United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) defines Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. Human trafficking is a crime against the person because of the violation of the victim's right to movement through coercion and because of their commercial exploitation. It is the third largest organized crime in the world.

Causes of Human Trafficking

• Political Instability: It creates unstable conditions in which people may live in constant fear with limited options for survival or earning a living. It may also lead to forced migration leading to homelessness, unemployment, and other deprivations of which traffickers may take advantage.
• Poverty: Traffickers specifically target poor and marginalized communities to offer vulnerable individuals false opportunities to improve their circumstances. Parents are often forced to sell their children due to poverty.
• Gender Inequality: makes women more vulnerable to recruitment by traffickers.
• Addictions: Traffickers use substance dependency and addiction to keep control of the trafficked person. Some traffickers purposely supply drugs to vulnerable people to break down their resistance and coerce them into forced labour or sex.
• Mental Health: People with mental health issues face a variety of challenges including isolation, diminished capacity to consent or offer informed consent, and limited ability to assess risk and detect illintentions. Traffickers are skilled in detecting these vulnerabilities and manipulating them to their advantage.
• Online Vulnerability: Traffickers maintain an online presence to lure vulnerable adults and children with the goal of meeting them in person, to take and circulate explicit photos, and to coerce an individual to comply with their demands.

Human Trafficking in India

• The most current available data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) indicate that there were more than 8,000 reported cases of human trafficking across India in 2016.
• West Bengal (having porous borders with Bangladesh and Nepal) has become a human trafficking hub as it registered more than one-third of the total number of victims in 2016.
• India is a source, transit as well as a consumer country in SouthEast Asian human-trafficking industry.

Steps taken to combat human trafficking

• India ratified the UNTOC in 2011.
• The Government of India applies the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013, as well as Section 370 and 370A IPC provides stringent punishment for human trafficking; trafficking of children for exploitation in any form including physical exploitation; or any form of sexual exploitation, slavery, servitude or the forced removal of organs.
• Apart from this, there many other laws and provisions that protect people from exploitation, like  Article 23 (1) of Indian Constitution prohibits Trafficking in Human and forced labour, The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA) for prevention of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation, Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976,Protection of Children from Sexual offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation, etc