Vulnerability, Forced Migration and Trafficking in Children and Women

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vol xlIX nos 26 & 27

EPW

Economic & Political Weekly Supplement

REVIEW OF RURAL AFFAIRS

Vulnerability, Forced Migration and Trafficking in Children and Women A Field View from the Plantation Industry in West Bengal Biswajit Ghosh

Since economic globalisation, the plantation industry in West Bengal has witnessed extensive sickness and closure. The brunt of this is borne by workers and their families belonging to marginalised tribal communities. This gives space to organised crime to lure a large number of women and children to distant places on the pretext of providing them with jobs, which almost invariably leads to exploitation at a later stage. The findings of this study, done in 12 sick and closed tea gardens in Jalpaiguri district, demonstrate the close link between vulnerabilities, migration, and trafficking in children and women. It also suggests there have been changes in the nature of human trafficking in the country, calling for a new policy perspective on the issue.

T

he problem of human trafficking, particularly trafficking in children and women, has emerged as an important social issue in recent times in many parts of the world. It is widely recognised that many countries in Asia serve as places of origin, transit and destination of human trafficking, and that there has been a steady rise in the last two decades, following increased transborder mobility of people. In contrast to this popular perception, data provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show a steady decline in the number of cases under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA) in the last few years. The same agency, however, notes a steady rise in the number of cases under Sections 366A (procuration of minor girl) and 372 (selling of girl for prostitution) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).1 It may be argued that trafficking for the sex industry is now being largely replaced by trafficking for the domestic and commercial sectors of the Indian urban economy. In a context when there is enormous international pressure to combat sex trafficking, human trafficking in the guise of labour migration now appears to be a safe route for those who survive on this crime. The possibility for this looms large in West Bengal, a state that shares boundaries with the north-eastern states and Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and Sikkim. It also shares international boundaries with Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The state’s geographical location as well as its demographic and social constraints makes it vulnerable to trafficking (Ghosh 2009: 728). A study conducted by the UNICEF and the Government of West Bengal identified certain districts in the state as being “endemic” to child trafficking (Ghosh 2007: 55). It is in this context that an attempt is made here to study the issue of child trafficking in 12 sick and closed tea gardens in Jalpaiguri. Research Location and Methodology

This study was sponsored by Save the Children and UNICEF in 2011. I am grateful to them and the volunteers of two peer teams, Rural Aid and Life Line Foundation, for cooperation and help in conducting the research. Amit Hazra of Visva-Bharati University helped in analysing participatory rural appraisal data. I greatly appreciate the comments of an anonymous referee on an earlier version of this paper. Biswajit Ghosh ([email protected]) is with the University of Burdwan, West Bengal.

Research was carried out during May to July 2011 to assess the extent of marginalisation of workers and the vulnerabilities of children and women. Table 1 (p 59) shows the names, location and status of these gardens. They were selected after discussions with members of research teams and experts, and finalised on the basis of accessibility and initial status reports after field visits. As the objective of the research was to collect qualitative data about the nature, extent and dimensions of the different


