too many major countries on Tier 2 Watch List have ignored this warning, year after year," Mark P. Lagon, Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, said on Tuesday. Along with India, China, Russia, Mexico, and South Africa also fall in this category of 31 countries.

"Tier 2 Watch list is not supposed to become a parking lot for governments lacking will or interest to stop exploitation and enslavement on their soil. We stand ready to cooperate with these nations and support any efforts they make to end this travesty within their borders," he added.

Mr. Lagon went on to say that the US, needs to "engage in a very serious dialogue with India" on the South Asian nation's trafficking problem, since the countries are "two serious democracies" with a ‘developing alliance’ in areas ranging from counter-terrorism to civilian nuclear cooperation.

"You know, the United States is not only in a position to point fingers. We need to say we had our legacy of slavery, we had our legacy of segregation, we had our legacy of discrimination," he said explaining why India had not been downgraded despite its poor record.

However the latest report noted that New Delhi passed a law in October 2006 banning the employment of children in domestic work and the hospitality industry. It also pointed out the decision by Supreme Court in July 2006 that the Maharashtra government could proceed with its plan to seal brothels under the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act.

"Serious democracies have evolved, but we need to ramp up that effort. With a serious sense on the part of the Indian government that, you know, reassessment is a distinct possibility," Lagon said.

While alleging that the Government of India ‘does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking’, the report acknowledged that ‘it is making significant efforts to do so’.

The report also named Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi as one of the ‘Heroes’ in the movement against human exploitation.

The report credited Satyarthi for free more than 75,000 children by working relentlessly to rehabilitate them with vocational training and education and tilted the force of public opinion against child labor.

The report also recalled the services of Vipula Kadri, the founder and National Director of Save the Children India, an organization charged with preventing the abuse and exploitation of children. It is credited for bringing together representatives from government, law enforcement, civil society, Bollywood celebrities, media, and private industry to raise awareness about trafficking of women and girls into commercial sexual exploitation in India.

The report, mandated by the US Congress, places 24 countries in "Tier 1" - those doing the best job of controlling human trafficking, 75 others including Pakistan and Thailand in an intermediate Tier 2 and 16 countries in the bottom Tier 3.