Develop a comprehensive anti-trafficking law: US tells India

 The US has accused India of being a ''source, destination and transit country'' for forced labour and sex trafficking, asking the country to develop a comprehensive anti-trafficking law and increase prosecutions to combat such crimes.

The official US report, which was released by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday, says that the forced labour of millions of its citizens constitutes India's largest trafficking problem, but noted that New Delhi is making significant efforts to comply with the minimum standards for its elimination.

For the second consecutive year, the report has placed India on Tier 2 list of countries, whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).

The report said that "India is a source, destination and transit country for men, women and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. The forced labour of millions of its citizens constitutes India's largest trafficking problem."

Men, women and children in debt bondage are forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories, it said.

A common characteristic of bonded labour is the use of physical and sexual violence as coercive tools. Ninety per cent of trafficking in India is internal, and those from India's most disadvantaged social strata, including the lowest castes, are most vulnerable, it said.