India has one of the world’s largest and fastest growing economies yet despite its significant economic progress, a quarter of its population earns less than the government-specified poverty threshold of $0.40 per day. The contrast between the rapidly expanding developments amidst extreme levels of poverty creates conditions highly susceptible to labor and other forms of exploitation. Economic conditions in India have caused larger numbers of men and women to migrate for work as domestic servants or low-skilled laborers, often finding themselves in circumstance of involuntarily servitude and debt bondage.



Violence against women is widely and commonly accepted in India. Seventy percent of women between the age of 15- 49 have claimed to be victims of rape, coerced into sex or physically beaten. Sexual harassment and gender discrimination continues to takes place on all levels of society and within in all social classes.



The scope of trafficking in India is estimated to involve millions. Although the main issue of trafficking in India concerns internal trafficking, with approximately 90% of India’s trafficking happening within its own borders. Trafficking for sexual exploitation does exists, but trafficking for the purpose of forced or bonded labor is currently the most common and troubling form in India.