Addressing Human Trafficking: Reducing Supply Through Social Empowerment in India

Human trafficking remains one of India’s most pressing social challenges, affecting millions of vulnerable individuals. While prosecution and rescue operations are crucial, preventing trafficking at its source is equally important. The supply-side approach recognizes that traffickers exploit certain vulnerabilities like poverty, lack of education, and limited economic opportunities. By addressing these root causes, communities can reduce the number of people susceptible to trafficking before exploitation occurs.

Understanding the supply side of trafficking
Government schemes for social empowerment
The Dhanalakshmi scheme
Other empowerment initiatives
NGO initiatives for community empowerment
Apne Aap Women Worldwide
Skills development and economic opportunities
Safe migration and awareness programs
Community-based prevention strategies
Creating protective environments

Understanding the supply side of trafficking

The supply-side approach to preventing human trafficking focuses on reducing the vulnerabilities that make individuals easy targets for traffickers. According to the U.S. State Department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report, traffickers often target victims from marginalized backgrounds, including scheduled castes and tribes, migrant laborers, people from low-income households, and individuals with limited employment options such as many women and people with disabilities.

Research shows that poverty is the fundamental driving force for trafficking and re-trafficking. The lack of livelihood options in villages creates a power imbalance between traffickers and victims. When families face financial insecurity, children are often pushed into trafficking. Some families believe that sending their children to work can earn more money, seeing children as breadwinners of the family.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) notes that unemployment, poverty, and lack of awareness make communities vulnerable to trafficking. However, vulnerability is not limited to economically backward communities alone. The need and desire for a better life makes anyone vulnerable to human trafficking, particularly when combined with illiteracy and lack of awareness.

The Indian government has implemented several schemes aimed at reducing vulnerabilities through social and economic empowerment, particularly for girls and women who face higher trafficking risks.

The Dhanalakshmi scheme

The Dhanalakshmi scheme was launched in March 2008 as a conditional cash transfer program in 11 backward blocks across seven states. The scheme had dual objectives: preventing female infanticide through insurance coverage and promoting girls’ education through monetary incentives. The Ministry of Women and Child Development administered cash transfers up to class 8, while the Ministry of Human Resources Development handled incentives from class 9 to class 12.

All female children born after November 8, 2008, were eligible regardless of their socio-economic status, and families could enroll every girl child in the household. The program required girls to be part of the immunization program and attend school to receive benefits. A UNFPA India study found that beneficiary families were 1.7 times more likely to strongly advocate gender equality compared to non-beneficiary families, demonstrating the scheme’s impact on changing societal perceptions.

Although the scheme was discontinued from the financial year 2013-14 in favor of state-level programs, it demonstrated how financial incentives can play an enabling role in removing gender barriers and changing parental perception of daughters as liabilities.

Other empowerment initiatives

The government has launched several other schemes targeting vulnerable populations. The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao initiative promotes education and survival of the girl child. The Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana provides a savings plan for parents to ensure financial assistance for girl child education and marriage. Mission Vatsalya supports state efforts to expand access to protection services for child victims of crime, including trafficking.

NGO initiatives for community empowerment

Apne Aap Women Worldwide

Apne Aap Women Worldwide is a grassroots Indian organization founded in 2002 by Ruchira Gupta along with 22 courageous women in prostitution. The organization empowers marginalized girls and women to resist and end sex trafficking by organizing them into small self-empowerment groups where they work collectively to access legal, social, economic, and political rights.

The organization operates on the principle of helping the “Last Girl” gain control of her destiny. The Last Girl is typically poor, female, low-caste, and a teenager who may be the daughter or sister of a prostituted woman. Apne Aap aims to help each woman acquire Ten Assets over three to five years: safe space, education, self-confidence, political empowerment, official government identification, government subsidies, legal assistance, savings and bank accounts, livelihood opportunities, and forming nine friendships or joining a self-empowerment group.