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3,000 workers of abandoned tea gardens in north Bengal have succumbed to starvation between 2002 and 2006. Studies also show that 70% of the people in closed tea gardens are in an advanced stage of chronic energy deficiency (Biswas et al 2005). A survey conducted in the closed gardens revealed that welfare schemes, the public distribution system, and basic amenities such as safe drinking water, healthcare, primary education, and electricity were practically non-existent (Chaudhury et al 2007). The condition of workers in the so-called “good” tea gardens is no different as the poverty regime is ubiquitous under a low-wage system. Consequently, the strength of the permanent workforce in tea gardens has declined in Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts, though Industry Challenges and Vulnerability there has been an increase in the number of casual workers North Bengal has about 450 tea gardens spread out over the (Roy 2009a). Issues related to unfair wages and non-fulfilment of statuDarjeeling hills and the Dooars-Terai region. A large number of tea gardens in Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts produce tory benefits are matters of great concern in the plantation industry (NTUI 2011). It has been Table 1: Names, Location, and Status of Tea Gardens Studied claimed that employment condiName of Tea Gardens Location Status as on 31 July 2011 Date of Closure Date of Reopening tions in the tea industry in West Indong tea garden Matelli Sick 23 November 2007 8 January 2008 Bengal are highly exploitative as Grassmore tea garden Nagrakata Sick Closed for three days in August 2003 Not applicable the wages of workers in the state Red Bank tea estate Dhupguri Sick Abandoned in March 2003 13 Mar 2011 and Assam are the lowest among Chulsa tea garden Matelli Good Not applicable Not applicable all tea-growing states in the counNayasaili tea garden Nagrakata Sick Not applicable Not applicable try (Bhowmik 1981). To compenSamsing tea estate Matelli Sick 23 September 2005 17 August 2009 Bharnobari tea garden Kalchini Sick 30 December 2005 28 April 2008 sate for low wages, employers are Dheklapara tea estate Madarihat Closed 22 August 2002 Not applicable supposed to ensure non-cash proRadharani tea estate Kalchini Sick 18 March 2009 23 March 2011 visions such as (a) subsidised Rahimabad tea garden Kumargram Sick 17 April 2002 4 May 2004 rations for wife and two dependRaimatang tea estate Kalchini Sick 28 January 2005 13 Aug 2010 ent children; (b) two and half Satali tea garden Kalchini Good Not applicable Not applicable piles of firewood for each permaSource: Field study, July 2011. nent worker per year; and the famous Dooars tea, and Jalpaiguri itself has nearly 150 tea (c) pucca or non-pucca houses. Additionally, a worker is entigardens. The economy of the district is centred on the tea in- tled to free medical care, safe drinking water, electricity, dustry. But, following the economic liberalisation of the 1990s, transport, support for children’s education, crèches, house the tea industry in the region has witnessed major crises. Jal- repairs, and so on, according to the Plantations Labour Act paiguri gardens producing average tea could not compete with of 1951. The major point to be noted here is that even though the cheap exports from Sri Lanka and Kenya. Along with this external reason, there were many internal factors as well. minimum daily wage is paid to all workers in “running” tea Most of the gardens that became sick and closed after 2001 gardens, the owners mostly do not provide non-cash benefits had seen production fall, with ageing tea bushes yielding less or do so only occasionally. The problem becomes acute when a garden closes and stops providing whatever employment it tea and of inferior quality. According to an estimate, more than 50 gardens closed be- does. The vulnerability of children is more if their parents are tween 2000 and 2007, affecting a huge section of the work- alcoholic, the family is large, if someone is very sick, or if the force (New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI 2011)). Despite several family has only one earner. Along with economic hardship, there are several other isattempts by the central and state governments, owners have continued to abandon tea gardens. They leave behind huge un- sues facing children. The educational infrastructure in the paid salary/wage bills, and provident fund and gratuity claims gardens is very poor. Thus, five out of the 12 gardens studied due mainly to the tribal workers. A few such gardens are run by had secondary schools, while only two had higher secondary operative management committees (OMCs) as a stop-gap schools. Given the economic conditions of workers’ families, arrangement. The closure of tea gardens has led to many starvation deaths in the past (Chaudhury 2011; Chaudhury et EPW is grateful to the external advisory group for help in putting al 2007; Gupta 2008), and it continues to do so now (The Times together this issue of the Review of Rural Affairs. The members of of India 2011; Bhattacharyya 2013; Yengkhom 2013; the group are Ramesh Chand, Surinder Jodhka, D Narasimha Reddy Chakraborty 2013). It has been estimated by the Centre for Deand P S Vijayshankar. velopment and Human Rights (2006: 26) that more than types of vulnerabilities of children in particular, research tools such as in-depth key informants’ interviews, participatory rural appraisals (PRAs), focus group discussions (FGDs), and case studies were used to collect data. A total of 36 PRAs were conducted, involving 310 participants (schoolgirls constituted 80% of them). For the FDGs, four groups of stakeholders – fathers, mothers, elders and children – were selected from each tea garden to debate and discuss critical and sensitive issues such as trafficking. Case studies of trafficked victims were also collected, from victims, their family members, neighbours, schoolteachers, friends and others. The total number of formal informants in this study was 874.

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the distance to schools and cost of transportation appear to be very difficult barriers for children to overcome. In addition, the non-availability of health facilities is a prime issue among stakeholders. For an estimated population of 70,000, there were only two doctors in an equal number of gardens in 2011. Only four gardens had ambulances to take seriously ill patients to hospital. There are serious complains about the quality of health services provided, including the medicines given. Considering that tea garden workers are exposed to several occupational diseases such as tuberculosis and that they are far away from government hospitals, the absence of proper medical facilities, including qualified doctors, is a matter of major concern to workers and their family members. It is obvious that if basic and life-supporting facilities are not available in the tea gardens, other facilities like crèches, proper sanitation, or conservancy will be non-existent. Among others, the most contentious issue for stakeholders is the absence of safe drinking water and electricity. Parents and children cutting across labour lines complain about the insufficient and poor quality of drinking water provided to them by company managements. Similarly, electricity is available only to the workers in a few gardens. Even those few consumers have to pay a huge monthly bill from their wages as individual metres are not provided. The overall impact of such destitution is clearly visible. A cursory visit to any tea garden reveals that along with hunger, poverty, and unemployment, problems such as illiteracy, malnutrition, and diseases are rampant. Evidently, the “enclave economy” of Jalpaiguri tea gardens provides very few alternatives to unskilled and semi-literate boys and girls. Such vulnerability exposes them to the well-built networks of trafficking agents working openly as “placement agents” in and outside gardens. One stumbles across countless stories of brutal exploitation of migrant and missing children, including rape and death, by unscrupulous agents and employers in faroff places. Surveys conducted in the tea gardens earlier (Talwar et al 2005; Dacholia et al 2006) reveal a very grim picture of child and women trafficking, particularly from sick and closed tea gardens. Parents and members of the community are, however, yet to launch a powerful protest movement over the issue. This has allowed traffickers to strengthen their networks across different gardens and localities, thereby making north Bengal a major source and transit zone for human trafficking in the region (Ghosh 2012). The issue is yet to draw the attention of the authorities despite the media frequently reporting on it. (a) Forced Migration and Trafficking Magnitude of Migrating and Missing Children: Economic hardship, social exclusion, the absence of life-supporting facilities, the dearth of alternative employment opportunities, and geographical isolation have collectively created an atmosphere of dread in the plantation industry. One direct consequence of this is the large-scale exodus of adolescents to faraway destinations, often with the knowledge and support of their parents. Interestingly, such migration/emigration is neither illegal nor does it

