The diversion of millions of hectares of agricultural land for industrial and housing purposes is being perceived as one of key reasons for the 20 per cent jump in trafficking of women and children across the country.
The Central Bureau of Investigation estimates in 2009 highlighted that trafficking has pushed three million women into prostitution out of which almost half were children.
Ruchira Gupta, president of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, working in the area of trafficking blames increasing landlessness and poverty for this quantum jump.
“The sex industry has grown 17 per cent in the last 15 years,” Ms Gupta pointed out.
Massive land acquisition amongst tribals, adivasis and dalits is forcing families to sell their children who then go on to be used for sex, forced labour or to become victims of the organ trade.
Agricultural expert Devinder Sharma has calculated that 6.6 million hectares of agricultural land in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which works out to one third of the state, is in the process of being acquired.
“While the land owners, including farmers, receive compensation, what happens to the millions of landless who have depended on this land for sustenance?” said Mr Sharma
“There are 29 crore Indians working in the unorganised sector in agriculture alone. With no jobs, rising inflation levels is responsible for this sharp increase in the number of women, boys and girls being trafficked for multiple forms of exploitation,” Mr Sharma added.
This problem is further quantified by the fact that rehabilitation and resettlement measures have not been seen through by successive state governments as it has been witnessed in the case of the Narmada River Valley or the Mahanadi projects.
Experts point out that rural economies are close to collapse and rural India is facing a major agrarian crisis. Indrani Sinha, executive director of NGO Sanlaap, blames increasing poverty levels for the rise of trafficking from Assam, West Bengal and parts of the Northeast.
“A total lack of helplessness is forcing families to agree to ‘marry’ their young daughters or else allow their daughters to be lured away by fictitious job offers being made by traffickers without making even preliminary enquiries into what will happen to these girls and boys once they are taken away,” said Ms Sinha.
Traffickers are amongst the most organised criminals in the world. The rise of trafficking can be gauged from the fact that recent calculation by UN organisations show that it has now become a $32 billion business worldwide. Traffickers often boast to the police that “You can pick up a girl for as little as `500 and then get your money back in one night provided she is young and pretty. The rest is all profit.”
The story of agricultural land being sold is the same from J&K to Kanyakumari. In Erode in Tamil Nadu, hundreds of acres of agricultural land producing turmeric, sugarcane, oil seeds, coconut, paddy and banana is being converted into housing plots.