When Bengal was busy worshipping Goddess Durga, three women from the state were rescued from a hellhole around 2,000km away.
A raid on October 22 — Ashtami — on a red-light area in Maharashtra’s Sangli led to the rescue of 10 trafficked women. Three of them are from Bengal and the rest from Bangladesh, police said.
Of the three women from Bengal, two are from South 24-Parganas and one from North 24-Parganas, two districts bordering Calcutta that are the trafficking hotbed of Bengal.
Most of the women were trafficked with the lure of a well-paying job and a better life, said the police and social workers who were part of the rescue operation.
Two alleged traffickers, a woman and a man, were arrested.
Based on preliminary conversations with the rescued women, a social worker said they were aged between 20 and 23 years. A detailed medical examination is awaited, she said.
The women have been shifted to a home in Sangli, a town around six hours’ drive from Pune and known for its production of turmeric. A detailed legal process is awaited before the women return home.
“The women were rescued from a red-light area in Gokulnagar. Most of them have told us they were lured by the promise of jobs at shopping malls and beauty parlours. We have arrested two persons from the spot. We suspect they are part of a larger racket,” said Sanjay More, senior inspector at Vishrambagh police station in Sangli.
“The women were subjected to rampant physical abuse. They are too traumatised to shed their inhibitions and open up. So, the exact circumstances under which they were trafficked are not absolutely clear. We have gathered limited information. They need more counselling
before they give us detailed information,” said Tanuja
Sahebrao Kale, superintendent of Rescue Foundation, a Pune-based NGO that assisted the cops in the rescue operation.
A charity in Bangladesh had sought Rescue Foundation’s help in rescuing a woman from the neighbouring country.
“The woman was traced to Sangli. She had managed to contact her family in Bangladesh. She spoke about being trapped with several other women. The police used the cellphone tower location to trace the house and conduct the raid,” said Kale.
Goranbose Gram Bikas Kendra (GGBK), an NGO in Bengal that works with trafficking survivors, is in touch with Rescue Foundation.
“We are trying to find out if the family members of the three rescued women from Bengal filed police complaints here,” said Kakali Das of GGBK.
“What we have been able to find out is that all three women were deserted by their husbands. They were forced to go back to their maternal homes. One of the women has a toddler daughter at home. The father of another woman is paralysed,” said Das.
All the women were in dire need of money, she said.
The women were produced in a local court on October 23. The court sent the two accused to police custody and has asked for multiple reports. The next hearing is scheduled for October 31.
The two accused have been charged with multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 370 (trafficking) and 366 (kidnapping).
Over the years, figures from the National Crime Records Bureau have suggested that Bengal is one of the largest source markets for traffickers. The women are trafficked to several parts of India.
“Maharashtra accounts for a significant number. Pune is the single-largest destination for them,” said an officer of the anti-human trafficking unit of the Bengal police.
