Woman Trafficking on Rise in West Bengal

Rita Jaiswara (14), the daughter of a poor family residing in Chetla in Kolkata, was lured by an acquaintance, Maya Barui, who promised to get her a job in Behala. Instead of being taken to the factory, the young girl was abducted and taken to Uttar Pradesh, where she was forced to dance at weddings. Rita was recently rescued from Kushinagar district of UP by a police team from Kolkata, and brought back to the city.
West Bengal police has a new reason to worry - Women and child trafficking has been at an all-time high in the state since the past couple of years. The incidents of minor girls being abducted and sold are increasing significantly, and this high rate of trafficking of women and children is making the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials lose sleep over combating the alarming situation. Headlinesindia got in touch with Sanjoy Mukherjee, the DIG of Police (Special Cell), with the CID, and found out the causes and consequences of the situation, as well as the steps taken by the CID to counteract the trafficking menace.

According to the data published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), New Delhi, West Bengal stands very high in the list of states when it comes to trafficking in women. The 2005 statistics provided by the NCRB reveal that in 2005, West Bengal ranked second, coming after Bihar, in importation of girls. West Bengal registered 61 cases, and accounted for 40.9 per cent of the total number of such cases at the national level. The state registered 74 cases under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act in the same year. Though media reports say that West Bengal tops the list in 2006-2007 when it comes to trafficking in women, Sanjoy Mukherjee says, “It is extremely difficult to pin-point the rank of the state, but it definitely comes in the top five”. The poverty levels of the state, along with the border it shares with neighbouring countries of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh are the primary reasons why women trafficking is at such a high in West Bengal. “These factors make West Bengal the originating point, the receiving point, as well as the transitioning point for the trafficking in women,”said Mukherjee adding that the vulnerability of young women also contributes towards increasing the number of trafficking cases. “If a young girl witnesses parental dispute, or is unwanted by her parents, or if she loses any of the parents and the other parent remarries, she becomes emotionally vulnerable. In such cases, she becomes susceptible to getting lured by the traffickers”, he said.

Trafficking in women follows a certain pattern in most of the cases. According to Mukherjee, the trafficking figures are high in West Bengal as the state has more of rural population than urban. The traffickers mostly target women and children who belong to the rural areas. Trafficking in women is most prominent in the southern part of South 24 Parganas, the eastern part of Murshidabad, the eastern side of Nadia, and the eastern region of North 24 Parganas. The traffickers, often known to the families, act as agents who offer lucrative jobs to the young women, and promise to take them to the cities. The women are often vulnerable, and are tempted by the agents to leave their families and join them for “work”. Sometimes, the parents themselves hand over their daughters to the agents. The agents often escort the girls to a suburban railway station, and take them to far-off cities like Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi. Immediately after the women reach these cities, the girls are forced into “Commercial Sexual Exploitation”.

The families of the girls get no inkling of what is happening to the girls, as the agents send money to the families for 4-5 months, claiming it to be the money sent by the girls. When after a few months, the families stop receiving money and news about the girl's wellbeing, the family members begin to worry and lodge a missing diary at the local police station. Getting a tip-off from the local police stations, the CID takes charge, and tries to trace the missing girls. Sanjoy Mukherjee says, “Our primary aim involves the arrest and conviction of the traffickers, and the rescue of the child victims.However, for the conviction of the traffickers, sufficient evidence against them is needed”. What follows, is even more difficult for the police personnel than the challenges faced during the arrest of the traffickers and the rescue of the victims. As Mukherjee says, “The re-integration of the child into the society is the most difficult part. After her gruesome experience, a child is traumatised, and finds it difficult to get used to a normal life”.

However, even though the incidents continue to occur in West Bengal, the CID is not taking it lying down. “We are all geared up, and are adopting various measures to combat the situation. We hope to put an end to it very soon”, asserts Sanjoy Mukherjee. Mukherjee revealed the CID has undertaken a series of decoy-based raid-cum-rescue operations in various parts of the state. “We deployed our personnel acting as buyers of girls, and thus arrested 20 traffickers and rescued 17 minor girls from their clutches,” Mukherjee said. The course of action of the CID involves an extensive training of police personnel from various districts of the state with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). A special Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (ATU) was also inaugurated by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on June 28, 2007.

The West Bengal Government has formed a network, and sanctioned Rs 1 crore, to tackle the problem of human trafficking following a report by the Calcutta, North Bengal and Burdwan Universities that human trafficking is on an alarming rise in the state. Six departments - health, backward classes welfare, self-help group and self-employment, panchayat and rural development- will interact with police, CID, NGOs and the State Women's Commission to form the network that will combat the menace of human trafficking that has acquired deadly proportions in West Bengal.

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