PANAJI
Nearly 30 per cent of victims of the flesh trade rescued from Goa between January 2019 and August this year are from neighbouring Maharashtra who were lured into the State on the promise of a lucrative job, a report by ARZ, an organization combating trafficking of persons for commercial sexual exploitation in Goa for decades.
According to the report, 172 women were rescued from prostitution in Goa between January 2019 and August 2024. Nearly 30 per cent of them (50 victims) were from Maharashtra, most from Mumbai and Thane areas.
ARZ said in the report that most of these rescued trafficking victims had been brought into the flesh trade by the lure of well-paying jobs in Goa.
The report cited Goa's proximity to Maharashtra as one of the reasons that contributed to these victims being brought here and a majority of them had migrated to Maharashtra from other States in search of jobs. Only a few of them were from rural Maharashtra who had settled in the big cities of Mumbai, Pune or Thane, working in dance bars, massage parlours or catering businesses.
Some worked odd jobs in the film industry, the ARZ report said, adding that some others from among those rescued from the flesh trade here had been trafficked to Goa from the two largest 'red light' settlements of Maharashtra -- Kamathipura in Mumbai and Budhwar Peth in Pune.
While Kamathipura in Mumbai is the largest red light area in the country. Budhwar Peth in Pune is the third largest.
The ARZ report said, these two red light areas of Maharashtra were on a decline owing to unsanitary and other poor conditions there prompting some of the sex workers to shift to Goa.
The ARZ report also said that in a vast majority of the 172 victims who were rescued in the last five years, the lack of employment options due to poor educational qualifications only up to Class VIII had made them vulnerable and easy prey to be tricked and pushed into the flesh trade.
