Transnational Issues India
Disputes - international:
since China and India launched a security and foreign policy
dialogue in 2005, consolidated discussions related to the dispute
over most of their rugged, militarized boundary, regional nuclear
proliferation, Indian claims that China transferred missiles to
Pakistan, and other matters continue; various talks and
confidence-building measures have cautiously begun to defuse
tensions over Kashmir, particularly since the October 2005
earthquake in the region; Kashmir nevertheless remains the site of
the world's largest and most militarized territorial dispute with
portions under the de facto administration of China (Aksai Chin),
India (Jammu and Kashmir), and Pakistan (Azad Kashmir and Northern
Areas); in 2004, India and Pakistan instituted a cease fire in
Kashmir and in 2005, restored bus service across the highly
militarized Line of Control; Pakistan has taken its dispute on the
impact and benefits of India's building the Baglihar Dam on the
Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir to the World Bank for arbitration;
UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has
maintained a small group of peacekeepers since 1949; India does not
recognize Pakistan's ceding historic Kashmir lands to China in 1964;
disputes persist with Pakistan over Indus River water sharing; to
defuse tensions and prepare for discussions on a maritime boundary,
in 2004, India and Pakistan resurveyed a portion of the disputed
boundary in Sir Creek estuary at the mouth of the Rann of Kutch;
Pakistani maps continue to show its Junagadh claim in Indian Gujarat
State; discussions with Bangladesh remain stalled to delimit a small
section of river boundary, to exchange 162 miniscule enclaves in
both countries, to allocate divided villages, and to stop illegal
cross-border trade, migration, violence, and transit of terrorists
through the porous border; Bangladesh protests India's attempts to
fence off high-traffic sections of the border; dispute with
Bangladesh over New Moore/South Talpatty/Purbasha Island in the Bay
of Bengal deters maritime boundary delimitation; India seeks
cooperation from Bhutan and Burma to keep Indian Nagaland and Assam
separatists from hiding in remote areas along the borders; Joint
Border Committee with Nepal continues to demarcate minor disputed
boundary sections; India maintains a strict border regime to keep
out Maoist insurgents and control illegal cross-border activities
from Nepal
Refugees and internally displaced persons:
refugees (country of origin): 92,394 (Tibet/China) 57,274 (Sri
Lanka) 9,761 (Afghanistan)
IDPs: 600,000 (resulting from 26 December 2004 tsunami); 500,000
(Jammu and Kashmir conflicts; most IDPs are Kashmiri Hindus) (2005)
Trafficking in persons:
current situation: India is a source, destination, and transit
country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of
forced or bonded labor and commercial sexual exploitation; the large
population of men, women, and children - numbering in the millions -
in debt bondage face involuntary servitude in brick kilns, rice
mills, and embroidery factories, while some children endure
involuntary servitude as domestic servants; internal trafficking of
women and girls for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation
and forced marriage also occurs; the government estimates that 90
percent of India's sex trafficking is internal; India is also a
destination for women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh trafficked
for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation; boys from
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are trafficked through India
to the Gulf states for involuntary servitude as child camel jockeys;
Indian men and women migrate willingly to the Persian Gulf region
for work as domestic servants and low-skilled laborers, but some
later find themselves in situations of involuntary servitude
including extended working hours, nonpayment of wages, restrictions
on their movement by withholding of their passports or confinement
to the home, and physical or sexual abuse
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - India has been on the Tier 2 Watch
List since 2004 for its failure to show evidence of increasing
efforts to address trafficking in persons
Illicit drugs:
world's largest producer of licit opium for the pharmaceutical
trade, but an undetermined quantity of opium is diverted to illicit
international drug markets; transit point for illicit narcotics
produced in neighboring countries; illicit producer of methaqualone;
vulnerable to narcotics money laundering through the hawala system
This page was last updated on 19 December, 2006
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@Indian Ocean
Introduction Indian Ocean
Background:
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's five oceans
(after the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean, but larger than the
Southern Ocean and Arctic Ocean). Four critically important access
waterways are the Suez Canal (Egypt), Bab el Mandeb
(Djibouti-Yemen), Strait of Hormuz (Iran-Oman), and Strait of
Malacca (Indonesia-Malaysia). The decision by the International
Hydrographic Organization in the spring of 2000 to delimit a fifth
ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion of the Indian Ocean
south of 60 degrees south latitude.