the girls were sold for sex in India

Calcutta (AFP) – Sold by her family as a teenager, Zarin was beaten, drugged and repeatedly raped – just one of many thousands of young women trafficked in India.

Her home state of West Bengal – bordering Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal – is a major trade center where more than 50,000 girls go missing, the highest in India, according to the latest national crime figures.

Zarin, whose name has been changed, was sold to human traffickers by her family after refusing an arranged marriage at the age of 16.

“I said ‘no’ and told them I was too young,” Zarin, now 20, told AFP.

During a trip she thought she would visit her sister in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, some 1,200 miles away, she was instead handed over to a man.

Her captors regularly drugged her to knock her out, and it wasn’t until she hid her drug-laced meal that she realized she was being sexually abused.

More than 50,000 girls are missing in West Bengal alone, the highest number in India © Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP

“I was laying there pretending to be unconscious… then I saw three or four men come into the room,” she said.

“Then I understood what had happened to me.”

She fought by then but was gang-raped in the following days.

According to the most recent data, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs recorded 2,250 cases of human trafficking in 2022, but the actual figure is likely much higher.

Many of the missing girls are trafficked through Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal and one of India’s largest cities; some are forced to work, others are forced into prostitution.

Zarin’s kidnappers later sold her for less than $3,500, she believes.

“They beat me up and sexually assaulted me,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion. “Talking about this is painful.”

She later escaped and is trying to rebuild her life.

‘Human traffickers exploit millions’

In the most populous country in the world, the scale of the problem is enormous.

A 2023 US State Department report on human trafficking said India is making “significant efforts” but these still fall below minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking.

Daughters of parents who want them to marry into an “economically better family” can become victims of abuse, says Pinaki Sinha of anti-trafficking charity Sanlaap. © Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP

“Traffickers exploit millions of people in commercial sex in India,” the report said. Some gangs arrange “marriages of convenience in India and the Gulf States” before forcing women into the sex industry.

Social media, as well as mobile dating sites, are used to lure victims, it added.

Many are trapped in the long-banned practice of slave labor, called “debt slavery” by human rights activists, in which victims are forced to work to repay borrowed money as interest rates continue to rise.

It says “significant numbers” of Nepalese and Bangladeshi women and girls are also lured to India for sex trafficking with the false promise of a job.

Pallabi Ghosh, founder of the Impact and Dialogue Foundation, which works to rehabilitate victims of human trafficking, said the reported figures were much lower than reality due to “stigmatisation”.

Families often do not want to pursue the case once a missing girl has been rescued.

“Human trafficking cases are difficult to file,” she said. “That’s why human traffickers are everywhere.”

The problem is acute, says Pinaki Sinha of the Kolkata-based anti-trafficking charity Sanlaap.

Poverty is a major cause, Sinha said, saying some parents wanted their daughter to marry into an “economically better family”.

Instead, the girls were abused.

“There is a lack of awareness – and a lack of adequate support,” he said.

‘My clothes torn’

Many young women are trapped in the illegal practice of slave labor, also called 'debt slavery' by human rights activists — Many young women are trapped in the illegal practice of slave labor, also called ‘debt slavery’ by human rights activists © Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP

Eighteen-year-old Ayesha traded her life in a garment factory in neighboring Bangladesh, handing over her and her mother’s savings of $285 to a broker who promised to smuggle her to India for better-paying factory work.

But after arriving in India, she was told that factory work was no longer available, but she could dance in a bar instead.

Refusing that, and with no income or shelter, she stayed with a man who offered her a room – only to attack her.

“I begged him and cried,” said Ayesha, also not her real name. “He abused and beat me, tore my clothes and attacked me.”

She was then repeatedly sexually assaulted by two men. “They raped me eight or nine times in 18 days,” she said.

Ayesha managed to escape after contacting a neighbor.

“I told the police that I want the two men to be punished for raping me,” she said.

But officers told her it was her ‘fault’ for coming to India illegally and dismissed the case.

Ayesha has not lost hope and plans to return home and become a beautician.

“I want to be self-sufficient,” she said. “I want to forget it all.”