Childhood is a time for children to grow, learn, play, and thrive in a safe environment. Children, particularly those from low-income families, are more vulnerable to slavery because they are more readily misled or tricked than adults. They are easy to handle and are not likely to demand more pay or better working conditions. Child trafficking is connected to child labour, and it almost invariably leads to child abuse. Children who have been trafficked are subjected to a variety of types of abuse, including physical, mental, sexual, and emotional abuse. Children who have been trafficked are coerced into prostitution, marriage, or adoption; they perform cheap or unpaid labour, are compelled to work as house servants or beggars, and may be recruited into armed organisations. Children are exposed to violence, sexual abuse, and HIV infection as a result of human trafficking. When children are trafficked, no violence, deception or coercion needs to be involved, trafficking is merely the act of transporting or harbouring them for exploitative work. Child trafficking is quite common in India. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, one child goes missing every eight minutes. Children are sometimes kidnapped from their homes to be bought and sold on the open market. In other situations, children are duped into falling into the hands of traffickers by being offered a job, only to be enslaved once they arrive. Many children are trafficked in India for a variety of purposes, including work, begging, and sexual exploitation. Because of the nature of this crime, it is difficult to trace, and it is difficult to prevent due to weak enforcement of regulations. Poverty, a lack of education, and the need to financially support their family are some of the major causes of child trafficking in India. According to the Palermo protocol, the legal definition of human trafficking is a crime that includes three elements: the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring or receiving a person; by means of e.g. coercion, deception or abuse of vulnerability; or the purpose of exploitation, such as sexual exploitation, slavery and forced labour, among others.

Keywords: Child Labour, Sexual Slavery, Child Soldiers, Drugs Selling, Bonded Labour and Domestic Work.