E-Paper
International Day of the Girl Child: Preventing intergenerational trafficking
This article is authored by Veerendra Mishra, IPS, Madhya Pradesh.
he was barely ten when she first learned the rules of her world — not in a classroom, but in the narrow lanes of the village where women’s laughter was traded for survival. Her grandmother once stood there, her mother too. The little girl knew that when the time came, she would inherit not a home, not a surname, but a destiny. This is not a story from fiction. It is the chilling reality of intergenerational trafficking, where sexual exploitation is passed down as inheritance, and freedom remains a distant dream.
On this International Day of the Girl Child, while the world celebrates empowerment and equality, it is essential to confront the dark continuity that persists across generations in parts of our society. Intergenerational trafficking represents the most entrenched form of bondage, where gender, poverty, caste, and silence conspire to ensure that daughters remain prisoners of their traditional pasts. It is not a single act of crime but a continuum of exploitation, rooted in centuries of deprivation and systemic neglect.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles and publishes data on human trafficking registered under Sections 143 and 144 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, earlier Sections 370 and 370A of the Indian Penal Code. However, the data compiled by NCRB does not categorise trafficking based on intergenerational patterns. The absence of such data is itself a telling silence because what is not counted remains unseen, and what is unseen remains unaddressed. Behind every statistic of a rescued child, there may be generations of unrecorded suffering that the system has failed to trace.
India has made significant strides in building legal and institutional safeguards to protect its children. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, amended in 2021, stands as a robust framework for ensuring safety, security, and rehabilitation. Through structures such as the Child Welfare Committees and District Child Protection Units, and under schemes like Mission Vatsalya, children in distress receive institutional care, education, health care, and psychosocial support. The ministry of women and child development and the ministry of home affairs have also made sustained efforts to strengthen state capacity through capacity building programmes taken up by BPR&D, academic institutions of police, and others. Anti Human Trafficking Units, are established in each district to address the issue of trafficking. These efforts reflect intent and investment, yet the cycle persists because intergenerational trafficking is visibly invisible. Instead of intervention by law enforcement agencies, it demands sustained engagement, empathy, and societal transformation.
The heart of the problem lies not only in criminal networks but in inheritance of stigma, poverty, and neglect. When a child remains unregistered and excluded from school, fights for entitlements, suffers social exclusion the cycle quietly resets. Laws may temporarily deter, but without long-term rehabilitation, education, and social acceptance, prevention remains a distant dream. The real battle is not only against traffickers, but against the ecosystem that normalises their existence.
To break this chain, prevention must move from reaction to anticipation. It begins with recognising high-risk communities where generations have been trapped in systemic vulnerability. It requires law enforcement to work hand in hand with social welfare systems, education departments, and community networks. Every girl falling in the customary trap must be seen not merely as a victim, but as a future citizen, whose rehabilitation demands destigmatisation, restoration of self-dignity and self-esteem, and economic independence through skillful education. Education and skill development must be at the core of prevention, enabling girls to claim agency over their own lives. Simultaneously, every child born in red-light areas or marginalised pockets must have access to legal identity, school admission, and healthcare without discrimination. The social welfare and police machinery must converge to ensure that these children are not invisible to the State.
Equally vital is community engagement. Panchayats, local leaders, and religious heads must be sensitised and mobilised as protectors, not persecutors. The shame must shift from the victim to the perpetrator, from silence to accountability. Society must create space for survivors to rebuild, not retreat. A daughter should never have to bear the burden of her mother’s exploitation simply because society refuses to open its doors.
Studies should be encouraged to understand the extent of vulnerability and identify causative factors perpetuating victimisation in intergenerational trafficking for evidence-based interventions and policy design. Prevention is not an event; it is a continuum, just as trafficking itself is. The government’s commitment, reflected in schemes like Mission Vatsalya and institutional mechanisms like AHTUs, must now extend towards building a model of community resilience that stops the crime before it begins.
As an IPS officer and a social worker, I have witnessed both the despair and the courage that live side by side in these communities. I have been part of the journey of many girls from these communities, whose resilience is hope for many more. Their get-away prove that intervention works but only when it is consistent, compassionate, and community-driven. The police, civil society, and the public must together create a firewall strong enough to protect not just one child, but every generation that follows.
On this International Day of the Girl Child, let us promise that no girl will inherit the pain of her mother’s past. Let us ensure that the next generation of India’s daughters inherits education, dignity, and opportunity, not exploitation. The prevention of intergenerational trafficking is not merely a policy imperative. It is a moral responsibility, a test of our humanity, and the truest measure of our nation’s progress. India’s girl children deserve not just rescue, but redemption.
This article is authored by Veerendra Mishra, IPS, Madhya Pradesh.
