PANAJI
Luring girls for marriage or better job prospects in casinos, beauty parlours or other commercial hubs has made West Bengal the second-largest source State for girls trafficked in Goa for prostitution.
The closure of a large number of tea gardens in West Bengal, especially in North Bengal, has fuelled this trend. Maharashtra ranks first among the source States.
At a day-long consultation programme in the second source State, NGO Anyay Rahit Zindagi (ARZ) revealed a major rise in the percentage of victims trafficked from the eastern State -- from 11 per cent in 2014 to 22 per cent and beyond in the subsequent years.
“The closure of tea gardens is one of the main reasons that have prompted kingpins and their agents who are spread far and wide, to target the lower and middle-class women, from small towns or villages, with the promise of lucrative job opportunities in Goa. There are also instances wherein women are lured for marriage and trafficked in Goa but eventually forced into prostitution,” ARZ Director Arun Pandey said.
Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad, Howrah, Malda and Darjeeling are among other areas recording an alarming increase in trafficking.
ARZ called upon its counterparts to create awareness among the communities in its State cautioning vulnerable girls and women against agents who approach them with job offers or marriages in Goa.
Pandey further highlighted the evolving dynamics of trafficking citing the changing modus operandi, routes, modes, and the profiles of both traffickers and victims.
“The driving factors behind this include uneducated women/families, financial constraints, sole earners in their families, etc making these girls vulnerable to traffickers’ manipulations,” he added.
Goa developed as a market of flesh trade, recording the highest cases of human trafficking per lakh population, as per the 2021 National Crime Records Bureau. With one case per lakh population, it recorded more than the national average of 0.2 cases.
