The horrifying details of the two Nepalese women raped, tortured and starved allegedly by the family of a Saudi Arabian diplomat and their visitors for over three months have come as a shock.
In August, 2015, an 18-year-old girl Mishti (name changed) was rescued from Sushant Lok Colony, Gurgaon, in a joint rescue operation by Shakti Vahini, Childline Gurgaon and the police. She was allegedly trafficked from her hometown in West Bengal by a person on the pretext of providing her a decent job in Delhi and later sold off to a placement agency named Shaqira Enterprises in Taimur Nagar, New Delhi.
The agency later placed her at a household in Sushant Lok Colony as a domestic maid for which the agents took Rs. 30,000 as commission. She was promised Rs.4,500 as monthly wage, which she never received as it was taken away by the agents.
The stories of the two Nepalese women, Mishti and hundreds of women like them are similar. They are brought to cities like Delhi on the promise of a good life and better opportunities and later sold off to illegally run placement agencies where they are being exploited in every possible way which also continues after placing them as domestic maids in urban households.
Gurgaon has emerged as a lucrative hub for such placement agencies involved in trafficking of minor girls and women from the interior areas of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. “The victims are first brought to Delhi and kept at placement agencies where the agents exploit them sexually, physically and mentally before finally placing them with different households. The agents change the identity of the victims, even their name, age and address, to make them untraceable. The placement agencies, which mostly operate from Delhi, place the trafficked girls at the households for which they charge a commission of Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 60,000 from the employers,” Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini said.
Sushant Lok Colony and DLF Phase I, II, III are the main areas to which the placement agencies operating from Chakarpur, Bus Stand, Patel Nagar and Basai Road, among others, supply domestic helps. The agents take away the monthly wages of the victims leaving nothing for them.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rajesh Chechi said: “The complaints against these agencies were common in Gurgaon.
But the police mostly register cheating cases because there is no law on registration of these agencies.”