Trafficking of labor migrants and exposure to interpersonal violence: Evidence from India

Abstract

The majority of studies on human trafficking focus on intimate partner violence and its consequences, particularly in the context of trafficking for sexual exploitation; very few have focused on the interpersonal violence faced by labor trafficking victims. The main objective of this study is to explore and analyze the prevalence in India of interpersonal violence against labor trafficking victims, including its causes and consequences. To this end, 25 labor trafficking victims were interviewed in areas of Odisha state that the government had declared to be “migration prone.” The interviews show that trafficked migrants were lured by dalals (brokers) with promises of employment and a better quality of life, but upon their arrival were forced to do “3-D jobs”: dirty, dangerous, and degrading. Findings revealed that, in addition to the harmful effects of the work, trafficked migrants experienced multiple forms of interpersonal violence, including verbal abuse, threats, mobbing, stalking, discrimination, physical violence, threats with weapons, and sexual violence, which co-occurred in diverse contexts at work and resulted in a wide range of physical health consequences, from head injuries to broken bones.