Human Trafficking of Females in India

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Human trafficking has been around for centuries in many countries. It has become a major problem in India among women and young girls. Although men can also be trafficked, the major problem has settled within the female population. Everyday women are taken from their homes and sold into being maids, wives, or prostitutes. People tend to think that they willingly go into this situation, when in reality they do not wish for this to happen and long for their family. The human trafficking system is used to sexually exploit and oppress them.
Not all girls in India get to attend school, those who are fifteen and do not attend school are more likely to be forced into illegal marriages. Those who did go to school and then were forced into marriage, did not complete their schooling and dropped out. According to UNICEF, "nearly half of the female population is married by the age of eighteen" (UNICEF 1). This is taking away the children's childhood and chance to enjoy themselves before they grow up. Though there has been a general decrease in the percentage, there still a large amount of girls that are still being forced into marriage. Along with the child marriage, child pregnancy is an issue as well. "Girls age fifteen to nineteen are more likely to experience delivery complications compared to a thirty to thirty-four year old." (UNICEF 1). Child marriage and pregnancy are putting the young girls in danger because they are not mentally or psychically mature enough to handle and or endure it. Some child marriages are arranged at birth, that is a custom but selling children to be married is not. Eighteen is the legal age to be wed in India, anything under the age of eighteen is illegal. That doesn't stop anyone from preventing the marriag...

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...hem to warn them about what can happen. Although in most cases they still end up being trafficked. Most girls that are trafficked are from villages that are isolated. Their fathers, brothers or uncles would be the ones to sell them so they could have money to get by and so they could afford what they needed. This still happens to this day. Many people don't believe that parents could sell their own children into prostitution or marriage, but they have and do.
Girls that are assigned to work in brothels are forced to have sex with clients between the ages of ten to twenty-five a day.

Works Cited

Lahiri, Tripti. "Child Marriage in India: A Human Trafficking Problem?." (2014): n.pag. Web. 10 Mar 2014. .
McCormick, Patricia. Sold. New York: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2008. Print.

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