The Menace of Human Trafficking

By Shobhit Agarwal:

We live in the 21st century: the age of unprecedented technological progress, social connectivity like never seen before and innumerable ecological breakthroughs. In spite of the advancement of times, we still live in the age of human trafficking, particularly women trafficking. The development and advancement of any country can be gauged by the status enjoyed by women in the society. Given the rising stature of women as one among equals in most societies of the world, the prevalence of trafficking, leaves a lot to be desired. And despite various agencies set in place to curb this evil, it continues to mar not just the third world countries, but also the so called superpowers.

One would assume that granted the open mindedness and social outreach of our times, menaces like women trafficking and women sex workers would become a thing of the past, or at the very least, be confined to a few under developed regions of the world. On the contrary, such practices haven’t just survived, they have thrived. What’s worse, the people helming such activities (mostly mafias) have made full use of the technological advancements to spread such practices even to regions which were not known to these.

The inset gives an idea about one of the ploys used by the agents to advertise their business. It is women trafficking in its essence, yet they have portrayed it in such a manner to imply that they run a bride providing agency. It is their way of enticing unassuming customers, some of whom will ultimately give way to their ecstasy, and whether they like it or not, will contribute to the prevailing menace. This is no shaadi.com or jeevansathi.com, wherein the girls voluntarily enrol themselves to find a suitable groom. The supposedly Vietnamese girls, promised by the advertisement, have been kidnapped, drugged and sold without their consent and by the use of force.

The evil of women trafficking is too widespread to be curbed all at once. Yet, there are measures that can be taken to curb it. For starters, as a generation that prides itself in setting high moral standards, we need to steer clear of such activities. After all, if there won’t be a demand, there won’t be any supply either. It is disheartening to objectify humans, women in particular as commodities, but such is the desperate need of the times. As for the rest, the least we can do is be responsible citizens and report such advertisements to the authorities and hope that adequate actions will be taken by putting the culprits to task.