result in trafficking in all cases. But it also obscures trafficking, making it difficult for anyone to provide a realistic estimate. PRA participants in this study (Table 2) said that nearly Table 2: Children Migrating and Children Missing by Sex from 12 Tea Gardens in 2010, Perception of PRA Participants Places Boys

Delhi Kerala Sikkim Punjab Bangalore Bhutan Siliguri Jalgaon Chandigarh Pune Ooty Nagaland Kalimpong Rahimpur Kashmir Mumbai Hyderabad Kolkata Indore Lucknow Saudi Arabia

307 515 230 302 275 225 108 110 57 80 45 15 20 20 45 10 30 15 20 5 10 2,444

Number of Children by Sex Children Migrating Girls Total Boys

406 31 180 100 80 42 45 40 25 0 15 45 40 40 5 35 0 10 0 3 3 1,145

713 546 410 402 355 267 153 150 82 80 60 60 60 60 50 45 30 25 20 8 13 3,589

38 10 15 12 10 18 1 0 1 3 2 1 3 0 5 1 3 1 1 1 5 131

Children Missing Girls

Total

94 4 25 10 12 12 1 0 2 2 1 4 6 0 2 5 0 1 1 1 3 186

132 14 40 22 22 30 2 0 3 5 3 5 9 0 7 6 3 2 2 2 8 317

Source: Data collected through 36 PRAs in May-July 2011.

3,500 children had migrated from the 12 tea gardens in 2010 alone. This means that on an average nearly 300 children leave each tea garden a year, nearly one-third of them girls, to go to different destinations. More importantly, our findings disclose that not all migrants return home and nearly eight to 10 children out of 100 go “missing” every year. It may be that a few of the missing children have settled in their places of work. But the stories of missing children corroborate links between missing and trafficked children. The experience of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other stakeholders also supports this. A recent study done in 14 tea estates in the region shows a very high rate of human trafficking (Chakraborty 2013: 18). Hence, it may be argued that a large number of those missing are actually trafficked. (b) Perception of Stakeholders about the Magnitude of Child Trafficking: Trafficking refers to the movement of men, women, and children from one place to another through force, coercion, or deception in situations of economic and sexual exploitation (United Nations 2000). It is very difficult to precisely estimate the number of trafficked people, though stakeholders, particularly children, are able to name many. FGD participants felt that nine to 11 children are trafficked from each garden every year, more than half of whom are girls (Table 3, p 61). It may be noted that child participants in this exercise could name many of those trafficked in 2010 because of their closeness to the victims. The perceptions of local key informants


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and PRA participants about the magnitude of missing children also come close to this. Field experience reveals that many of the migrants who have returned home “safely” complain about “money not paid as promised” or other types of exploitation such as denial of food, clothing, and shelter, Table 3: Number of Missing/ Trafficked Children from Tea physical assaults, verbal abuse, Gardens in 2010 and excessive work pressure. Tea garden Status Girls Boys Total Technically speaking, these Indong Sick 5 6 11 cases come under trafficking as Grassmore Sick 5 4 9 the end purpose of such transRed Bank Sick 7 5 12 por tation is exploitation. It Chulsa Good 5 4 9 Nayasaili Sick 5 5 10 may, therefore, be concluded Samsing Sick 5 4 9 that the volume of actual trafBharnobari Sick 5 1 6 ficking is much larger than that Dheklapara Closed 6 3 9 perceived by stakeholders. InRadharani Sick 4 3 7 terestingly, good tea gardens Rahimabad Sick 2 1 3 such as Chulsa and Satali have Raimatang Sick 5 4 9 witnessed a lower degree of Satali Good 2 5 7 child trafficking than closed or Total 56 45 101 just opened tea gardens. Source: Field survey. The state agency has few cases of trafficking in its records. Most incidences of trafficking remain secret, and the NCRB reported only about 180 cases of human trafficking from West Bengal in 2012 (GOI 2012). But, at the rate of nine children on an average trafficked every year from each of 75-odd sick tea gardens in Jalpaiguri, the volume from the district alone may be close to 675. This exposes the limits of the legal framework. First, while it stresses sex trafficking, there is no separate legal provision to prevent trafficking using public transportation. Second, official estimates do not reflect the real volume of trafficking. We have so far failed to put in more effort to tackle this large and multidimensional problem. (c) Prime Targets of Trafficking: The prime targets of trafficking are mostly adivasi children, both boys and girls, belonging mainly to the Oraon, Munda, and Santal tribes. Poverty seems to be the major reason for this. Moreover, the average size of adivasi families being five, pecuniary constraints force parents to send their children to work from an early age. The low level of literacy of the tribal boys and girls prevents them from looking for alternative job options. Agents try to lure fathers by gifting them alcohol and/or cash as an advance. A family that tacitly accepts money from an agent for transportation of their child loses the moral right to involve the community against any misdeed, at least initially. Compared to the adivasis, Nepalese tea workers are numerically dominant, more articulate, and better placed economically. Many of the Nepalese also hold important positions in the power hierarchy (called “super-staff”) of tea gardens. By virtue of their relatively better position in the Dooars-Terai region, Nepali workers are on an average socially and politically well-organised, unlike the tribals, whom the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad (ABAVP) has been trying to organise. Hence, instances of trafficking Nepali children are not that many.

