Trading in human beings - historically known as slavery - is now called trafficking. There are two principal causes of trafficking: poverty, which makes people vulnerable to exploitation, and criminality, in the form of agents and employers willing to exploit the poor. Child trafficking is generally attributed to economic crisis at home and big family falling prey to the agents' tempting offers and an aspiration to lead urban life style in cities. In the context of this study, children who went missing or were trafficked from the rural areas of five panchayats in Madhepura district of Bihar for various purposes have been categorized as a case of 'Child trafficking'. These five panchayats were selected for the reason that in this area Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA) has its medical and social intervention. The majority of 60 per cent of the respondents in the study identified themselves as child labour/trafficking victims, whereas 22 per cent were identified as bonded labourers and 7 per cent as domestic servants. Over 95 per cent of the respondents were found to be unskilled labour, indicating that they had no opportunity to learn a skill or undergo vocational trainings for their livelihood. This made them vulnerable to trafficking and pushed them to the risk zone of maximum exploitation. Over 50 per cent of the parents had more than 5-6 children and this turn out to be one of the main reasons for the parents to have sent away their 1-2 children to places like Delhi. These children are engaged in hotels, grocery shops and small scale industries like making bangles, envelopes, carpets, crackers, brick kilns, etc. Traffickers help them in connecting these children to the needy employers and in turn receive a huge amount and pay the parents a share of it. Parents justify it saying that their children are learning a skill and making their livelihood. Over 71 per cent respondents were trafficked at some point of time owing to their financial needs at home. Owing to the awareness generated by the Government and several civil society groups, the local people in the villages were scared to mention that their child, below 18 years, has been trafficked. For want of police interrogation and other legalities, they were also cautious to mention that their children do not fall below 14 years and to be working as a child labour. Several cases of "missing child" were reportedl, but the parents were reluctant to share it openly for the fear of any further police interrogations. Due to scarcity of funds at home, many children after the middle school prefer taking up a job in another state and are prone to trafficking. Contractors' involvement, advance money, school dropouts, engaged in work at an early age, missing children are an indication of child trafficking.

Health status Siblings Labour Debt bondage Trafficking

[No Keywords available]