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Trafficked: The girls sold for sex in India

Trafficked: The girls sold for sex in India

West Bengal is a key trafficking hub from where more than 50,000 girls are missing — the highest figure in India.
06 Nov, 2024

TRIGGER WARNING: This story mentions explicit details of sexual abuse.

Sold by her family as a teenager, Zarin was beaten, drugged and repeatedly gang-raped — just one of many thousands of young women trafficked in India.

Her home state of West Bengal — bordering Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal — is a key trafficking hub where more than 50,000 girls are missing, the highest figure in India, according to the latest national crime records.

Zarin, whose name has been changed, was sold to traffickers by her family after refusing an arranged marriage at the age of 16.

“I said ‘no’, and told them I was too young,” Zarin, now 20, told AFP. On a trip she thought was to visit her sister in the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, some 1,900 kilometres away, she was instead handed over to a man.

Her captors frequently drugged her to knock her out, and it was only when she hid her drug-laced meal that she realised she was being sexually abused.

“I lay there, pretending to be unconscious… then I saw three or four men entering the room,” she said.

“That is when I understood what had been happening to me.” She fought back that time, but was gang-raped in the days to come.

India’s interior ministry registered 2,250 cases of human trafficking in 2022, according to the most recent data, but the real figure is believed to be much higher.

Many of the missing girls are trafficked through Kolkata, state capital of West Bengal and one of India’s biggest cities — some into forced labour, others into prostitution.

Zarin’s captors later sold her on — she believes for less than $3,500.

“They would beat me up, sexually abuse me,” she said, her voice breaking in emotion. “Speaking about this is painful.” She later escaped, and is trying to rebuild her life.

Traffickers exploit millions

In the world’s most populous nation, the scale of the problem is vast. A 2023 US State Department report on trafficking said that India is making “significant efforts” but that they still fall below minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

“Traffickers exploit millions of people in commercial sex within India,” the report read, saying some gangs arrange “sham marriages within India and Gulf states” before forcing women into the sex trade.

Social media, as well as mobile dating sites, are used to lure victims, it added.

Many are trapped by the long-outlawed practice of bonded labour, dubbed “debt slavery” by rights campaigners, in which victims are forced to work to pay back borrowed cash while interest keeps mounting.

It said “significant numbers” of Nepali and Bangladeshi women and girls are also lured to India for sex trafficking with the false promise of a job.

Pallabi Ghosh, founder of Impact and Dialogue Foundation, which works on rehabilitating trafficked survivors, said the numbers reported were far lower than reality due to “stigma”.

Families often don’t want to pursue the case once a missing girl is rescued.

“Trafficking cases are tough to lodge,” she said. “That is the reason why traffickers are out there at large.” The problem is acute, said Pinaki Sinha, from Kolkata-based anti-trafficking charity Sanlaap.

Poverty is a key cause, said Sinha, saying some parents wanted their daughter to marry into an “economically better off family”. Instead, the girls were abused.

“There is a lack of awareness — and a lack of adequate support,” he said.

Tore my clothes

Ayesha, 18, swapped a life working in a garment factory in neighbouring Bangladesh, handing her and her mother’s savings of $285 to a broker who promised to smuggle her into India for better paid factory work.

But after arriving in India, she was told the work at the factory was no longer available but that she could instead dance in a bar.

Refusing that, and without income or shelter, she stayed with a man who offered her a room — only to attack her.

“I was begging him and crying,” Ayesha said, also not her real name. “He abused and hit me, tore my clothes and assaulted me.” She was then repeatedly sexually abused by two men. “They raped me more than eight or nine times over 18 days,” she said.

Ayesha managed to escape after contacting a neighbour.

“I told the police that I want the two men to be punished for raping me,” she said.

But officers told her it was her “mistake” for coming illegally to India and dismissed the case.

Ayesha has not lost hope, planning to return home and become a beautician.

