A recent report on human trafficking in India by the Delhi based Institute of Social Studies entitled ‘Trafficking in Women and Children in India’ identified a thriving sex tourism industry in the southern state of Kerala. In particular the report claims that the town of Alappuzha with its popular house boats plays host to child sex tourism. It is claimed that many foreign tourists abuse children on the house boats with few raids from the police. This claim has been strongly refuted by the state government of Kerala. Tourism Minister K.C. Venugopal, who said:
“Everyone knows that Kerala is one of the most sought after tourist destinations in South Asia with houseboats as its major selling point.
“A report like this could blemish the state’s chances to grow as a tourist spot. So far we have not received any complaints from any quarters. And do you think such a thing can happen in literate Kerala where moral policing is very high?
“There is something fishy about the report. May be they have other interests.”
It is to be hoped that despite making strong statements against the report, the government of Kerala will still take it seriously an thoroughly investigate the claims made to ensure that child sex tourism does not grow alongside the legitimate tourist industry of Kerala.

Authorities in the Netherlands have launched a campaign asking the clients of prostitutes to contact the police if they suspect a prostitute has been trafficked. It is estimated that approximately 3,500 women are trafficked into sexual exploitation in the Netherlands each year despite the country having some of the most liberal laws on the sex trade in the world. Posters will be put up around Amsterdam showing a prostitute with a gun to her head. The posters carry the slogan “Have you seen the signals? Fear, bruises, no ‘pleasure’ in the job,” and give details of an anonymous phone line through which men can tell the police what hey have seen. Last year Dutch police received over 600 tip-offs regarding the sexual exploitation of women. A government representative said “A typical scenario is a woman leaves her country with someone she trusts, expecting to work in a bar or nightclub. But the person turns out to be a trafficker who sells her on to pimps in the Netherlands,”

The defendant in a human trafficking case in Atlanta, USA, has been denied bond for fear that he might abuse and intimidate his victims. Jimmy Jones, otherwise known as Mike Spade is accused of recruiting young women from the Clark-Atlanta University, offering them jobs with his modeling agency called Candy Girl Casting. Once they signed a contract, however, they were allegedly forced to strip and engage in prostitution in order to pay off a debt of $450 per week which the contract agreed to. Jones is specifically charged with taking three young women to an event in Florida called “Spring Bling” at which he is accused of forcing the girls to act as prostitutes. The trial is continuing. The case highlights the common promise by traffickers of modeling jobs for young women. Both parents and young women should be cautious of such offers and careful of entering into contractual agreements which are difficult to fulfil.

US president George W Bush has reauthorized a law against human trafficking. At a ceremony where he signed the bill which renews the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 he pledged to continue working with countries around the world to help end the crime of human trafficking. “We’ll continue to call on other nations to take action against trafficking,” Bush said. He condemned the crime as a “perverse form of evil to exploit and hurt those vulnerable members of society.” Since 2001 the US Justice Department has successfully prosecuted 277 human traffickers. In 75% of the cases trafficking into sexual exploitation was involved.

A new study by the Delhi based Institute for Social Sciences has shown Delhi to be the top destination for women and children being trafficked, the majority of whom were brought to the city for sexual exploitation under the age of 16. The report also underlines the fact that many of the women and children are trafficked within Indian borders, with Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal showing signs of such trafficking, with the southern state of Andhra Pradesh being the main source state. In addition to inter-state trafficking, the report showed that 31% of victims rescued from brothels in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata were from Nepal. Many victims in Kolkata were from Bangladesh.
Perhaps most disturbing were the claims that many police are either inactive in the fight against human trafficking, or are actually complicit. Of the 412 brothel owners interviewed, 31.4% claimed to have never seen any police action, 53.4% avoided arrest by giving bribes and 29.1% claimed that police had a regular share in their income.
Without significant change in the attitude and action of the Indian police there will be no progress in the fight against the widespread problem of human trafficking in India.