A large number of minor girls and young women trafficked from different parts of the country to Delhi are being re-trafficked to brothels in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh to evade detection.
The emerging new trend was noticed during recent rescue operations carried out by the local anti-human trafficking unit in coordination with a team constituted under the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
During the raids that were carried out in the Kawari Bazaar area of Meerut on July 27, and earlier on May 22, the team rescued over 60 victims of human trafficking who were brought from different places in West Bengal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and even Nepal. Almost half of them were minors.
Having undergone mental and physical torture at the hands of their managers, many victims were initially reluctant to share their woes with the counsellors. However, most girls revealed that they were first brought to Delhi on various pretexts and then sold off at brothels on G.B. Road in Central Delhi.
“As the police mounted pressure in Delhi, many girls who were pushed into prostitution in the G.B. Road brothels were transported to Meerut. One of the victims disclosed that it also happened because some of these brothels had been served closure notices by the administration,” said Rishi Kant of non-government organisation Shakti Vahini that was part of the rescue team. Some of the girls were even sent to Mumbai before being taken to Meerut.
Stating that Meerut was fast emerging as a major trafficking hub, where girls were now being sent through Delhi, Mr. Kant cited a case in which a girl belonging to a poor family from West Bengal was first sold in a red-light area of Kolkata and then to a brothel on G.B. Road, from where she was later transferred to Meerut.
“She has four sisters. Her father passed away in her childhood and her mother was unable to make two ends meet. Taking advantage of her poor economic condition, traffickers laid a trap and sold her off,” he said.
The same fate awaited another girl from South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, whose family members got a complaint lodged with the local police after she went missing.
“While several victims were offered good jobs, some were brought to Delhi on the pretext of marriage. Some were even drugged and physically tortured. Now that they have been rescued, most of them have expressed their desire to be reunited with their families back home.”
