Trafficking of tribal girls: 'Agents' make big bucks, thrive on easy prey

Sumati Yengkhom, TNN | Mar 4 2013: Trafficking is lucrative business for 'agents' in North Bengal, mostly tribals who, if engaged as tea-garden workers, would've made around Rs100 a day.

Most of the girls trafficked from the tea provinces of the Dooars land in Delhi, either in brothels or as bonded labour. Abject poverty makes them easy prey for 'agents'. If a girl is fair and good-looking, and 'certified' as 'fit' for flesh trade, an agent fetches anything between Rs 80,000 and Rs 1lakh. If the victim is engaged as a labourer or domestic help, the 'agent' gets about Rs 15,000.

One such 'agent' is Laxmi Minj of Nagasuree Tea Estate, a forty-something woman who is believed to have trafficked hundreds of girls to Delhi and works as the local contact of 'placement agencies' in the national capital. Laxmi claims she has found wealthy employers for local girls in the throes of poverty. After several warnings from the police, she claims she has nothing to do with the 'business' any more, but is unrepentant about what she has done.

"I have stopped trafficking girls for almost a year now. Bit

What is wrong if I save these girls from poverty? And then, police and locals threaten me," she says.

Laxmi admits to receiving hefty commissions from the 'placement agencies' in Delhi but refuses to disclose the exact amount she received for every girl she trafficked. In her relatively well-appointed dwelling, though, TOI found a full course meal being cooked for the family, a luxury very few can afford in these cursed tea gardens.

Laxmi was warned three months ago after a rare trafficking complaint was lodged with the police. "Laxmi took away three girls from Mateli tea garden, including my 13-year-old daughter. Though police helped us bring the girls back, we had to spend from our own pocket for the Delhi trip," says Jhangu Santhal, adding it's the fear of expenses that deters most parents from approaching the government machinery for help. "Laxmi knows how lucrative her business is and will keep targeting girls unless she is kept behind the bars," says Rajen Maradi, whose niece was among the three rescued girls.

According to Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA), a trafficker when convicted for the first time can be handed a seven-year prison term. A second conviction can lead to a life sentence.

Despite such tough laws, 'agents' like Laxmi, Reshma Oraon and Mili Minj continue to operate freely as the police can't build a case against them. Cops claim most complainants and victims withdraw their cases - it's rare for them to even file one - by striking some kind of a deal with the 'agents'.

"The root cause is poverty and hunger. No amount of policing can bring a major change unless there is improvement in the economic condition of this tea garden population. In case of Laxmi, the complaint was withdrawn later and hence we could not do much," says a cop at Mateli PS.

In the absence of police complaints, a majority of the girls remain untraced. Only a lucky few, like Pinki Oraon (name changed), 25, of Dheklapara tea estate, manage to escape and return home. Having fallen prey to 'agents' about two years ago, Pinki was helped by the security guard of an apartment opposite the household that employed her as a bonded labourer. She returned home a year ago.

"I worked all day for seven months without proper food or sleep in the house where a placement agency sent me," recalls Pinki. Back in Dheplapara, Pinki now works as a cook in a stone-crushing unit on a daily wage of Rs 30.

"I am lucky I escaped. But I don't know what happened to Saiba, who was taken to Delhi along with me by the same agent," says Pinki. She fears Saiba Oraon (17) from the same tea garden must have been sold to a brothel.