“I want to be self-sufficient,” she said. “I want to forget all about it. “

Comments

Tahmad Nov 06, 2024 06:51pm
Very sad and frustrating news from India, I urges PM Modi to take swift action against mafia that involved in such horrific crime of kidnapping young innocent girls. Please girls stay alert and be safe when go out.
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Ravi Sanku Nov 06, 2024 07:04pm
Excessive population and abject poverty failed these young girls. At an age when they should be playing and blissfully enjoying life, they are crushed into the hell of this sex trade. This is not how life should be and this shows how indifferent are our societies to such grave injustices and indirectly we all.
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Gurpreet Singh Nov 06, 2024 09:23pm
While sex trafficking is heinous & abhorrent no matter where it occurs, what exactly is the point of this story from a neighboring country? Why not focus on the unfettered trafficking in Pakistan or the rampant sexual abuse of children for which Pakistan has become notorious throughout the world?
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Laila Nov 06, 2024 09:49pm
It's difficult and heartbreaking reading this. Imagine when you can't trust or be safe with your very own parents/family. It's as if the daughters are simply objects/commodities to be sold/traded for such families. Such parents are not first to be called parents. They are monsters and rapists, who deserve the punishment of Hadd. Rebellion and running away become a must for such girls for survival and safety. I suspect Bangladesh like Pakistan offers such endangered girls no safety, no help, aid or refuge. Human trafficking of desi girls is old news. Sham marriages between Pakistani girls and Gulf based people have been happening for decades. For traffickers to succeed, police, authorities, customs officers etc are complicit. More recently we saw Pakistani girls married off to stranger Chinese allegedly Muslim guys, who then took them back to China and prostituted them. Right under the then governments noses. They knew and still know. Poverty is no excuse.
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Tahmad Nov 06, 2024 10:38pm
Best way to alert other friends and family members on WhatsApp and via instagram, send copy of this article so that they will be careful with this crazy people when they go out specially girls ages 5 to 35 or more. Remember safety first for all good people around the world including West Bengal.
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Jay K Raman Nov 07, 2024 07:43am
Really terrible. Dawn should concentrate on the sexual violence in Pakistan.
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Shah Nawaz Bokhari Nov 07, 2024 09:32am
it is ridiculous. the human traffling is that big phenomena in this world. where as Indian concern it's need to be mAde strick rules in this regard.
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Safety First Nov 07, 2024 10:55am
All women in West Bengal and in entire region, please be extra careful of your surroundings for safety and security of yourself and family and children’s as our world become a dangerous place to live. Please trust no one and avoid fooling yourself in the hands of mugger or kidnappers for safety.
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Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad Nov 07, 2024 11:24am
Tip of the iceberg.
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Multani Nov 07, 2024 11:30am
We must expose true face of india to the world, horrible living under draconian hindutva Modi regime and yet whole world is begging and bowing to Modi,ashamed to be indias neighbor where women are so poorly treated.
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Multani Nov 07, 2024 11:33am
Same is happening in our country quietly only media does not bring it up here.
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John Massey Nov 07, 2024 12:20pm
Talk about yourself. India is special, ask every women travelling to South Asia, their experience in India vs their neighbouring countries. Culture it is.
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John Massey Nov 07, 2024 12:22pm
While their govt is busy in sectarian divide.
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Laila Nov 07, 2024 03:55pm
@TAhmad But didn't you read the article? It is the families of the girls who are selling them off and handing them over to human traffickers to be raped, abused and prostituted? So what or how is sending WhatsApp messages to such family members going to help? What is needed ls legal repercussions with full force of the law and legal aid and social security for such girls. But Pakistan, the so-called islamic republic, offers none of that. Our laws are for decoration and women's shelters are another platform for human traffickers and abused to groom new victims. The question is then, what to do, when such girls are not safe from their own parents/elders? After all we all know forced marriages and child marriages take place across Pakistan and nobody bats an eye. No enforcement of law. No protection of minors or females.
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Laila Nov 07, 2024 04:31pm
@Multani Well you can't chose your neighbors. But we as as neighbors to India and Bangladesh are also not known for treating out women any better. Females in their coffins, boys, children, animals, male students in religious schools like madrassas are not safe. Women/females are not safe in Pakistan either. Human trafficking happens in Pakistan too. Sadly.
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Gurpreet Singh Nov 07, 2024 07:12pm
@MULTANI — Don’t worry about “exposing” India’s face to the world which everyone has seen & liked. Worry about the face of your own country that nobody wants to see.
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Laila Nov 07, 2024 11:57pm
@John Massey Well as a woman I would never travel to India alone just like I dont travel alone inside Pakistan. I want to visit it for sure due to history and culture. But only with as a family or group. So not sure how India is special. I would travel to Turkey alone though. So I guess Turkey is special.
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