A Quiet Crisis: Unveiling Online exploitation of children in India by Missing Link Trust
My first close brush to the issue was when I entered a red-light district way back in 2000 and saw young girls there. My probing and curiosity of where these girls come from took me to Sunderbans. Here I saw a whole village of ladies, young and old, had been trafficked, lured, conned, black mailed to Sonagachi- Asia’s largest red-light district. Most of these young women were primarily victims of a lack of education, awareness and extreme poverty. I founded a non-profit, Missing Link Trust, to address this issue.
Missing Link Trust began working in Sundarbans, a remote part of West Bengal, where 44% of sex trafficking victims in India come from. We began working on rescuing survivors of sex trafficking and providing opportunities for alternate employment so women of Sundarbans could be safer. Then I met Kashmeera, a young 14-year-old survivor. She was one of the few fortunate ones who made their way back home after being rescued in a police raid. When she was tentatively asked how it happened, she froze, her eyes widened with terror and it took some time before she muttered, she didn't know this happened. There was a complete lack of awareness of this sex trafficking, and we very soon realized how this lack of awareness was playing such a key role in so many women getting trafficked.
This, I would say, was the turning point for us in our anti trafficking advocacy. We realized that we couldn't focus on rescues and providing opportunities for survivors, our motto became - Why wait for a child to get trafficked to save her? We needed to educate the younger population so they would not become vulnerable to sex abuse, exploitation and trafficking in the first place.
While we continue our work in Sundarbans and help build resilience in communities, we’ve had to address a drastically new issue of trafficking moving online and impacting millions more people at once in the digital world.
COVID-19 pushed children online but without the cyber safety awareness to navigate the online world safely. They are unaware of the risks associated with sharing personal information, engaging with strangers, or accessing inappropriate content.
Online platforms provide opportunities for direct and unsolicited contact between children and potential perpetrators. The National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children in the USA releases reports of online Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) every year. In 2022, there were 32 million reports of suspected CSAM. Fifty-six lakhs, or 17%, are reported to come from India, the highest across the world and a 6% increase from 2021. India has topped the list consistently for the past few years. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the Centre, states and union territories to file detailed reports on how they will tackle the issue of CSAM since there could be a 200 -300% increase in the amount of content found online in the coming years.
Once CSAM of children is uploaded online, it can be bought, sold and reshared over and over for years. Each time this happens, the child is getting trafficked online.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there was a 400% increase in cyber-crimes committed against children from 2019 to 2020. The majority of these crimes involve the creation or transmission of CSAM.
That's why we believe in empowering children and adolescents through awareness and education. The World Health Organization (WHO) concluded in a study that the most effective prevention strategy when it comes to online abuse and exploitation is through an education program that is immersive, uses tools accessible to children such as games and puzzles, and is sustained over a period of time rather than a one-time intervention.
We created our Missing Awareness and Safety School program (MASSp), a program that engages adolescents with compelling audio-visual content, fostering empathy and awareness to prevent future perpetrators. Leveraging existing school systems, we maximize reach and raise awareness systematically. As this is an issue that evolves rapidly, we update our program to stay relevant to children and adolescents.
Since 2015, with the different versions of the program, we’ve reached about 1,48,000 beneficiaries across India.
In April, we listed on India’s new Social Stock Exchange, raising 120 lakhs to expand our program's reach to 29,000 more children and adolescents in vulnerable communities. We're committed to transparency and social impact.
However, our work doesn't stop there. Our program requires ongoing research and updates to remain relevant amidst evolving online risks.
Our work also aligns with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals of SDG 4 ‘Quality Education’, SDG 5 ‘Gender Equality’, SDG 8 ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’, SDG 17 ‘Partnerships for the Goals.’
Know more about our work here.
Support us to help us create a world where every child is safe from abuse and exploitation.
About the Author
Leena Kejriwal — Founder, Missing Link Trust
Leena Kejriwal is a photographer and social artist based in Mumbai and Kolkata. Was also a brand ambassador for Fuji India. Kejriwal has run successful public art and awareness campaigns to spread awareness on the issues of sex trafficking, abuse and exploitation using art and technology innovatively.