(d) Lack of Protest against Trafficking: Despite large-scale trafficking in children and women from the tea gardens of north Bengal, not all parents are fully aware of the illegal networks that exist and the consequences of migration. This also speaks about the quality of social life in the gardens. Our field studies revealed several trajectories. First, most parents being illiterate and unaware of the world outside fall for the agents’ promises easily. When a child stops contacting its parents and goes “missing”, the local agent makes up different stories to fool them again. Often, it is argued that the boy/girl is not calling because he or she does not want to return. Second, parents do not share their experiences in public, particularly if a daughter who has been exploited returns. There are historical, social and economic reasons for this. Scholars (Xaxa 2004; Roy 2009b) have found patriarchal domination and subjugation of tribal women in the tea gardens of Jalpaiguri. The social exclusion of tribals from their surroundings also makes them afraid of the police and members of the dominant community. If an agent happens to be a member of the dominant community, the tribals fear a backlash. So, protest movements against trafficking have not gained strength in the gardens. Table 4: Reasons for Parents Not Protesting against Trafficking, Perception of Focus Group Discussion Participants Responses

Father

Elder

Children

Reason 1 Lack of awareness Reason 2 Illiteracy

Mother

Lack of awareness Illiteracy

Illiteracy

Illiteracy

Reason 3 Lack of social support Reason 4 Any other* Reason 5 Lack of police support

Lack of social support Any other* Lack of police support

Lack of awareness Lack of social support Any other* Lack of police support

Lack of awareness Lack of social support Any other* Lack of police support

* Any other includes poverty, alcoholism, fear of agents, a casual attitude, and parents not sharing their problems. Source: Field study, July 2011.

Table 5: Reasons for Parents Not Protesting against Trafficking, Perception of Local Key Informants Rank

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Reasons

Ignorance Poverty No social support Alcoholism Fear of police Demanding parents Fear of agent Domestic violence Advance taken Less concerned Losing prestige

Total Responses

38 35 20 19 17 10 9 4 4 2 1

Source: Data collected through interviews, May-July 2011.

FGD participants and local key informants attempted to identify the reasons for the lack of protests against trafficking (Tables 4 and 5). Along with illiteracy, lack of social and police support prevented parents from lodging complains, according to them. Additional reasons such as alcoholism, fear of powerful agents, and domestic violence were also cited.

(e) Trafficking Routes and Modus Operandi: North Bengal’s geographical location aids cross-border trafficking and the city of Siliguri is an important transit point for the northeast. The remote and secluded tea gardens in Jalpaiguri provide ample scope to agents, both to employ new recruits and to transport them without any public scrutiny or protest.