The organization has established 150 self-empowerment groups in brothels, red-light districts, slums, and villages across Bihar, Delhi, Maharashtra, and West Bengal. Through education programs, Apne Aap extracts children from red-light districts and slums, steering them toward mainstream education. The organization also provides vocational training and helps women establish economic and social cooperatives, offering alternative paths that reduce reliance on the brothel system.

Skills development and economic opportunities

UNODC South Asia partnered with the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Apparel Export Promotion Council of India to address anti-human trafficking through Corporate Social Responsibility efforts. At training centers, vulnerable young men and women receive meticulous training in apparel tailoring, providing them with marketable skills and employment opportunities in mainstream factories.

The business community can play a crucial role by addressing and reducing factors that allow human trafficking to proliferate. Companies can adopt ethical practices and rights-based codes of conduct, spread knowledge about trafficking, and promote employment-linked vocational training across wide geographic areas.

Safe migration and awareness programs

Many trafficking cases involve fraudulent recruitment for employment abroad or in other states. The Ministry of Labour and Employment displays full-page advertisements against child labor and has instituted pre-departure information sessions for domestic workers migrating abroad on the risks of exploitation.

The government’s eMigrate system registers foreign recruitment agencies and Indian migrant workers. The Ministry of External Affairs operates overseas worker resource centers in five cities and maintains a 24/7 helpline to provide counseling and resources to those considering work abroad. Pre-departure orientations include material on trafficking risks, labor laws and regulations in destination countries, and government protection programs.

However, observers note that bans on migration for certain demographics, such as women under 30 or over 50 working in Middle Eastern countries, can increase the likelihood of undocumented migration and heighten trafficking risks. More effective approaches involve regulating recruitment agencies, eliminating recruitment fees charged to migrant workers, and holding fraudulent labor recruiters criminally accountable.

Community-based prevention strategies

Theatre and awareness campaigns have proven effective in vulnerable communities. Organizations use theatre-based activities to sensitize community workers, child care workers, and village councils. Theatre is a powerful tool because village life often offers little entertainment and education, making theatrical presentations memorable and impactful.

Awareness programs must address misconceptions. There is a common misunderstanding that only economically backward communities are vulnerable to trafficking, but everyone is vulnerable when they desire a better life. Education about trafficking tactics is essential, particularly regarding how traffickers use false promises of love or employment to lure victims.

In many cases reported by UNODC, families are involved in the first stage of trafficking, either introducing girls to traffickers or openly selling daughters to agents. This highlights the need for comprehensive family and community education about the dangers and legal consequences of trafficking.

Creating protective environments

Prevention requires more than individual programs. It demands creating an entire protective environment that includes accessible education, vocational training, economic opportunities, and strong legal frameworks. When communities have adequate employment options, traffickers lose the power imbalance they exploit.

Infrastructure matters too. Villages with poor connectivity to the outside world, limited motorable roads, and few phone lines face challenges in seeking help. Once families realize a daughter has been trafficked, they often don’t know whom to turn to, and local police stations can be 30 kilometers away. Improving rural connectivity and ensuring access to law enforcement are important prevention measures.

The comprehensive anti-trafficking strategy must be embedded in a human rights approach, addressing socio-economic, political, environmental, and cultural factors that increase vulnerability at local, regional, state, national, and international levels. Protection and assistance to victims should include compensation, necessary medical care, free legal assistance, and rehabilitation and reintegration programs.

What do you think? How can communities better balance economic development with protection from trafficking? What role should technology play in connecting vulnerable populations with legitimate employment and educational opportunities?

References

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Table of Contents

Understanding the supply side of trafficking 🔗

Government schemes for social empowerment 🔗

The Dhanalakshmi scheme 🔗

Other empowerment initiatives 🔗

NGO initiatives for community empowerment 🔗

Apne Aap Women Worldwide 🔗

Skills development and economic opportunities 🔗

Safe migration and awareness programs 🔗

Community-based prevention strategies 🔗

Creating protective environments 🔗