FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM 2 Trafficking is a highly complex process involving many actors – victims, survivors, their families, communities and other third parties that recruit, transport, harbour and use the labour of trafficked victims1. Given its complex nature it has generally been found that trafficking is essentially a gender and age specific phenomenon affecting women and children rather than men.2 There are undoubtedly instances of trafficking of men as well. However, trafficking in men in no way approximate the dimensions of trafficking in women and children. Men are generally smuggled or illegally transported, whereas women and children are trafficked. Further trafficking has to be seen as part of the process of international migration as trafficking involves movement of people. Lopsided globalization of the late twentieth century has added to the problem by freeing the movement of capital but restricting the movement of labour, by following restrictive migration policies. This has created extensive opportunities for illegal migration, networks and trafficking to flourish. Trafficking also poses a serious public health concerns. The victims of trafficking are most vulnerable to HIV / AIDS leading many organizations to address the trafficking issue while working on prevention of HIV / AIDS. 1 Draft Asian Development Bank Report for Regional Technical Assistance for Combating Trafficking in Women and Children in South Asia, Country Report of India, March 2000, p.4. 2 Jyoti Sanghera, Trafficking of Women and Children in South Asia: Taking Stock and Moving Ahead , project sponsored by the UNICEF and Save the Children Alliance, Delhi, 1999, p.7.