Human Trafficking

Trafficking is a hard topic to deal with, talk about or write about. There are millions of victims each year, and only a few thousands are saved. There is one country whose government is almost encouraging human trafficking. China’s One Child Policy is very simple to understand.
“The rules are simple: families are permitted only one child if the first is a son.” In China if your first child is a daughter, the government will allow you to have a second child in order to have a son. Any additional births come with a $3,500 fine. For those living and working in the country, that amount is equivalent to two decades wages. This policy came from traditions in China that value sons more than daughters. As one man put it sons are Gods and daughters are a burden because of the policy.
However many traditions in China go against the policy which leaves you wondering why on earth did they make the policy? “Family planning is very, very, very strict here. Last year, I had a son; so now we can’t have any more children. But the tradition here is big families and lots of sons. So no one is very happy,” a man by the last name of Xin said. Not many families have the money to keep an extra child, so they are willing to sell girls. In other cases families give up their first or second born daughters, so they can keep trying to have a son as their only child.
“It’s not that these people don’t love their babies. But they are very poor and if they can sell them for a few thousand Yuan, they will do it. Family planning limits encourage the selling of girls. That way they can give birth again and hope for a boy,” a trafficking official named Yu Qing said.
Experts say the kidnapping and sale of children is a direct result of China’s One Child policy. If a family can’t produce a son options include having one stolen from a family on the other half of the country, buy one that was already put up for sale or get one from the government. Officials have abducted children from families that won’t give up their extra child/children. Despite these issues the government of China refuses to see the damage that is being created by the One Child Policy.
As the One Child policy contains, it bring additional problems. There are many more males then females. As males approach the age to marry, they find there aren’t enough females. The shortage of marriageable woman increase the demand for abducted woman. Chinese woman and other woman from all around the world are being trafficked through China for sexual exploitation, forced marriage, illegal adoption, forced labor or they are left in the streets to beg for help that usual doesn’t come. Sometimes young girls are sold to become the wife of an older man. Victims’ lives are torn apart and no one is helping them.
The policy of limiting a family to one child, preferably a male comes with consequences that perhaps were not thought of when it was written. Parents have to decide which child to keep. Some parents make a decision to sell a child and will never know what ultimately happens to them. The most horrific consequences are to those who are abducted or sold into human trafficking. Policies are generally put into place to solve a problem. The simple One Child policy has created nothing but a complicated situation.