Human Trafficking & Vulnerable Populations Research Lab

Overview:  Female sex workers (FSWs) as mothers are disproportionately disadvantaged and experience myriad intersecting vulnerabilities, including poverty, physical and mental health challenges, limited access to health care and health care providers, stigma and discrimination, substance use, and histories of trauma.  These risks elevate the potential for negative developmental outcomes for their children.  To date, little information exists on the contextual and familial dynamics of female sex workers and their children.  Yet, this information is critical for providing effective, evidence-informed interventions. 

Our Research:  Frames life-course developmental theory and bio-ecological systems theory, this collaboration between Dr. Dalla and Dr. Sharvari Karandikar (Ohio State University) was aimed at understand family dynamics (social support, of trafficking women and their children living in a red-light  brothel area, interviews were conducted with 19 women (aged 27 – 50; mean age 32.2 years) involved in the commercial sex industry and 12 children (aged 12 – 17; mean age 13.9 years) to learn more about family dynamics, social support, environmental and social risk associated with the community, and strategies for navigating life and survival.

Learn More Here:

• Dalla, R. L, Karandikar, S., & Chavan, R. (2025).  “Anything can happen here”:  mother-child experiences navigating life as residents of an urban red-light brothel district in India.  Family Process, 64(e70034). http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/famp.70034
• Karandikar, S., Dalla, R. L., & Casassa, K. (2024).  The women and children of India’s red-light brothel districts: An Exploratory Investigation of Vulnerability and Survival. Community Health Equity Research and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1177/2752535X241280226

Overview: Trafficking of women and girls into the commercial sex industry—by pimps, acquaintances, and even strangers through the use of force, fraud and coercion has become an issue of intense scientific scrutiny and public outrage.  However, little is known about practices of sex trafficking that are family sanctioned and community approved, despite the impact on entire sub-populations of Indians.   The Bedia are located across three Indian states.  They are a lower (Dalit) caste where engagement in the sex industry by Bedia females provides the primary source of family income. Young Bedia girls (ages 12 – 14) are chosen by elder kin (mothers, fathers, aunts) to either marry or join “the line” (sex work).  Prostituted women can never formally marry—instead, their time is devoted to earning money.   The generational norms are maintained because income made in the sex industry is significantly greater than could be made by men or women of comparable skills and education in the formal market.   Further, because of stigma, Bedia attending school or job seeking is often difficult for members of this caste.

This study: In this research, Dr. Dalla conducted in-depth personal interviews with 31 Bedia women engaged in the commercial sex industry, located across seven rural villages in Madhya Pradesh in order to better understand agency, social support, educational prospects, goals for (female) children, and intergenerational family dynamics and relationships.     

Learn More Here: 

• Dalla, R. L., Roselius, K., Johnson, V. J., Peter, J., Panchal, T. J., Ranjan, R., Mischra, M., & Sahu, S. (2023).  “It Just Happens Here”:  A life-course perspective of sex trafficking among the Bedia caste of India.  Advances in Life Course Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2022.100517 
• Dalla, R. L., Roselius, K., Erwin, S., Peter, J., Panchal, T.J., Ranjan, R., Mischra, M., & Sahu, S. (2022). Sex Trafficking among the Bedia of India:  Defying the Dominant Human Trafficking Discourse. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37 (23-24). https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605211073104
• Dalla, R. L., Jhaveri Panchal, T., Erwin, S., Peter, J., Roselius, K., Ranjan, R., Mischra, M., & Sahu, S. (2020). Structural Vulnerabilities, Personal Agency, and Caste:  Child Sex Trafficking in Rural India.  Violence and Victims, 35(03), 307-330. http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/VV-D-19-00048

Overview:  In India, bonded labor, a form of forced labor or servitude, is characterized as a cultural manifestation of exploitation cemented in generations of discriminatory social practices (e.g., caste-based hierarchies) that maintain economic deprivation and indigence, and prevent social mobility of the underclasses. There are approximately 140,000 operative brick kilns throughout India, with 65% produced in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.  And legislation has had little effect on eliminating it, as the practice is prescribed despite its illegality since 1976.

Human trafficking is divided into two categories: sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Labor trafficking is further divided into bonded labor, forced labor, and child labor. Bonded labor occurs when people repay debt via their own labor; debt often accrues and becomes impossible to pay. Debt is passed across generations--ensnaring entire lineages into servitude. Bonded labor is a pervasive form of labor trafficking and involves myriad human rights abuses. Yet, few empirical investigations exist on bonded labor and the majority of information comes from government and nongovernment organizations (Anti-Slavery International, International Organization for Migration) reports. 

Our Research:  This research was designed to: (1) identify processes of migration and recruitment into the brick kiln industry that are in violation of Indian labor laws; as well as determining how debt(s) are initially incurred, paid off, or transferred to kin; (2) identify the life-cycle of bonded laborers in the brick kiln industry-- roles of children, adults, and middle-aged/elderly including compensation, and well-being and health related, accessible services; as well as (3) identify process that maintain (or perhaps end) next-generation bonded labor practices.  Dr. Dalla and collaborator Resham Sethi, conducted interviews with 23 male and 14 female bonded laborers, as well as 13 focus group discussions (7 with men [n = 49] and six with women [n = 40]) to achieve these goals. These data have been analyzed and dissemination is ongoing. 

Learn More Here: 

• Dalla, R. L., Sethi, R., Dholpuria, H., Kaur, V., & Kaur, A. (2025).  “We want to go home”:  Migration, family dynamics and employment as experienced by bonded laborers in India’s brick kiln industry. Journal of Family and Economic Issues. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-025-10030-2

Overview: Kyrgyzstan (i.e., the Kyrgyz Republic) is a former member of the Soviet Union, and, although considered the most politically open and democratic country in Central Asia, however it is surrounded by countries known for their human-rights abuses, including Russia, China, Iran, Afghanistan. Although human trafficking  has never before been empirically investigated in the Kyrgyz Republic, it is believed to be extensive, based on: frequent irregular (and often international) migration, extreme difficulty identifying victims, and law enforcement lack of knowledge and corruption. 

Our Research: Dr. Dalla and Dr. Sarbinaz Bekmuratova (Creighton University) are collaborating with KZ-residing colleagues Baktygul N. Imankulova, M.D. and Marina Duishenkulova, M.D in an on-going mixed-method study employing in-depth interviews with survivors of sex and labor trafficking, and a country-wide survey aimed at identifying perceived knowledge, awareness, and risk for trafficking victimization aimed at understanding factors that intensify and create risk for victimization, as well as survivor perspectives on recruitment strategies, escape processes, and current needs. 

Learn More Here: 

• Dalla, R. L., Bekmuratova, S., Imankulova, B. N., & Duishenkulova, M. (2025).  Human Trafficking in the Kyrgyz Republic: How Roadblocks, Barriers, and Methodological Challenges Transformed an Investigation. International Journal of Social Science Methodology, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2025.2544350