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everywhere and this has led to the migration of a large number of people in search of jobs. Traffickers have taken advantage of this to lure poor people into trouble by promising jobs. The data in Tables 6 and 7 show that apart from poverty and unemployment, the promise of better jobs and a comfortable life elsewhere opens the gate to trafficking in children and women. When a garden is Table 7: Causes of Trafficking, Views of Local Key Informants declared “sick”, there is a Rank Reasons Total for Trafficking Responses mass exodus of job seekers. In closed gardens, the 1 Poverty 155 situation is even worse. It 2 Unemployment 126 is in such conditions that 3 Poor wages 102 agents offer young chil4 Large family 84 5 Lack of awareness 83 dren (and women) lucra6 Illiteracy 70 tive jobs outside. It is very 7 Dream of better life outside 59 difficult for the children 8 Broken family 31 or their parents to resist 9 Closed/sick garden 22 the temptation for long, as 10 Alcoholism 20 the alternative is starva11 False promises 15 tion. Though risky, chil12 Drop-out 13 dren often consider life 13 Earn more money 5 outside the garden to be 14 Demanding parents 4 better than that at home. 14 Peer-group influence 4 Hence, even known sto15 Domestic violence 3 16 No action/protest 2 ries of exploitation, in17 Lack of facilities 1 cluding prostitution, do 17 Any other 1 not deter them from venSource: Data collected through interviews, turing out. The research May-July 2011. team gathered the names of some girls who openly lead a life of luxury after joining the flesh trade. In spite of so many instances of children going missing or even dying while doing “jobs” outside, the flow of labour from the gardens does not stop. Often children belonging to large and broken families are influenced by their friends and leave the region on their own. A large family also means more responsibility on parents to meet the different needs of children belonging to different age groups. Parents of large families encourage their older sons or (f) Causes and Consequences of Trafficking: The major daughters to earn something. In the case of broken families, reasons for child trafficking are poverty and unemployment there is huge pressure to seek any type of employment. Parents (Tables 6 and 7). These are directly related to the low wage taking cash advances from agents fail to protest when their structure of tea garden workers and not giving them the children go missing because they did not consult their panchafacilities they are entitled to. Hence, the vulnerabilities of yats or trade unions before sending their children away. children living in tea gardens are directly linked to the fragThe social exclusion of parents also promotes trafficking. ile economy of the industry, especially in recent times. It may Poor, illiterate, and maybe alcoholic parents find it difficult to be noted that the demand for cheap labour has recently risen handle agents when they approach them with incentives and wonderful dreams. In a few Table 6: Major Causes of Trafficking, Opinion of Focus Groups cases, domestic violence by alReasons Mother Father Elder Children coholic fathers contributes to 1 Poverty Unemployment Poverty Poverty young children leaving home. 2 Unemployment Poverty Unemployment Unemployment A major bottleneck in pre3 Lack of awareness Lack of awareness Lack of awareness Lack of awareness 4 Promise of better job/ Promise of better job/ Promise of better job/ Promise of better job/ venting trafficking is the lack comfortable life elsewhere comfortable life elsewhere comfortable life elsewhere comfortable life elsewhere of social support, which leads 5 Broken family Broken family Broken family Broken family to parents suppressing facts. 6 Other reasons Other reasons Dowry/domestic violence Dowry/domestic violence This allows agents a free hand 7 Dowry/domestic violence Dowry/domestic violence Other reasons Other reasons in the post-trafficking period. Source: 48 FGDs conducted in May-July 2011.

Child trafficking from tea gardens takes place under the guise of providing jobs in distant locations. Interestingly, traditional modes such as child marriages, fake marriages, abductions, or kidnappings are now hardly used to traffic females. This is because the adivasis of the tea gardens do not marry their daughters early, and marriage, to a large extent, depends on the choices of adult men and women. This is in sharp contrast to other West Bengal districts such as Malda, where child marriage is the principal mode of trafficking (Ghosh 2011a, 2011b). Young boys and girls are taken from tea gardens via trains and buses to places such as Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Bangalore, Kerala, Kashmir, Bhutan, and Sikkim for jobs. The route depends on the destination. Agents recruiting children take care of their tickets and journey from the gardens. These “placement agents” pay cash incentives to their sub-agents for providing them with information and links. Such incentives depend on the quality of the recruit (good-looking teenage girl, for instance) and the number of years (one to three years) for which the new recruit agrees to work in a house (for girls) or in a shop/factory/restaurant (for boys). These sub-agents take new recruits to the nearest bus or railway station and hand them over to a new agent. After reaching their destination, they are again handed over to a new person for either “placement” or redistribution. In Delhi, a new recruit is usually kept in a “placement office” for one or two days before he or she is assigned to an employer. Till such placement, boys and girls face little problems and are unable to imagine the implications of transportation. Some recruits sometimes find a good employer. Stories of sexual exploitation of girls and their forced confinement mostly begin during the first placement. Some of the stories point to a nexus between placement agents and employers who recruit teenage tribal girls for sexual exploitation only. In the case of recruits to Bhutan or Sikkim, passports are forcefully confiscated by the employer to prevent the children from leaving.


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Parents bring such issues to the notice of their neighbours and others only when they become very suspicious about what has happened to their children. It takes many months, if not years, to come to such a realisation. By that time, vital clues are lost. The local agent, if still available, denies all charges or shifts responsibility to somebody else. Delays in tracing victims add to their misery. There are many instances of girls returning pregnant or with AIDS, but parents think it better to keep such matters secret. Even those who return “safely” from places of work with some money hesitate to disclose what their experiences were. As a consequence, those recruited afresh are not aware of the dangers of work outside the gardens. Agents are often considered “powerful” in their locality because they have resources and links to persons in power. People are therefore afraid of even naming agents. In some instances, agents have even married garden girls to develop a familiarity with local people. Lack of authentic information about the movement of agents as well as formal complaints against them ensure that they stay free of legal hassles. Their expanding powers and networks are certainly a major factor in the mass trafficking from tea gardens. The police follow a “bureaucratic approach” and there are complaints about them being partial when handling cases. Illiterate parents often do not have the appropriate documents required for a proper police investigation. The tendency to file a “missing diary” instead of a case under the ITPA makes complaints inherently weak. In Tables 6 and 7, factors such as “lack of police support” and “fear of police” are listed as reasons for parents not protesting against trafficking. The gap between the adivasis and the administrators, including the police, could have been reduced to some extent by stakeholders such as trade unions, political parties, elected representatives, and NGOs. But, except for some sporadic efforts in recent times, there is hardly any monitoring of illegal activities within gardens. Some Case Studies

