Equality & Trafficking Policies (SL IB Geography)

• Gender inequality is common around the world and women remain under-represented and under-appreciated
• Gender parity is about acknowledging the equal contribution that women (and men) make to society
• The UN's Sustainable Development Goal 5, focuses on gender equality and sets a target of 'achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls everywhere by 2030'
• There has been some improvement in equality, namely:
  • Maternal mortality is decreasing in most places
  • Literacy rates and secondary education are increasing in many countries
  • In the workplace, many countries are making progress in equality, although it remains slow
• It is HICs where the biggest gains in equality have occurred, however, women still face rising costs and job insecurity
  • Many jobs are part-time or independent work that offer lower wages and fewer benefits
  • Housing and child-care costs have risen, offsetting the benefits of employment
  • Many companies still have a pay gap between male and female wages
  • Women still remain the primary household carers, often working long hours to manage work and home
• Women face long-established societal barriers that limit their ability to adapt to new working environments such as upskilling to work with automated systems
• Women have less access to technology and there is lower participation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields than men

Gender equality in Kerala, India

• In India, gender inequality is well established through patriarchal views, gender norms, traditions and structures
• Even though, globally, girls have a higher survival rate from birth, India is the only large country where more girls die than boys and girls are more likely to drop out of school
• Indian girls are more likely to face restrictions on freedom of movement and decisions around work, marriage, friends and education
• Wife beating is considered justified if she neglects or disrespects the house, children, in-laws or husband
• Only 25% of Indian women enter the formal workplace
• Most women are employed in agriculture; only 7% work in professional, technical, or managerial occupations
• The majority of Indian women do not have money of their own to use as they wish
• Less than 1:6 women have a bank or savings account they can use
  • Kerala, Delhi, and Goa are the only states where more than 1:4 women have an account 

Map of Kerala State, India

• Kerala, situated in the south-west of India, is the most densely populated region of India
• Known as a progressive region because of its high levels of social development, despite having the lowest per capita income of India
• Thiruvananthapuram is the state's capital and largest city, with just over 1.6 million people
• Kochi city is Kerala's financial, commercial and industrial capital and has the highest GDP per capita in the state 
• The region has improved healthcare, literacy rates and lowered its birth rate
• Kerala recognises the status of women as being important to its development
  • Girls are educated to the same standard as boys
  • Open access to colleges and universities
  • Women often study medical sciences to become doctors and nurses
  • Jobs are open to men and women and female employment is not unusual
  • Women have some autonomy over their personal lives

• In the latest census, the sex ratio stood at 1084 females per 1000 males in Kerala, compared to the national average of 940 females per 1000 males
• Kerala has an infant mortality rate of 6 per 1000 live births, compared with a national rate of 26.6 deaths per 1000 live births
• The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) for India in 2022 was 2.2 children per woman of childbearing age, whereas it is 1.8 in Kerala, well below the replacement level
• The National Statistical Office (NSO) of India, reported that female literacy rate stands at:
  • 70.3 % across India
  • Rajasthan has the lowest female literacy rate of 57.6%
  • Kerala has the highest at 95.2%
• The current life expectancy in India (2023) is 70.42 years, (male 68.5 years and female 70,2 years) and is a 0.33% increase from 2022
  • The life expectancy is 75.2 years in Kerala
  • 78 years for females and 72.5 yrs for males
  • This is due to:
    • A well-developed, universal access to healthcare 
    • Lower levels of poverty

• Although Kerala has a some gender parity, women are still marginalised:
  • Violence and sexual harassment towards women is common and related to male alcohol abuse
  • Women lack economic control over their own wealth
  • Although education is equal, 70% of women are unemployed as opposed to just 18% of educated men
  • They are more likely to be employed in low-wage jobs such as agriculture, domestic work and the informal sector
  • It is still the female who has the domestic responsibilities such as:
    • Child rearing
    • Care giver for elderly relatives
    • Cooking
    • Cleaning
    • Water and fuelwood collection
• There are self-help groups aimed at empowering women from poorer households and micro-financing systems to help support women back into employment
  • The Kerala Women's Commission - the commission aims to 'safeguard the rights of women and ensure their protection and equality against any form of harassment and issues faced in the family and community'
  • The commission was created to:
    • Ensure the protection and welfare of women
    • Handle gender-based issues 
    • Make recommendations to the state government on women-based issues
    • Raise public awareness on female-based legislation in the state
  • The Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation Ltd - aims to expand economic and social opportunities for women through:
    • Job oriented training and development programs
    • Loan programmes for female entrepreneurs
    • Finishing School to provide young girls with corporate working skills
    • Gender Awareness Programmes
  • Kerala State Social Welfare Board - aims to raise awareness regarding the legal and human rights of females and to provide care, protection and rehabilitation of children, the disabled, and the elderly
• Even with numerous achievements and improvements in Kerala, there are still issues surrounding gender parity and it is important for Kerala and India to improve:
  • Skill-building for future employment trends (digital and technology)
  • Job opportunities in key sectors
  • Corporate policies to promote diversity
  • Programs that address deep-rooted societal norms regarding the role of women in work and at home

