Teenage girls are victims of one of the fastest growing industries in the world – sex trafficking. Northeastern India is known for its tea plantations and Himalayas scenery. An ancient crossroads of trade routes between Bhutan, Nepal, India and Bangladesh, the town of Siliguri has always been at the center of international trade.
Some 30,000 children have been smuggled into Kolkata, many through Siliguri, according to the United Nations. Some are local girls kidnapped by their families. Support group Bruka works hard to save children from slave traders, but human trafficking is a growing problem, largely because people don’t understand the problem.
The innocent villagers, often illiterate, married off their girls or kidnapped them to work and then sold as prostitutes in the big cities. In poor families, girls are often seen as a dowry burden upon marriage. Sometimes it makes sense to have them go to work, but many don’t come back. The poor are easy prey for traffickers, and the victims and their parents endure endless torment.
It is not only local children who are at risk. Trade is international. Globally, traffickers add 3 million women and children each year to the ocean of sex slavery. A quarter of a million is smuggled through South Asia. Siliguri border police are trying to stem the tide. Lured into slavery by job promises in the big city, girls are forced, kidnapped and lose their families. But sometimes a family fights back.
Kolkata may look rather chaotic at first glance, but it is the epicenter of India’s economic boom and is fueling a consumer boom of sorts. Children are among the goods sold on the streets of Kolkata’s red-light district.
