Slumdog Millionaire: Human Trafficking & Globalization

The film, "Slumdog Millionaire," pulls back the curtain on India’s sex slave industry. In one poignant scene, the supporting character Latika is depicted as being trafficked into the sex slave industry; she is taught courtesan skills with the intention of being sold to the highest bidder for her coveted virginity. According to Indian native Dr. Joseph De’souza, this film “highlighted the non-shiny part of India. Far from exploiting poverty, these are stories about India that demand a global response – especially for the sake of the children. This is the India of 80% of the population – the India of the slums, the outcasts, the exploited, and of abject poverty. The India where Dalit, tribal, and poor children are sold into the sex trade” (De’souza). "Slumdog Millionaire" exposes the travesty of human trafficking, a criminal economy accelerated by globalization.

Louise Brown’s "Sex Slaves: the trafficking of women In Asia" discusses the global socioeconomic conditions which cultivate human trafficking. According to Brown, the first large-scale commercial trafficking involved Chinese women who were sold to brothels in Malaya, Singapore, and Siam (modern-day Thailand) for the sexual servicing of unaccompanied Chinese male migrant laborers (Brown).

In World War II, Japan gained notoriety for its recruitment of 100,000 girls and young women, mainly Korean, for use as prostitutes servicing military personnel at a rate of seventy soldiers a day. Many of these so-called “comfort women” either committed suicide or were murdered when it became evident that Japan was losing the war. During the Vietnam War in the 1960s, American soldiers were sent to Thailand for Rest and Recuperation, generating Thailand’s substantial sex industry (Brown).

Today, Thailand’s sex industry is unofficial partners with its country’s tourism industry in advertising to Western businessmen, who come flocking by the thousands every year. Girls as young as eight are sold into human trafficking by impoverished guardians; they are imprisoned in closed brothels until they are old enough to walk the streets discreetly. Though officially illegal, Thailand’s government condones human trafficking, as tourism accounts for six percent of the country’s economy (Brown).

According to the Not For Sale campaign, a coalition of members seeking to end global slave trade, 27 million people are enslaved today. Human trafficking is the third largest criminal economy after drugs and arms (Thompson). In accordance with United Nations protocol, sociologist Gail Kligman defined human trafficking as:

"the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the 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 or 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" (Kligman).

According to professor Donna Hughes, there are three components to the sex slave industry. The first component is the buyers, that is, the men who pay for sex acts. According to professor Hughes, “Men create the demand; women are the supply” (Hughes). The second component is the profiteers, which are comprised of the traffickers, pimps, brothel owners, mafias, and corrupt officials. The third component of the sex slave industry is the culture, that is, the romanticization and glamorization of prostitution and pimping in Hollywood cinema (Hughes). The global influence of Hollywood cinema corroborates this claim.

Compelling research suggests that globalization is a major contributing factor to the prevalence of human trafficking. Author and advocate for human rights, Stephanie Limoncelli, states that, “In the last decade, human trafficking has emerged as a new area of research for sociologists and other scholars across a wide range of fields. Globalization has exacerbated the illicit trade of people and their parts within and across territorial borders, generating concern among activists and academics" (Limoncelli). Today, those activists and academics are speaking out.

Globalization is a major contributing factor to the prevalence of human trafficking because it “has resulted in an unprecedented flow of capital, goods and services, and labor into every continent and nearly every country in the world” (Jones et al.). Human trafficking is considered to be a “violation of basic human rights that is aptly viewed as a modern form of slavery” (Jones et al.). Human trafficking represents “perhaps the worst form of labor exploitation and can be regarded as one of the dark sides of globalization” (Jones et al.). Trafficked victims are “among the most vulnerable and exploited individuals in the new global economy that spawned this phenomenon” (Jones et al.).

As illustrated in "Slumdog Millioniare," the weakest individuals, most prominently children, become the object of victimization. According to journalist Richard Gunde, “Globalization has brought with it opportunities for the weak, poor, and disposed – as well as for criminals. It can be a force for liberation – as well as for enslavement. It can be measured by the flow of goods, services, and capital – as well as humans” (Gunde). Gail Kligman suggests that both urban and rural poverty are the key markers for potential victims. Kligman notes that the “trafficking of persons for the sex trade is an expanding feature of the global service economy” (Kligman). As globalization continues to expand in the 21st century, will human trafficking know no end?

Works Cited
Brown, Louise. "Sex Slaves: the trafficking of women in Asia." Bangkok: Virago Press, 2000. Print.
De'souza, Joseph. "Slumdog Millionaire's India: My Sobering Reality." Sojourners. Jan. 23 2009. Web.
Gunde, Richard. "The Dark Side of Globalization: Trafficking & Transborder Crime to, through, and from Europe." UCLA International Institute. May 26 2004. Web.
Jones, Lorid et al. "Globalization and human trafficking." Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare. June 2007. Web.
Kligman, Gail. "The Dark Side of Globalization: Trafficking & Transborder Crime to, through, and from Europe." UCLA International Institute. May 26 2004. Web.
Limoncelli, Stephanie. "Human Trafficking: Globalization, Exploitation, and Transnational Sociology." Sociology Compass. December 2008. Web.
Thompson, Emma. "Human Trafficking & Globalization." The Human Trafficking Project. Feb. 19, 2008. Web.