Criminal Justice Responses to Sex Trafficking in West Bengal, India: A Representative Study from Victims’ Lenses
| Published date | 01 April 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/25166069241236911 |
| Author | Ankita Chakraborty,Dipa Dube |
| Date | 01 April 2024 |
Criminal Justice
Responses to Sex
Trafficking in
West Bengal, India:
A Representative Study
from Victims’ Lenses
Ankita Chakraborty1,2,3 and Dipa Dube2
Abstract
Known to be the oldest crime on earth, human trafficking has existed as an illegal
industry from time immemorial. Statistics reveal that every year, 1–2 million men,
women and children are trafficked worldwide, and about 0.22 million (225,000)
are from South Asia. Amongst the South-Asian countries, India faces a high-
ceilinged rate of sex trafficking and although it made its anti-trafficking interven-
tions quite early, with the inclusion of anti-trafficking provisions in its domestic
legislation and signed the United Nations Protocol, yet, the problem persisted
and assumed alarming proportions. The principal argument that has been offered
for the inept human trafficking responses in India is that the different facets of
prevention, protection and prosecution centred on the human rights priorities
of the victims are not adequately met.
The present article is based on an empirical study conducted by the authors to
understand the underpinnings of the working of the Indian criminal justice system
(CJS) from the lens of victim’s experiences in West Bengal, India. West Bengal
is one of the states located in the eastern part of the country, which shares its
borders with Bangladesh and Nepal, and acts as an epicentre of sex trafficking in
India. To determine whether the anti-trafficking interventions in India, which are
largely based on the rhetoric of raid-to-rescue, are attuned to the specific needs
of the sex trafficked survivors; the authors attempted to assess their encounters
with and confidence in the CJS. They used cross-sectional surveys to collect
qualitative data from 40 victims (n = 40) across three after-care facilities in West
Bengal, namely, Sanlaap, International Justice Mission and Mahima. The purpose
of using this phenomenological study was to describe the phenomenon as par-
ticipant-respondents experience them. In conclusion, the authors pinpointed the
necessary interventions required at the legal and procedural levels to make the
ICJS more responsive towards the needs of the sex-trafficked victims.
Original Article
Journal of Victimology
and Victim Justice
7(1) 73–93, 2024
2024 National Law
University Delhi
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/25166069241236911
journals.sagepub.com/home/vvj
1 National Law University, Meghalaya, Shillong, India
2 Rajiv Gandhi School of IP Law, IIT Kharagpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
3 Sister Nivedita University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Corresponding author:
Ankita Chakraborty, Rajiv Gandhi School of IP Law, IIT Kharagpur and Sister Nivedita University,
Kolkata, West Bengal 700156, India.
E-mails: ankita.hlc@gmail.com; ankita.c@snuniv.ac.in
74 Journal of Victimology and Victim Justice 7(1)
Keywords
Sex trafficking, criminal justice system, survivors, prevention, protection,
prosecution
Background
Known to be the oldest crimes on earth, human trafficking and slavery have survived
as illegal industries from time immemorial; but, the international attempt to define
trafficking in persons is a recent phenomenon. With the adoption of the United Nations
Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, 2000 and the Palermo Protocol and its
subsequent adoption by 146 States, certain uniformity could be reached in understand-
ing and defining the concept.3 The definition given by the United Nations Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
identifies the three basic elements of the concept as the ‘act’, the ‘means’ and the
‘purpose’. The act specifies what is done, viz.: recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harbouring or receipt of persons; the means identifies the mode through which the act
is done, viz: through threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception,
abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control
of the victim; and the purpose stipulates the intention with which the act is done, viz:
subsequent exploitation.4 Needless to say, human trafficking is perhaps the worst kind
of human exploitation and victimization where people are converted into products of
exchange to be negotiated, bought, sold, ill-treated and humiliated. Additionally, the
impact of sex trafficking as a human rights, criminal justice and public health issue
generates increased attention because of its repercussions on victims.5 In comparison
to other forms of trafficking, victims of sex trafficking are more susceptible to vio-
lence and exploitation since traffickers intend to generate huge monetary profits from
the business of prostitution. Considering this, it must be borne in mind that human
trafficking cases are of distinct nature since there are multiple suspects, multiple crime
scenes spread across the source and destination points, and multiple victims and traf-
fickers. Victims do not self-identify very often, especially, not upon initial contact with
law enforcement officers. It requires very specific and focused interventions to bring
victims to a place where they are willing to cooperate with the prosecutorial efforts.6
Hence, bringing the victims out of agony and deducing their support and cooperation
in the prosecution case becomes a post-rescue challenge. Under such circumstances,
a victim-centred, trauma-informed anti-human-trafficking framework during prose-
cution of human trafficking offences would ensure victim cooperation, effective
3 Michelle Madden Dempsey et al., Dening Sex Tracking in International and Domestic Law: Mind
The Gaps, 26 EILR 137, 140 (2000).
4 Elements of Human Tracking, UNODC (May 21, 2019, 10:00 AM), https://www.unodc.org/unodc/
5 Monica Faulkner et al., Moving Past Victimization and Trauma Toward Restoration: Mother
Survivors of Sex Tracking Share Their Inspiration, 7(2) . 46, 46–47 (2019).
6 Heather J. Clawson et al., Law Enforcement Response to Human Tracking and the Implications for
Victims: Current Practices and Lessons Learned, ICF International Company 13–14 (June 5, 2022,
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