The Covid-19 outbreak increased the exploitation of vulnerable groups and affected marginalised genders the most, highlighting the gender disparity. The book Disaster and Human Trafficking by Mondira Dutta is based on the increasing exploitation, especially of women, in the wake of the pandemic.
Human Trafficking is a deeply engraved issue in the world. It isn’t exclusive to any state or region, but South Asia and some parts of the developing world are more deeply impacted by it than anywhere else. Yet, it has been stagnant for quite a while without any progress.
The state of human trafficking after a disaster and conflict when the state, police or the army is in dismay is worth highlighting.
To highlight the issue and deliberate over the book Disaster and Human Trafficking, the IMPRI Centre for Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development (CECCSD), IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, hosted a Book Discussion on Disaster and Human Trafficking by Prof Mondira Dutta under #WebPolicyTalk.
Background
The discussion was flagged off by the chair of the session, Prof V K Malhotra, Member Secretary, Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi. At the start, he gave a brief about his experiences working with the author and how passionate and hardworking she was.
Further, he gave an insight about the time she was working on the exact book they were going to discuss. He appreciates how she drew a preface by her experiences and included a variety of social issues.
The discussion was taken forward by the author, Prof Mondira Dutta, Founder Chairperson and Professor (Retd), Centre for Inner Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
Firstly, she explained how she got the idea and inspiration for writing this book. Additionally, she acknowledged various organisations and individuals who helped her write this book. She talked about the first project she worked on with the United Nations Human Rights Commission and how it left a grave question in her mind.
She explained “how to study trafficking” and how interdisciplinary and complicated it is to understand. She helps us understand how big the issue of trafficking is and what is not being addressed by the nation. Rather, the deeper issue is the low data and reporting about it, considering the social contingencies and embarrassment.
Disaster And Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking is likely to increase 20-30 % during climate disasters. How are they linked? #EndHumanTrafficking #WorldDayAgainstTraffickinginPersons (1/7)
— Youth Ki Awaaz (@YouthKiAwaaz) July 31, 2021
Prof Dutta explained how the situation in a disaster gets difficult for everyone, especially the already vulnerable groups. She elaborated on the situation during the Covid-19 pandemic in low-income states where the children were sent away for little money or used for organ trafficking.
For children displaced from their parents in disaster situations, the adoption process is very difficult.
She illustrated various case studies about how children are exploited and trafficked in disaster situations and the terrible situations they are kept in at such an early age. She brought her insights from her experiences by working on various projects worldwide and the plight of people around the world, especially the terrible situation of Indians in the Maldives and the U.A.E.
The most important insight she brought was that we were not ready in case of a disaster, which might lead to huge human rights violations.
She asserted how the government is aware of the issue. A proper strategy, a human trafficking management program and an early warning system have helped resolve the issue much more than before. She suggested that the government should focus on flexible and need-based promoting of laws in disaster-prone areas that could be helpful to the people who are disaster-prone.
Increase In Trafficking During The Covid-19 Pandemic
Anju Dubey Pandey, Specialist, Ending Violence Against Women, and Team Lead, Gender-Responsive Governance, UN Women India, talked about her experience helping and assisting the author at various places to author this book. She talked about the current world scenario in the Covid-19 pandemic and how relevant this book becomes in a situation like this.
She believes that the issues related to Covid-19 might be brought up again and, in these cases, this book might help bring on the essentials of stopping human trafficking. Further, she highlighted women’s labour as a subject of human trafficking and this group’s considerable number.
She also brought the topic of gender as a point of the centre of issues of discrimination and trafficking. She not only accepted women as ants and survivors but the instruments of change in the position.
She extrapolated this change by using insights from the country of Bangladesh. She enlightened about the reintegration process of the survivors in the society and the importance of their data and experience and using them in our governance and working programs.
She elaborated more about the changes in trafficking laws and legislative actions and how the change is persistent. But the issue is intersection about the experience, which is not one, they are indifferent to everyone, so it should be more need-based.
Finally, she talked about prevention and why it is more important. Our approach towards human trafficking needs a legitimate change towards more prevention rather than penalisation of criminals.
Socio-Economic Linkages
Dr Bijayalaxmi Nanda, Acting Principal, Miranda House, University of Delhi, talked about her experiences working on the same issue and the relevant issues, which the author underscores. Then she talked about her learnings from the author and her style of research. She focused on her style of quantitative research in various states and how impactful insight she has brought.
She has brought light on the interlinkages of gender, age and region on human trafficking and how it impacts vulnerability studies. Keeping them as a centre of focus is important. She also stressed the real-life policy implications this book might bring and how it could inspire the aspirants of the social sciences.
The Process Of Writing
Nupoor Singh, Editor, Business & Management, Economics, Law, Statistics, Political Science, Springer India, talked about the great scholarship of the author and her insights throughout the book. She highlighted the casual approach towards the idea from the start to a well-researched book, and the journey was inspiring.
She further acknowledged the author and Prof Malhotra for being a part of the process. She then talked about the book’s success in this short time and how much it has been recognised.
Prof Dutta addressed some of the issues and topics she believes are equally important. For instance, the gap between civil society and government was seen in various instances in the past decade where the lack of trust was evident, and the ignorance between the two is evident.
She spoke about a lot of expenses in the whole nation by which she made the statement of the difference between them both. She talked about the importance of collaboration and the link between them and how beneficial it could be at the ground level.
She also talked about miscommunication of multiple communication, where different government bodies talk about different things on one aspect or on one machinery. The discussion was concluded by the chair, followed by a general vote of thanks.
Acknowledgement: Ayush Aggarwal is a Research Intern at IMPRI.
By Simi Mehta, Arjun Kumar, Anshula Mehta, Rithika Gupta, Swati Solanki, Sakshi Sharda at IMPRI, New Delhi