~ 223 ~ ISSN Print: 2394-7500 ISSN Online: 2394-5869 Impact Factor: 5.2 IJAR 2016; 2(12): 223-229 www.allresearchjournal.com Received: 03-10-2016 Accepted: 04-11-2016 Dr. Vanisree Ramanthan Assistant Professor, Symbiosis Law School, Constituent of Symbiosis International University, Pune, Maharashtra, India Jaisy George Assistant Professor, Symbiosis Law School, Constituent of Symbiosis International University, Pune, Maharashtra, India Correspondence Dr. Vanisree Ramanthan Assistant Professor, Symbiosis Law School, Constituent of Symbiosis International University, Pune, Maharashtra, India ‘Women’ trafficking in India: Unearthing the key vulnerability factors using interpretative structural modeling Dr. Vanisree Ramanthan and Jaisy George Abstract Human Trafficking is not a person-centric issue; nor is it a region-centric one but a serious threat to the world population and the international community severely condemns this threat. It is a complex phenomenon and the existing laws are seemingly unable to alter its magnitude. Human trafficking as is evident is a gender-neutral issue, the end result of which being exploitation, whether it be for nonconsensual labor, or for commercial sexual exploitation purposes. Here the researchers focus their attention towards human trafficking for commercial sexual activities, wherein women are at the receiving end. The researchers through this paper limiting their scope of study to the Indian women unearth the various vulnerability factors exposing women to trafficking. Through Interpretive Structure modeling the researchers then discover the prime vulnerability factor for women’s trafficking. In the concluding remarks, the researchers propose diverse steps to alleviate this complex phenomenon, which would positively enable the society to deal with this evil effectively. Keywords: Human trafficking, women, key vulnerability factors, ISM, lacunae in laws Introduction Human trafficking is a major blow to the human race and one of the worst kinds of abuse and exploitation, of human beings in the 21 st century. The UN Protocol, the primary international instrument on the issue, defines trafficking in persons as follows: … the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. (UNODC, 2013)  Labeled as an organized-borderless crime, trafficking is grouped along with cyber crimes, terrorism, Intellectual Property violations, smuggling, piracy and as the modern day slavery which has got considerably accelerated under the shadow of globalization with the laissez- faire policy. It is, as a matter of fact an ongoing offence involving displacement of persons, with a lot of crimes and human rights violations forming part of it, the end result being exploitation, whether it be for nonconsensual labor or for commercial sexual exploitation purposes. Human rights violations like deprivation of right to life; slavery; torture; deprivation of right to security and privacy; denial of right to self-determination and autonomy; statelessness, etc. are also evident in this treacherous evil. Trafficking for sexual exploitation, happens to be its major cause worldwide, suggests that even when the offence is gender-neutral, it is usually the women and the girls who become the victims of this deception. “The historical understanding of trafficking in international law has been focused primarily on the movement of women and girls across borders for the purpose of prostitution” (UNICEF, 1999) [21] . Women are trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation; and in most cases they are driven to typical ‘gender-specific labour’, such as forced prostitution, pornography and sex tourism, or even extending to commercial marriages etc., and hence suffer gender-specific harm, including rape and other forms of violence forming part of it. It is to be noted here that these are in addition to the other International Journal of Applied Research 2016; 2(12): 223-229