Why did I choose human trafficking as the plot for my first book?
An apology
First things first. The first two paragraphs may appear overtly presumptuous, and if it does, then I beg the reader to view it as an introductory narrative, because it is only that, rather than brashness on my part, because it is not. I was already in the midst of drafting a book that I have tentatively titled, ‘The Wild Song’. Nah, there is nothing remotely lyrical about the narrative, but I gave the book a title only to, firstly, motivate me towards acknowledging that I did have a work in progress, and so therefore, I better get down to brass tacks, and secondly, be bashfully proud that I was, indeed, writing a manuscript that would, hopefully end as a finished product someday. It was sometime in 2008 that I just decided to also draft a short story. Truth be told, I had tapped almost 1, 51,000 words of The Wild Song - the first part of a three section opus that I had planned the final manuscript to be - but I had hit a wall as I commenced with the second part of the book. Nah, not writer’s block, because I know me. I have heard of the term writer’s block, and in fact - if the following trick that I willingly disclose in the next sentence be of worth to anyone, then so be it, because the only thing I do to begin the initial paragraph is to simply write a declarative first sentence. Hemingway’s terse advice! That’s it. The rest of whatever needs to be written [typed] starts flowing seamlessly. It does for me. Most importantly, the process pulverizes whatever writer’s block that stymies incoming words to smithereens.
As for my settling on the theme of human trafficking as the main plot of my book ‘Tears of The Stars’ - TOTS from this point onwards -, I had originally planned on writing a short story. Only the title of the book had materialized to my inner mind, not the story. As I have mentioned earlier, I simply begin with a declarative sentence and the rest falls in. The rest of the book gradually evolved. The thing about writing is that once you have the right intent, by latching on to an idea that motivates you to write something, the words, sentences, and paragraphs automatically begin to flow. It does for me. Before you know it, you have something not only readable, but you have an idea that’s materialized as something readable before you.
Trafficking of children
Trafficking of humans is evil. It strips down the victim to the basest level, disempowering the victim absolutely, with no freedom in sight from the bondage. Article 3, paragraph (a) of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children [The Palermo Protocol] implicitly defines the nature of trafficking. In plain language, it says that any form of movement of persons by any of the various forms of coercion comes under Trafficking of Persons.
In the case of children, the Protocol expands it even more elaborately: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered "trafficking in persons" even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article; (Article 3, paragraph (c)). A child does not have the power to choose, differentiate or voice an opinion. Their inherent state of vulnerability disempowers them from making the correct choice. Their state of vulnerability cannot even intuit the type of environment that often surrounds them. Therefore, the Protocol implicitly states that even if a child is discovered amidst human traffickers in transit, regardless of the means that may have led the child to be in the presence of the trafficker, it will still be defined as ‘Trafficking in Persons’.
‘Almost half of identified cases of child trafficking begin with some family member involvement.’[i] The IOM data brief on child victims on human trafficking cryptically states that the percentage of families that facilitate the trafficking of children from their own households is four times more than the facilitation of adults [9%] into trafficking from the households. In the initial phase of the stealthy and conniving movement of the children into trafficking, in almost 11% of the cases, the children pointed out the adults from their families as the main perpetrators of their being led into trafficking. Sexually exploited victims [91%] name the ones most intimate with them as the main cause that forced them into sexual exploitation. 98% of the trafficked children have disclosed that their ‘intimate partners’[ii] were the primary sources that manipulated them into trafficking, usually ending in forced sexual exploitation. 96% of the children identified as being exploited sexually were all girls.
The percentage of adults from a household that take the decision to give away their children into trafficking is four times compared to those households that give away another adult from the households. Perhaps, the vulnerabilities and natural naivete of children could be one factor where adults usually get away with their actions. In most of these cases, the intent is often to gain profitably by virtue of procuring material benefits. But it is not always the case. When difficult circumstances plague their households, families usually perceive mistakenly. When a family sends a child abroad for better opportunities or to receive better education, they often, although unknowingly, expose their children to risky environments by placing them with agencies who could be human traffickers in disguise. Often, it is these agencies that exploit these families upon discovering their weak economic backgrounds for their own benefit. Again, a set of households may not have the slightest iota of greed but may unwittingly take decisions regarding the betterment of their children by putting them into the hands of a set of agents, often unaware of the agency’s principles and integrity.
The abuse of children by traffickers
‘Different types of harm are caused during different phases of trafficking’.[iii] According to the Reference Guide on Protecting the Rights of Child Victims of Trafficking in Europe, the process of procuring and trafficking children takes place at three different levels: child recruitment, movement, and exploitation of the child. The different levels could take place in two different countries, even though the trafficking chain is based in a single country.
During the course of trafficking, the child undergoes severe traumatic stress on his/her undeveloped psyche. Apart from their basic civil rights being violated, they suffer physically and psychologically. Rehabilitating the battered minds of these children is a very long and arduous process and the soulfully defeated child takes years to come to terms with their pulverized selves. The vicious evil that trafficking symbolizes ensures that its victims do not avail of any rights that a civilized society has defined in order to empower the minds of every citizen. A trafficked child is a groveling slave in the truest meaning of the word. Every aspect of the ‘11 aspects that make up the UNICEF Guidelines containing standards for good practice in the protection and assistance to child victims of trafficking’[iv] is violated.
