"We were told by these rescued girls that there were more women from the
northeast in the flesh trade racket who were trapped with such baits."
A new craze for careers in modelling among teenagers in India's northeast
region, spurred by television and newspaper advertisements, is being cited as
reasons for traffickers wooing unsuspecting girls into their net.
"Northeastern girls are generally fair and have good features, akin to Nepali
women, who until recently were much sought after by pimps for flesh trading,"
another rights activist said.
"Today northeastern girls are in demand in the flourishing prostitution racket
in cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, and even Bangalore and Pune."
Most of these girls, trapped by organised rackets, come from middle class
families.
"Seedy operators also scout for good looking girls from poor families. We have
come across and rescued girls belonging to families living below the poverty
line who were sold to the traffickers," Kharbih said.
The Impulse network, headquartered at Meghalaya's state capital Shillong, has
rescued 12 girls this year from New Delhi and Mumbai - all of them belonging to
poor families.
"These girls in the age group of 16 to 18 years were lured in the name of jobs
outside and then pushed into prostitution," Kharbih said.
Activists of the Impulse network and other rights groups discussed strategies
to combat trafficking of girls and women from the northeast at a two-day
seminar here.
"There is a need to involve other NGOs and law enforcement agencies, besides
support from the common masses, to stop this extremely dangerous trend of women
trafficking from the region," Ella Sangma, a victim from Assam who was rescued,
said at the seminar.
Police in the region admit that trafficking of women is a serious issue.
"This is a big problem, but then we face difficulties in busting such rackets
due to lack of information of the girls or the people involved in such
operations," said Assam Inspector General of Police (Crime) G. Bhuyan.
There are no estimates as to how many women are trafficked.
"The number must be in hundreds although more than the numbers the main issue
is how to create awareness and stop such things," Kharbih said.
IANS
