28 Bold Women
September 11 - 17, 2017
Crime women
“Swayamsiddha”: punching traffickers in Bengal The state, under increasing criticism of being the highest reporting trafficking, and inspired by one girl’s relentless effort, has launched the unique scheme Quick Glance
Prasanta Paul
R
A 15-year-old girl, once sold off, now prowls her village for traffickers Her example has led the state to start the scheme that seeks to stop trafficking It is aimed at making the girls and their parents aware of the traps Photo: Amal Dhar Gupta
escued from Baruipur station last year after being sold into a make-believe marriage and then caged in a room for more than six months, Manisha Khatun, 15, now prowls around her village in search of men or women frequenting the area with suspicious looks. Khatun’s (name changed) eyes have turned red with rage and her determination simply oozes out of them; determination to root out the least sign or appearance of child traffickers who had, all on a sudden, turned several mothers childless and sold umpteen girls in the flourishing flesh racket. The grit and courage of Khatun and others of her ilk have prompted the West Bengal administration to launch a model – Swayamsiddha – to fight the growing menace of trafficking of girls in the state. The promptitude of the state administration has stemmed from a notso-glowing report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in 2016, which categorically lists Bengal as one occupying the top slot in respect of human trafficking in India. The total number of girls trafficked has registered a jump – ,1400 more – than what it was in 2015. A sad commentary on the state of affairs of the issue of women’s empowerment indeed! In fact, Bengal and neighbouring Assam are infamous for an alarming rise in the number of trafficking cases in India. Though girls are the main target, mostly trafficked for sex work or as domestic helps, boys land up in sweet shops and brick kilns too. The districts that have acquired notoriety in this regard include both South and North 24 Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad, as well as East and West Midnapore. Incidentally, the ratio of school dropouts (girls) is among the highest in Murshidabad and South and North 24 Parganas districts. What is the basic strategy of the traffickers? According to police and NGOs, traffickers employ agents who first scour vulnerable households for innocent girls and their ready-to-believe parents. Agents promise to arrange prospective grooms and promise to pay
Manisha, still very angry, visits from village to village every day and discusses with the women the options they have and warns them of traffickers
for the marriage. In case of domestic help, which is an effective ruse for trafficking, advance payment is made to nip all suspicions in the bud. The unsuspecting parents are thus easily trapped along with the underage girl who is taken away. The girl then vanishes without a trace; the grieving parents seldom lodge any police complaint fearing harassment or social stigma. The girl eventually finds her way into the sex trade after the due exchange of cash. Sometimes, NGOs have found, parents are equally willing to get their child sold off as they are too financially weak to arrange for dowry or a suitable groom for their daughter. Recently, the administration was forced to press the panic button in the wake of a report of a girl of Class X from Joynagar in South 24 Parganas district having been drugged by a senior girl of her school and trafficked out of West Bengal. When she finally came to her senses, she found herself in a brothel in Mumbai. Interestingly, instead of breaking down, she feigned illness and requested her keeper to fetch her some medicine. The rest is history: she just darted out of her cage and ran for hours before dropping unconscious on the road.
People took her into a government hospital, where after regaining consciousness, she told her sordid tale to the police, who organised her return to Joynagar, unscathed. “The Swayamsiddha model ingrains in itself various factors that take into account different ruses trafficking agents wear. It is aimed at making the girls, their parents, villagers and the community aware of the traps set by these agents to lure the vulnerable girls,” said Chandra S Bardhan, additional superintendent of police, South 24 Parganas district. How does the model work? According to him, an awareness campaign has been launched involving the teachers, students, panchayat members and parents whereby every stakeholder is being briefed about the modus operandi of the agents, the evils of trafficking and the firsthand accounts of the rescued girls. Every school, panchayat office and even police outposts have been equipped with a `Swayamsiddha Box’ which allows people to submit their suggestions in writing. “One can even provide some clues to the administration if he or she notices some suspicious movement of people in his or her neighbourhood or someone confides to him/her about any plan to
elope from the village…etc. We do not disclose the identity of the person who provides such information,” he explained. The model has already helped thwart marriage of minors in some villages. Reports said that a group of Class XI students in Baspota village in South 24 Parganas district learnt a student of their school was sought to be married off by her parents even though she was barely 14. The group first confronted the girl’s below-poverty-line family and threatened that the family would lose its NREGS job card, ration card and might also face arrest if the marriage wasn’t called off. The threat worked wonders as the parents yielded and the minor girl heaved a sigh of relief. In neighbouring Mouli village where the hurricane Aila rendered hundreds of villagers homeless, several girls were trafficked out as poor and hapless parents failed to see through the game of the traffickers. But 17-year-old Tanuja Khatun, a student of a higher secondary school, has made things difficult for the smugglers. She leads a group of about 14 children and treks from one village to another, in search of men who sneak in and out with various offers. “She (Tanuja) has become a rage among the villagers as she was instrumental in saving the lives of many girls,” the ACP confirmed. “I’m not scared of anyone,” said the plucky girl, youngest of six daughters of a daily wage earner. “We were tipped about a possible trafficking attempt and we kept a watch. The moment we noticed the man, we confronted him. He failed to reply to any of my queries and tried to run away. But we tied him up and called the elders, who handed him over to police after some thrashing.” It was one among the 30 such cases Tanuja and her friends had handled.