Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Children and Youth Services Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth Human traﬃcking: A review of the crime in Odisha, India Rohan Kumar a, ⁎ , Niharranjan Mishra b , Pooja Shree Mishra b a Department of Industrial Design, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769008, India b Department of Humanities of Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela 769008, India ARTICLEINFO Keywords: Odisha Human traﬃcking Rescue operations Anti-traﬃcking model Vulnerabilities ABSTRACT Human traﬃcking is a multi-layered criminal oﬀence that has plagued India and people in the Odisha (State in the Republic of India) are at an alarming risk of trapped in traﬃcking. Traﬃcking takes several forms of ex- ploitation, ranging from forced servitude to commercial sexual exploitation in the state. Owing to its high rural population, Odisha has emerged as a source for traﬃcking in the last decade. This study analyses the secondary data from various online sources and addresses the major causes which encourages the traﬃckers to trap more people in the racket of traﬃcking. It also provides a statistical analysis of the crime in the state with major stakeholder analysis followed by a comparative study of the anti-traﬃcking model used in the north-eastern states of India. It also addresses the vulnerabilities of the victims who are forced into traﬃcking and the socio- economic factors that contribute to their vulnerabilities. The article outlines several central and state anti- traﬃcking legal policies which range from countering traﬃcking to the successful rehabilitation of the victims. Analysing the several sociological aspects which catalyse the process of traﬃcking in the community, the study aims to paint a clearer picture of the scenario of traﬃcking in Odisha whilst recognising the vulnerable people based on the rescue operations made by the state government. 1. Introduction “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves”, (Lincoln, 1859) quoting Abraham Lincoln in the context of forced slavery which still exists in the 21st century with a diﬀerent termi- nology as “Traﬃcking”. Despite the exhaustive measures of various nations, such as the global abolition of the slave trade in the 19th century and criminalising prostitution, none of them proven eﬀective to combat all forms of human traﬃcking (Goetz, 2012–13). In the 20th century, slavery and human trade were oﬃcially outlawed by every nation, criminals have found numerous other ways to keep the slave trade alive hence giving birth to a new form of slave trade known widely as “Human Traﬃcking” (Aronowitz, 2009). Human traﬃcking majorly takes two forms, sexual exploitation and forced labour and servitude (UNODC U. N., UNODC report on human traﬃcking exposes modern form of slavery, 2009). Human traﬃcking is a complex crime as it involves a group of oﬀences woven together for a collective purpose. This happens in several stages, starting from procuring victims, threa- tening the procured victims into servitude and the purpose of acquiring the victims (UNODC U. N., 2008). The concept of human traﬃcking was ﬁrst introduced in the 19th century in the judicial discourse, and the idea matured more in the 20th century. (Burke, 2018) outlays the various forms human traﬃcking takes. Human traﬃcking violates the fundamental human rights which are entitled to any human being (UNGA, 1948)”. The concept of “Modern Slavery” needs to be under- stood to address the issue. The idea of Modern Slavery can be broken down into two diﬀerent forms, namely “Forced Labour” and “Forced Marriage” (OHCHR O.O., 2014). This practice is more prevalent in countries with lower female to male sex ratio (Nations, 2014). The United Nations Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages, is a signiﬁcant step by the in- ternational forum to combat and prevent all types of forced marriages around the world, sadly it is yet to be ratiﬁed by India (OHCHR U.N., 1962). After the industrial revolution, many industries and companies started ﬂourishing like mushroom spores and the need for labour, which encouraged the traﬃckers to recruit more victims to be exploited under the false pretence of work, where the victims have no idea about the type of work, working hours and environment or the pay (Cullen- DuPont, 2009). Human Traﬃcking involved in physically, sexually, verbally, emotionally and ﬁnancially harassing and exploiting the vic- tims (Sujatha, 2017). Human traﬃcking is rising at an alarming rate in Odisha, from just 0.95% of the total cases reported in India in 2012 to a staggering 5.44% in 2018 (Government of India, 2020) and this is aﬀecting several https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105532 Received 5 August 2020; Received in revised form 24 September 2020; Accepted 27 September 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: kumarrohan15@gmail.com (R. Kumar). Children and Youth Services Review 119 (2020) 105532 Available online 30 September 2020 0190-7409/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T