Forced labor, prostitution: in India, Covid orphans fall prey to child trafficking

As the Covid-19 pandemic slows in many countries, notably thanks to large vaccination campaigns, India is engaged in a terrible struggle against a second wave that overwhelms its health system. If the peak of contaminations seems to have been exceeded, the country remains today considered as thecurrent global epicenter of the epidemic.

The hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of hospitalizations leave behind many orphans. On social networks, and in particular on Twitter via the hashtag #covidorphans, many people have mobilized to try to help or have these children adopted on their own. But sometimes these good intentions put them at great risk.

“When photos and locations are shared, child trafficking networks are activated by posing as adopters, explains Akancha Srivastava, who runs a helpline for children in distress on WhatsApp. Some tell us “we will fund adoptions of Covid orphans if you give us information about them”.His line receives 3,500 to 4,000 messages every day.

Forced labor and prostitution

The orphans whom these black companies would succeed in getting their hands on then risk being taken to more rural and even poorer areas, where the police are less present, explains to Bloomberg Jalla Lalithamma, an activist with the NGO People’s Organization for Rural Development. “Young girls are sent to factories in nearby towns to work and then are forced into prostitution.”

Smriti Irani, Minister of Women and Child Development called for “Do not share photos and details of vulnerable children in distress on social networks”, and instead turn to the police or the official hotline set up by the ministry.

The country already had around 350,000 orphans before the pandemic. Since then, the situation is such that the public authorities are no longer able to measure their extent. Puja Marwaha, CEO of the NGO Child Rights and You, fears that the country has gone back years.

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