By Farzana Tamannur (TON Bangladesh)

Girls as young as 13 are being trafficked from the Bangladesh border to India's Hyderabad several of whom are promised works as masseurs, beauticians, and professional dancers.

With the help of a web of traffickers, whose network spans manifold nations, these girls are illegitimately brought across global borders with the promise of a better life, reports Indian boarder security and a Chronicle.

That symbolizes the seedy underbelly of Indian cities along with the license with which these networks across international borders. Once tangled in the tentacles of the traffickers, these girls are fascinated in a life they would never selected.

The report adds quoting Indian law enforcers that the girls are mostly taken to Kolkata from the Bangladesh border and then sent to diverse places including Karnataka and Telangana. In several such trafficking cases, they are shipped straight to Mumbai.

The traffickers organize identity papers for the girls, including Aadhaar cards plus passports, after arriving India.

Once inside, the girls are offered for sale to traffickers for amounts ranging from Rs.5, 000 to Rs.50, 000. In some cases, it was said, the victims' own family members sold them to traffickers.

In certain cases, the girls are pushed into the thriving IVF business. Sources said they are forced to sell their eggs to fertility centers for Rs.25, 000 each.

Sources said that some women who recognize as victims might actually be traffickers themselves; they do this to avoid arrest and land up in government-run shelters. At the rescue homes, they try to persuade the others to return to commercial sex work by offering more cash. They are supported by their brokers, who are on stand-by with legitimate support, and secure the release of the victims as soon as they are arrested by the police.

Fate of trafficked victims

According to a BSF study, a certain Indian organization buys young girls and women, generally as prostitutes for brothels and hotels. They are also sold to massage parlors, dance bars, and hired as domestic workers.

Trafficked women are also enforced into marriage, used as unskilled or semi-skilled laborers.

The study also discloses most victims are trafficked from Jashore plus Satkhira to Gojadanga and Hakimpur in Bangladesh. The border here is totally unfenced and the population near the zero line is rare, making it easier for traffickers to bring people into India.

Around 84% of these traffickers are male, however the other 16% are female.

The human trafficking from Bangladesh to India has reached an acute point, where the system works straight on the principle of supply and demand, over a well-managed mechanism of traffickers working on both sides of the border, with the first link in the chain being Dhaka.

Untold tales

Several Bangladeshi victims of trafficking are waiting in India for their deportation.The shelter home in Narendrapur is home to more than 150 girls who are minors rescued from prostitution, children of sex workers plus vulnerable girls rescued from sexual abuse.

This correspondent visited the safe home on an afternoon, and found the girls were keenly waiting for updates about their return.

The untold stories of these girls unfolded one by one.

Betrayed by own family

Two sisters from Dhaka’s Jatrabari area disclosed how they ended up in the safe home.

The older sister said: “We did not know we were being trafficked into India back in 2013. Our own aunt told us that we would be working at a jeans factory.”

The older sister is documented as 18 years old, and her sister is two years younger than her.

Dancing queen

Another girl shared her story of being deceived. “I am presently sixteen, but I was only 12 when I was trafficked to Mumbai, India. One of my friends from my dance school introduced me to a man. He told me he would help me get work in the glamour industry,” said the dance loving girl.

She was rescued from Dongri, Mumbai’s underworld belly.

Leaving the room in a hurry, she told this correspondent she did not want to talk about it any longer.

Sold to the highest bidder

Rubina, a domestic worker from Chittagong, was sold at a red light district of West Bengal six years ago. Presently a mother of three, she was very young while she got married.

The woman, currently around 22 years old, had left her two young kids with her relatives in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar, and moved to Jashore with her employer.

“I started working as a domestic worker afterward my husband married another woman. My employer took me to Jashore with her, and then sold me for Tk120, 000 in the Haldia area of India, wherever I spent five years forced into prostitution,” she told this correspondent.

“My father is sick. I am not capable to talk to my father. I want to go back to my family,” she added.

Rupali, a 17 year old from Postogola, Dhaka shared a similar story of betrayal. She was sold by her boyfriend for Tk300, 000.

Explaining how she ended up in a safe home, Rupali said: “My boyfriend told me he is taking me to a good place. One of his friends took me to India as well as sold me as a sex worker.

“I was too underage at that time, so my possessors wanted to sell me in Mumbai. When I heard that, I ran away and surrendered to the police.” 

The young girl has lived in two diverse shelters in India for the previous four years, and she wants to go home.

Conclusion

There is a gleam of hope for these girls in the rescue center in Hyderabad. In order to help these victims support themselves both while they are in the center and after their release, they obtain life skills training, participate in the production of several types of jute bags, tie-and-dye cotton sarees, bangles, bead bags, and more.

Also, they engage in activities like gardening, dance, and painting. They have a counsellor there at the center to help them survive from the trauma.