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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 affect 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.
Many people in Assam have fled the area due to the fighting.
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.
Some of the girls in the trade are from better financial
backgrounds 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. Poverty is the driving force behind
women opting for the trade
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.)
Story from BBC
News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6430811.stm
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