Lured by false promises, thousands of girls end up being sold for sex in India

KOLKATA – 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 was for her to 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.

“I was lying there pretending to be unconscious… then I saw three or four men come into the room,” she said. “Then I realized 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 Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal and one of India’s largest cities. Some end up in forced labor, others in prostitution.

Zarin’s kidnappers later sold her – she believes for less than US$3,500 (S$4,600).

“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.