This research has been able to document nearly 100 cases of trafficking in children and women from various tea gardens. They were collected from sources such as the victims, their relatives, neighbours, health workers, PRA and FGD participants, and others. The case histories reveal the intricate nuances of the process of trafficking and bring out similarities as well as differences. They also tell about the consequences of trafficking. The names and details of the victims have been changed to protect them from further harassment. • Samita (16) of Bharnobari tea garden belongs to a poor family and the family’s condition deteriorated when the garden closed during 2005-08. With her parents’ permission, she went to Delhi with the help of a “friend” or suspected agent, Johani, in December 2010. After reaching Delhi, she called her parents. But in a month, she was shifted to Aligarh (Jamuna Nagar) in Uttar Pradesh. One day, Samita made a desperate call to her parents from Aligarh and asked them to rescue her immediately. Like many other victims of trafficking, she had

been shifted to an unknown destination in Aligarh. She could not share her problems over the phone from a public booth, but insisted that she was being tortured. Her parents went to Johani’s house. Johani said that she took Samita to a known placement office in Sakharpur in Delhi and had not talked to her after that. She said she knew nothing about Samita’s new placement in Aligarh. Johani’s parents and relatives put forward a strong case to prove that she could not be held responsible for Samita’s problems. Samita’s parents did not know what to do next. No one came forward to suggest alternative ways to search for the girl and the parents did not have the courage to go to the police and face an interrogation. They are still pursuing Johani to rescue Samita. Till the end our stay there, Samita was untraceable. It appeared that she had probably been sold to a sex racket and Johani was not taking the risk of saying more than what she should. • Shruti (16) used to live with her family in Dheklapara tea garden. When it was closed, her father became a daily labourer doing odd jobs. But he was alcoholic and had to feed five children and his wife. Taking advantage of this, Roshna, a suspected agent, fooled the family by promising a good job for Shruti in Delhi. Roshna lived in the same garden and was a sub-agent for a person called Jeetender in Delhi. Roshna took Shruti along with her on 17 November 2010. Since then, there has been no trace of her. When Shruti’s parents approached Roshna, she gave them a phone number that did not work. Roshna says she is unable to trace Shruti as she does not know Jeetender’s address. The local people say that Roshna gets a commission of Rs 2,000 for working as a sub-agent and that she continues to do so. There has been no local protest or any effort to file a case, rescue the victim, nab the culprits, or break the trafficking chain. Shruti’s uneducated and poor family members are afraid of raising their voice. They only hope that she will come back one day. • Tanu (17) is from the Newlands tea garden, Kumar Gram. Due to poverty and her father’s unemployment, she decided to go to Delhi when Sumitra from the same garden promised her an excellent job in a bungalow. On 25 October 2009, both boarded a bus to go to Alipurduar Junction to catch a train to Delhi. During the first few months, Tanu did not face any trouble. She had a room to stay in the bungalow and the food was okay. But gradually her employer began asking her to accompany him to his garden house. Tanu did not like this as she had to satisfy the physical needs of her employer there. She brought

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this to the notice of her landlady, who provided her protection for some days. But the landlady’s eldest son soon began fondling her. If she protested, he turned violent. Tanu thought of running away, but she had no money because her wages had not been paid. One day, a shopkeeper helped her call her father. He lodged a first information report (FIR) against the bungalow owner in Kumar Gram police station. The subinspector contacted the Delhi police and had Tanu rescued from the bungalow on 6 June 2011. But the network that took her to Delhi and the persons who exploited her were not arrested. Tanu came back empty-handed, with many terrible memories and a decision not to venture out again. • Mary (17) was the eldest daughter of a family in Redbank tea garden. She had four brothers and sisters. Her mother died a few years ago after a prolonged illness. The family had to face adversity when the garden closed in March 2003 and Mary’s father became unemployed. There was no other alternative but for Mary to seek employment. Mary first went to Mumbai with a friend, but could not find any suitable job there. After returning, she contacted suspected agent Pyare and his wife to go to Delhi. She went to Delhi with Pyare’s wife in 2004. Eight other girls accompanied them in reserved seats. This suggests that the journey was well-planned. After reaching New Delhi, Pyare’s wife brought them to a placement office. At first, Mary was appointed to a house as a maid, but she left when she did not get what she expected. She was shifted to a posh bungalow

in another locality. But trouble began when the owner of the bungalow, Rahul, started sexually harassing her. He then raped her. Mary went to the placement office and complained about Rahul to an “aunty” there. The lady refused to help and claimed she was busy with other work. Mary then went to the main agent in the office and told him of her plight. They all behaved very casually as if nothing serious had happened and asked her to remain calm. When the discussion heated up, the agents agreed to send her back because keeping her would mean additional problems for them. On returning to the garden, Mary could not reveal what had happened to her. She discovered she was pregnant and took some herbal medicines to get rid of it. But it did not work and she gave birth to a girl child. Now, she lives with her parent and an eight-year-old child. Neither Rahul nor the placement agent has ever enquired about her condition and those around her cannot do much to resolve the issue. • Soma Oran (28) of Chalsa tea garden returned from Delhi after she had remained untraceable for 12 years. She had gone to work as a domestic help and came back with AIDS. She died very soon after coming back to the garden. • Reshma (18) lost her father in 2007. Her mother works in Raimatang tea garden. Her elder brother does not care about them and works in another garden. Reshma was introduced to a smart boy called Binod, a Muslim boy from Bihar. Binod was a friend of Rabi, a Nepali youth in the same garden, in

Environment, Technology and Development: Critical and Subversive Essays Essays from the Economic and Political Weekly Edited By ROHAN D’SOUZA Many political battles, policy initiatives, academic debates and our understanding of the world in general have been shaped by the ideas that have developed around the concepts of environment, technology and development. How do these concepts influence each other? How have they subverted established ideas and dogmas? How have they developed over time and what are its varied meaning? This volume brings together writings across disciplines, perspectives and ideologies that answer these questions, map the main conceptual lines and identify the points where they converge and diverge. The articles have appeared over the past four decades in the Economic and Political Weekly. The introduction provides a brief chronological overview of the theoretical underpinnings that led to the emergence of the current notion of environmental development. The chapters are selected and arranged in a non-linear manner that allows the reader to get a sense of the wide-ranging debates. The essays see the progress of technology in its political context and in relation to the social and environmental consequences it engenders. They show how technology is meshed with politics as is environment with development, and how agriculture is woven with ecology. The transfer of resources from the marginalised to the empowered groups and the crucial issue of spatial politics where space is constituted, assembled and forged by the economically powerful are also discussed. This volume will provoke, educate, stimulate and inform the lay reader and specialist alike.

Authors include T R Thankappan Achari • Manshi Asher • P A Azeez • Jayanta Bandyopadhyay • Charul Bharwada • Philippe Cullet • Mahasveta Devi • Sumita Gupta Gangopadhyay • Hiren Gohain • Rahul Gupta • Barbara Harriss-White • L C Jain • Annu Jalais • Ashwin Kumar • John Kurien • Vinay Mahajan • Arjun Makhijani • Dinesh Mohan • Dipti Mukherji • Chandrika Parmar • K Krishna Prasad • P P Nikhil Raj • M V Ramana • C H Hanumantha Rao • Amulya Kumar N Reddy • Sunali Rohra • Vandana Shiva • Nigel Singh • Sudha Srivastava • Geetam Tiwari • G Vijay • Gregor Meerganz von Medeazza • Shiv Visvanathan • Arundhuti Roy Choudhury.

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65 REVIEW OF RURAL AFFAIRS

whose house he had been staying for about a month. Binod was an extrovert, who could easily mix with others and tell tall tales about himself. He was also very extravagant. He began interacting with Reshma despite her mother’s repeated warnings. One day, when the mother returned from work, Reshma was not at home. She came to know that she had fled with Binod. Later, a panchayat meeting was held and Rabi pleaded ignorance about the whole issue. Being a Nepali, Rabi got the support of the Nepalese at the meeting, and an FIR was lodged against Binod in the Kalchini police station. But there has been no trace of Reshma and Binod. Neighbours suspect that Binod was a member of a sex trafficking gang and that he bribed Rabi to manage his “elopement” drama. Ethnic antagonism between the adivasis and Nepalese in the tea gardens has only helped internal and external agents. Conclusions This study has highlighted the marginalisation of workers and vulnerability of women and children following the sickness and closure of tea gardens in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal in the recent past. As market globalism has contributed to the perceptible growth of structural inequalities in different segments of Indian society, the depressing consequences of these changes can be observed in all sectors of the Indian economy. In the case of the tea gardens in Jalpaiguri, the combined effect of economic and social vulnerabilities has led to trafficking in children and women in large numbers. The modus operandi of the operation points to how vulnerable children and adult women in the region are. Poor adivasi boys and girls are

Note 1

The total number of ITPA cases went down from 2,659 in 2008 to 2,563 in 2012. Compared to this, cases under section 366 A of the IPC (procuration of minor girl) increased from 224 to 809 and those under section 372 (selling of girl for prostitution) increased from 49 to 108 during this period (GoI 2012).