It is impossible to evaluate and measure the psychological harm the minds of the children suffer during and after the soul numbing experience. Not every child that is recruited or manipulated is sweet talked into the trafficking environment. The most vulnerable children are those who are from poverty stricken backgrounds, but an economically deprived background is not the only prerequisite that attracts the attentions of human traffickers. They scour the ravaged environments of nations torn by wars to seek out displaced children with missing guardians. They prey upon young underaged virgin girls and lure them unwittingly to become wives to rich old Arab men, often in full connivance with the families. They keep a constant lookout for young children in war torn environments with no documents on them as means of identification. They connect through intermediaries with poor families to broker deals, ostensibly to recruit their wards into academic environments for the betterment of their future, but in reality, to exploit them for their own benefits. ‘In 1999 the International Labour Conference adopted Convention No. 182 on the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour. It includes the sale and trafficking of children as one of the worst forms of child labour as well as debt bondage, serfdom, and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.’[v] Human traffickers thrive on the vulnerabilities they perceive in the ones that gain their interest, be they adults or children.
Figure 1: the four phases of trafficking [vi]
Trafficked children suffer unbearably in each phase of trafficking. Therefore, the most important priority of enforcement agencies and rescue groups is to tackle the issue of child trafficking in the initial phase itself. But it is very difficult to even guess the phase that has trapped the children. The last stage should be given absolute attention, because it empowers the child to recognize situations, circumstances, and circumspect encounters, and to either report the person or make the quickest exit from the location and from the clutches of the perpetrator. In reality, it is an extremely difficult process, but it is highly encouraging that at least efforts have been made to identify the stages that somehow give an overall gist of the modus operandi of the traffickers.
What does a trafficked child experience?
As humans, what do we value most? Freedom, yes? The human spirit soars when it is allowed the absolute benefit of being able to exist as a human being, without being fettered by anything. It revels in the absolute sense of being at one with its innermost essence. And what is our innermost essence? Our abilities to be joyful at those things that give us joy. Anything less than this is the first step to being imprisoned. Not by steel rods surrounding our bodies, as in a prison cell, but the mindfulness of being caged because all movement has been restricted, all faculties curbed, all rights taken away. Now, think. If a fully grown adult can perceive this soulfully, just think, then in what measure shall the mind of an innocent, naïve child feel when the child’s innate soulfulness is thwarted willfully, deliberately, and cruelly?
Allow me to narrate two experiences that I faced when I was a young lad of about 10 years of age. Immediately after the summer holidays had ended, I, among a group of three other boarders, along with the father of one of the boarders who accompanied us as a caretaker for the journey [we were en route to our boarding school at Goa, a place 590 kms away from the city in which I lived], boarded a long distance train at a nodal railway junction headed to Goa. In the middle of the journey, we lads frolicked about on the train. Typical of young kids, it was sheer restlessness and our innate friskiness that made us leave our seats and go towards the latched main door of our train compartment to stare out at the passing scenery. We often did that. Leave our seats and gravitate towards the door of the compartment to simply stare out of the speeding train. I do not remember when the man had materialized but there he was, an elderly man, suddenly appearing behind me from somewhere as I was busily engrossed with the scenery passing outside the window. He was groping me. At that time, I did not know that, but I distinctly remember the feeling of uneasiness at what the man was doing. The moment I got an opportunity, I squirmed out from his clutches and quickly walked over to our seat.
The second experience was at another nodal railway junction in Goa. I was about eleven years old and I may have gone to the place to pick up some delicacies that my mother asked me to bring along as I was to leave in a day or two for the mid-term holidays back to my city. As I stood on the railway platform waiting for the train to take me to the place where my boarding school was located, out of sheer curiosity, my attentions went to a man holding a thick bunch of currency notes in his hands. He held the currency notes in both his palms in the same semi-circular manner a card player holds a hand of cards in his hand. It was the money that somehow mesmerized my senses. Now, I could also see that the man was intently, very very intently staring at me while simultaneously fiddling with the currency notes in both his hands. Before I could make a move towards him, my mother’s silent injunction flashed through my mind: on the road, if any stranger shows you money, turn away from them. Every time I think about that incident, even today, I somehow feel that my beloved mother’s strict warning somehow saved me, but from what I do not know. Actually, I shudder to think about what would have transpired had I ignored that flash of warning inside my mind.
If I were to explain my feelings of the first experience, it would be sheer uneasiness that my body felt at the strange doings of an elderly stranger to it. Why did I not speak out or confront the man? Because I was too shy and unable to articulate my disgust at what I was experiencing every time the man groped me. My childish naivete could not grasp the aberrant behavior of the stranger. My fear at voicing out my loathing kept my silence. Yet, I was not a trafficked child, manipulated, coerced, or intimidated. If a spectrum of questions assaulted my innocent mind at that experience, then what does a trafficked innocent child really suffer?
***
References:-
[i] https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/our_work/DMM/MAD/Counter-trafficking%20Data%20Brief%20081217.pdf - IOM data brief on child victims of human trafficking
[ii] ibid
[iii] 2.2 child trafficking as a violation of the child’s rights
[iv] 1. 2 UNICEF Guidelines, CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO CHILD TRAFFICKING AND UNICEF GUIDELINES
[v] REFERENCE GUIDE ON PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF CHILD VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING IN EUROPE/Chapter 2, Essential Information about Child Trafficking 2.1., What is trafficking? / pg. 16 [vi] ibid, 2.2, pg. 17, REFERENCE GUIDE ON PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF CHILD VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING IN EUROPE