• Human trafficking remains a serious global issue
• The USA's Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (TVPA) defines severe forms of trafficking in persons as:
  • Sex trafficking - where commercial sexual acts are introduced by 'force, fraud, or coercion' 
  • Modern slavery - the recruitment, keeping, transporting or obtaining of a person for labour or services through force, fraud, or manipulation for the purpose of controlling a person 

Patterns of trafficking

• The UN notes that:

Even though all human trafficking cases have their individual characteristics, most follow the same pattern: people are abducted or recruited in the country of origin, transferred through transit regions and then exploited in the destination country

• Past trafficking would have been between two nations, whereas now, it is more likely to be across multiple borders 
• Domestic servitude is on the increase, where victims are tricked into handing over their identification papers and travel documents to restrict their freedom
  • These victims are usually hidden in plain sight and forced to work in homes as nannies, maids or domestic help
• The UN included anti-trafficking measures in three of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015
• Both the US and the UN produce annual reports on global trafficking and encourage governments to 'join the fight' through: 
  • Increasing protection of all victims of trafficking
  • Prosecution of traffickers
  •  Help other governments prevent trafficking populations at risk 

Risk

• Certain populations are at more risk than others and these include:
  • Religious minorities
  • People with disabilities 
  • LGBTIQA+ people
  • Refugees
  • Migrants
  • Homeless

Costs

• It is difficult to evaluate the full scope and scale of trafficking, given its hidden nature
• However, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that 49.6 million people are trapped in modern slavery and is worth $150 billion a year
• Of these:
  • 27.6 million are in forced labour
  • 22 million in forced marriage
  • 3.3 million are children in forced labour
• Of the 27.6 million people in forced labour:
  • 6.3 million are in forced commercial sexual exploitation 
  • 17.3 million are in private homes
  • 3.9 million in forced labour imposed by governments
• Women and girls account for:
  • 4.9 million in commercial sexual exploitation
  • 6 million in forced labour
• 12% of all those in forced labour are children, with more than half in commercial sexual exploitation
• Asia and the Pacific region have the highest number of people in forced labour (15.1 million)
• The U.S. Department of Labour has identified 159 goods from 78 countries made by forced and child labour 
• The most common goods are:
  • Cotton
  • Coffee
  • Rice
  • Clothing, footwear and textiles (carpets)
  • Gold, coal and diamonds

Policies

• It is unlikely that any single country or policy will end human trafficking
• However, governments have attempted to reduce trafficking through:
  • Raising public awareness
  • Designing policies to prevent trafficking
• This can be achieved by governments having:
  • Up-to-date registration of all births
  • Registration of migration into an area
• Roughly, 90% of countries have agreed the UN 2003 Protocol to Prevent Support and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
• This protocol has helped to increase criminalisation of trafficking in countries that previously had no specific laws against it
• There are still some 2 billion people who live in areas where trafficking is not criminalised
  • Eight countries in Africa and the Middle East, lack anti trafficking legislation
  • Leaving a number of people unprotected and at risk

Convictions

• In 2022, a total of 5,600 human traffickers were convicted worldwide, which is low
• Although it is only an increase of around 300 convictions from the year before and 30% lower than pre-Covid-19 which stood at 9548 convictions
• Governments and NGOs believe that confiscating proceeds from crime is an effective punishment because it:
  • Deters and disrupts criminal activity
  • Cuts off funding
  • Creates the image that 'crime doesn't pay'
  • Wins public support

• To date there is little support for the victims of trafficking and modern-day slavery