WUNRN
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India
- Assam's Missing Women and the Sex Trade |
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The biggest problem in
India's north-eastern state of Assam is separatist militancy. But it faces
another, less well known issue. Thousands of its women, old and young, have
gone missing over the past 10 years. A recent police report says 3,184 women and
3,840 female children have gone missing in the state since 1996. That's around two females a day on average.
The report was compiled by Assam police and
their research branch, the Bureau of Police Research and Development. The local police are far too busy,
according to Assam police intelligence chief Khagen Sarmah, fighting
insurgents. "Our counter-insurgency commitments
affects our normal policing duties like checking trafficking." "Too many policemen are involved
fighting the insurgents rather than following up on other crimes," Mr
Sarmah said. 'Good looking women' The Assam police recently rescued some
girls working as call-girls around Delhi or used as "sex slaves" by
wealthy landlords in states like Punjab and Haryana. Most of them are from camps of internally
displaced people dotting Assam, particularly the Kokrajhar district. That area is home to nearly
a quarter of a million people who were displaced in the late 1990s. Nearly 800 people died in ethnic fighting
in Kokrajhar and adjoining districts between Bodo tribes people and non-Bodo
communities over a decade long period from 1994. The police survey revealed an organised
racket of "recruiters" who lured good-looking women with job offers
outside the state. "We arrested some recruiters but could
never put an end to the rackets fully," said police official Anil
Phukan. The modus operandi is simple: good looking
women in the displaced peoples camps are offered jobs. The parents are paid a few thousand rupees
in advance, and told the daughters will send back money once they start
working. Once they go away, that rarely happens. Money matters Jam Singh Lakra of the Jaipur relief camp
near Kokrajhar town says: "At least 20 girls have gone away with the
jobs from our camp, not to return again." "We did identify a few recruiters and
one got beaten up. But somehow the girls kept going away." Most families are cagey about the missing
girls but some do speak up. Tuilal Mardi of Tablegaon village says
"My parents accepted the offer and sent my sister away." "They got a few thousand rupees but
she never came back or sent any money." Professor Paula Banerjee, who studies
problems faced by displaced women, says: "Ethnic conflicts all over the
world results in massive displacement of women and that gives rise to heavy
trafficking - the situation in Assam is no different." Local pornography But not all the missing women of Assam have
been taken out of the state. Some show up in local pornographic films.
Mala Newar in Kokrajhar was
known to her teachers as a "decent, well behaved girl" in school. That was until one of them spied on her
husband's mobile phone last month and found a video clip featuring Mala in
the nude having sex with a stranger. Inquiries in Kokrajhar revealed that Mala
and some other local girls were used in a pornographic films racket run by a
local leader. A hotel in the town was used for the
filming. The girls were first lured into the hotel
with job offers, then offered soft drinks laced with sedatives. They were then filmed in the nude and
blackmailed into doing sex scenes for the camera. Not all missing girls in Assam are from
displaced peoples camps, though. Indrani Bora and Ritu Borgohain are smart,
educated English-speaking girls from the Assamese capital, Guwahati, who got
jobs in a holiday complex in Gurgaon near Delhi seven months ago. But both say they slowly got drawn into a
call girl racket run by the complex owner. An officer who led an Assam police team to
rescue Indrani and Ritu explains. "All across hotels and resorts in
places like Delhi and Bombay, you will find hundreds of girls from Assam and
other north-eastern states working as waitresses or customer executives. "Some do get drawn into the call-girl
trade." Hunger driven The Calcutta Research Group, in its recent
study on conflict-induced displacement says that the displaced people in
Assam live in acute poverty.
The situation has led the
women in particular to desperately seek work elsewhere; even if the offers
come from dubious people. "This is because the government
officials running the camps never created viable livelihood options,"
says Uddipana Goswami of the Calcutta-based Centre for Studies in Social
Sciences (CSSS). Ms Goswami has worked on the displaced
camps in Assam. "Many displaced women have such
exquisite craftsmanship but nobody ever tried to convert that into income
alternatives," she says. Professor Banerjee says trafficking ignores
borders therefore solutions cannot be left to local agencies alone. "This is not a local or even a national
problem." "This reflects the global reality, so
intervention by international organisations may help check trafficking."
(Names of the girls have been changed to protect their identity.) |
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