What if the natural resource happens to be human beings from the North-Eastern states of India, and the neighbouring countries?

India’s north-east, especially Meghalaya, has become a supply zone for flesh trade. The young girls of the north-east are prime targets for trafficking, afflicted as they are, by a combination of economic and geopolitical factors.

First, the region has, for a long time, been the scene of ethnic armed conflict, which is known to result in major displacement of people. Besides, the Supreme Court of India’s order banning the felling of trees in Meghalaya - with the worthy intent of protecting the environment - has turned out to have serious repercussions, as there was no alternative given to the rural population whose means of livelihood depended on timber.

Many young people from the region have migrated to metropolitan cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore in search of education and jobs. Some young women and girls are also being lured out of the region with promises of a better, more comfortable life.

According to a survey done by an NGO, around 10,000 people, mostly children, are trafficked from the north-east; and a good number are smuggled in from Bangladesh, Nepal and other south-east Asian countries. India has been identified as a source, transit and destination point for human trafficking, in the international circuit. Most of those trafficked are engaged as cheap labour in the coal mines of Meghalaya, tea gardens of Assam and of course, in sex work.

According to a study conducted by an NGO in 2006 (“Trafficking in India”), 378 of the 593 districts in India are affected by human trafficking. Cross-border trafficking is very much relevant in the north-east, with the region sharing borders – many of them extremely porous – with five countries. Some large international trafficking gangs are operating in the region.

An estimate states that Nepalese women constitute 20 percent (40,000) of the estimated 200,000 sex workers in India. It is estimated that some 6,000 to 10,000 girls are trafficked annually from Nepal to Indian brothels, and a similar number come from Bangladesh. According to a report from Childline India Foundation, around 27,000 Bangladeshi women and children have been forced into sex work in Indian brothels. The average age of girls trafficked from Bangladesh and Nepal into India has fallen over the past decade from 16-18 years to 10-15 years.

As for Bangladesh, with India sharing a 4,222-km border with 28 districts of that country, most of it open – with criss-crossing rivers, traffickers take advantage of this factor to smuggle in their human cargo. The pimps and owners of brothels, the police, political operatives and the underworld – all of them are involved in this ‘enterprise’.

In Sikkim, human trafficking is an issue of concern only on official documents and forums. Due to a lack of awareness about the grave nature of human trafficking, the issue has always gone unnoticed in this tiny state. Sikkim does not have protection homes as envisaged under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. Victims trafficked for sexual exploitation suffer physical and emotional damage and are often into substance-abuse, apart from being exposed to sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS.

The legal consultant for the Human Rights Law Network Sikkim, Dr. Doma Bhutia, who is aware of at least twenty cases of human trafficking in the state, says that the socio-economic factors responsible for accelerating the volume of human trafficking in Sikkim can be attributed to lack of quality education and high rates of school drop outs in the remote villages, particularly amongst girls. Gender disparity and gender insensitivity in the society, more so in the rural areas; high levels of unemployment leading to frustration; coupled with the apathy of the government and society at large, also play a big role in aggravating the problem.

The administration is not entirely oblivious to the problem. Recently, in a landmark judgment, the High Court of Sikkim ordered the police, along with the state administration, to set up all the requisite infrastructure throughout the state, including rehabilitation centres, correction homes with experienced personnel (including a woman from social work or human rights background) to run these centres, and to make operational the Child Welfare Committee as required by law.

On the flip side, as far as the administration is concerned, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Range) N Sridhar Rao clearly denied the existence of organized syndicates of human traffickers in the state, although he admitted that in 2007 on a tip-off, the police were able to retrieve a group of young Sikkimese girls from a Rajasthan brothel, where they were sold off by traffickers. The case is still under trial, Rao said. He denied that children were being trafficked out of the state. The rehabilitation and correction homes are not in place in the state since there is no requirement for the same, he reasoned.

In a clear rebuttal of the administration’s denial, a police team in Gangtok recently rescued 12 girls from Tadong and Syari. According to the rescued girls, one Vidur Rai had lured them with promises of jobs in five star hotels in Goa and Mumbai with very high salaries ranging between Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 60,000. Recent incidents show that Sikkim is on the radar of an international, well-syndicated racket, and it has to be seen how the government tackles this emerging threat.

by A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT