NEW DELHI, July 12:
Human trafficking for flesh trade is on the rise in the villages of North Bengal, Sikkim and parts of the North East, according to a non government body.
“Widespread poverty in the region with the tea gardens closing down have led to people of North Bengal, Sikkim and parts of North-east resorting to the practice of human trafficking,” said Nirnay John Chhetri, General Secretary, Mankind in Action for Rural Growth( MARG), a Darjeeling-based NGO, which assists in rescuing trafficked girls.
Chhetri was in the capital for a screening of documentary film “Sapana”, which revolves around the life of Reena, a teenaged school dropout from a tea garden in Darjeeling, who gets lured to go to a big city in search of a lucrative job, and ultimately gets sold to a brothel.
The screening held at the American Center here last evening was attended by representatives of the UN Women, police agencies and members of various city based rights groups.
“The close proximity to four international borders of Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and China have made the chicken’s neck region of West Bengal near Siliguri a favourite transit point for traffickers who have resorted to GPS technology to track victims,” said Chhetri.
Expressing his concerns for the incidence of the crime in South Asia, Joshua Polachek, Assistant Cultural Attache of the US Embassy said US and their partner nations are striving to to create an awareness about the issue.
“I am deeply touched by the story of one of the girls is shown in the short film. This is a crime that happens all over the world but in South and East Asia, the lack of awareness lead to a few of them getting rescued,” Polachek said.
Girls as young as 13 years to 14 years are being lured with the promise of work in call centres and malls by traffickers points out Chhetri.
“They are then brought to the cities, sold for lakhs of rupees and sent to brothels where they are physically abused,” he said.
“A girl we had rescued had to satisfy up to 15 customers daily, or else she would be physically abused and beaten by her captors,” he said.
He added that there are several victims who have been rescued from Bangalore and Delhi, who became suicide prone after being rescued and being taken to rehab homes.
Members of the NGO point out that social acceptance of the victims become another issues as families find it difficult to accept the children.
“We keep the victims in a home in Liluah near Kolkata, where they are counseled, but the need is to keep the victim as close to their homes to bring back the trust in them, which is not possible with the current infrastructure” Chhetri said.
According to MARG, rehabilitation becomes a major issue for the victims from North Bengal.
“Rehabilitation becomes an issue due to the stigma and the highly conservative society of these people, initially when the victims were taken back to their homes, the villagers resisted their entry into the villages,” he added.
Chhetri said the NGO has been trying to help trafficking victims get in touch with professionals who can aid in the rehabilitation process but said the process being in the nascent stage is quite slow. (PTI)
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