References Bhattacharyya, P Priya (2013): “12 Die of Starvation in Locked Tea Gardens of West Bengal”, The Times of India, 9 November, Kolkata edition. Bhowmik, Sharit K (1981): Class Formation in the Plantation System (New Delhi: People’s Publishing House). Biswas, Sarmishtha et al (2005): “Nutritional Survey of Tea Workers on Closed, Re-Opened, and Open Tea Plantations of the Dooars Region, West Bengal, India”, at www.iufdocuments. org/www/ documents/ AJWSnutritionreport. pdf Centre for Development and Human Rights (CHDR) (2006): “Starvation Deaths in Tea Plantations in India”, Rights and Development Bulletin, 1 (4): 26-28. Chakraborty, Sudip (2013): “Tea, Tragedy and Child Trafficking in the Terai Dooars”, Economic & Political Weekly, 48 (39): 17-19. Chaudhury, Shibani (2011): “Hunger in the Mine of Green Gold”, at www.tehelka.com/ story_main31.asp?fi lename =Bu070707hunger_in

the prime targets, and there is hardly any social protest against the crime. A reading of the case histories cited here reveals that the line between “missing” and “trafficked” children is very thin. Apparently, the children go either with the permission of their parents or on their own to obtain jobs. The initial experiences of some of them are not awful. But, ultimately, the outcome for many migrants is physical, economic, and mental exploitation, and even death. The suspected agents make use of their widespread networks to trap children and women and send them to specific destinations, often in a group, in an organised manner. The cases reveal that the victims are cheated by the suspected agents in several ways. It appears that child trafficking and other types of crimes against children are not merely sociolegal issues in the context of the deepening crisis in the plantation industry in West Bengal (and similar other sick industries in the post-reform era). It is a symptom of a much deeper malaise in our society. The findings corroborate our concern for the rising vulnerabilities of children and women in other sectors of the Indian economy in the post-liberalised period (Ghosh 2014). There is a perceptible link between increasing transportation of labour to urban places and trafficking. This suggests changes in the nature of human trafficking in India, probably because labour trafficking is easier than sex trafficking. We need to be more attentive about explaining human trafficking and finding solutions to it in the age of globalisation. As the issues involved are multidimensional, their solutions also lie in following a multidimensional approach. The role of different internal and external stakeholders and agencies in minimising the vulnerabilities of children and women becomes pertinent in this context.

Chaudhury, Sreerupa Mitra et al (2007): “The Tragedy of Tea: Starvation Deaths and Disasters Stalk Lives of Tea Garden Workers in West Bengal”, at inttuc.blogspot.com/2009/05/savetea-garden-save-workers.htm Dacholia, Abhishek et al (2006): “Study on Labour Conditions in Tea Gardens of New Jalpaiguri”, Project report, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. Ghosh, Biswajit (2007): Trafficking in Women and Children, Child Marriage and Dowry: A Study For Action Plan in West Bengal (Kolkata: UNICEF and Government of West Bengal). – (2009): “Human Trafficking in India: Nature, Dimensions And Strategies for Prevention”, International Journal of Human Rights, 13 (5): 716-38. – (2011a): “Early Marriage of Girls in Contemporary Bengal: A Field View”, Social Change, 41 (1): 41-61. – (2011b): “Child Marriage, Society and the Law: A Study in a Rural Context in West Bengal, India”, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 25 (2): 199-219. – (2012): Study on Vulnerability of Children in Sick and Closed Tea Gardens in Jalpaiguri District, West Bengal (Kolkata: Save the Children and UNICEF). – (2014): “India’s Child Trafficking Epidemic”, East Asia Forum, 6 March: 1-3, at http://www. eastasiaforum.org Government of India (GoI) (2012): “Crime in India 2012”, National Crime Record Bureau, New Delhi. Gupta, Aparajita (2008): “Poverty, Starvation Stalk

Bengal Tea Garden Workers”, Thaindian News, at www.thaindian.com/.../poverty-starvationstalk-bengal NTUI (2011): “Campaign for a Just Wage for Tea Plantation Workers Launched,” at www.radicalsocialist.in/.../403-campaign-for-a-just-wagefor-tea-pla Roy, Sanjay (2009a): “North Bengal Tribes in Development Perspective,” Journal of Indian Anthropological Society, 44: 5-27. – (2009b): “Areas of Freedom and Subjugation in the Life of Tribal Women” in Anita Bagchi and Sanjay K Roy (ed.), Changing Faces of Indian Women (Kolkata: Levant Books), 196-225. Talwar, Anuradha, D Chakraborty and S Biswas (2005): Study on Closed and Re-opened Tea Gardens in North Bengal (Kolkata: Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity and International Union of Food). The Times of India (2011): “Tea Garden Deaths Spark Starvation Controversy”, 1 January, Kolkata edition. United Nations (2000): Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (New York: United Nations). Xaxa, Virginius (2004): “Women and Gender in the Study of Tribes in India”, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 11 (3): 345-67. Yengkhom, Sumati (2013): “Trafficking of Tribal Girls: Sick Gardens Trigger Exodus”, The Times of India, 4 March, Kolkata edition.