The missing girls and women of Odisha’s Sundargarh district

The latest rescue of a Sundargarh lady from Madhya Pradesh by Odisha Police has introduced the main target again on human trafficking, particularly of girls, from the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district.

In April, the Sadar Police Station acquired a grievance from Lalindra Bera of Gotabandha village that his 19-year-old daughter was lacking. Subsequently, members of the family acquired a name from the lady, who had been confined at a distant location. They got here to know she had been forcibly married off to an individual in Karwakhedi village in Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam district. The lady was lured emigrate for work by middlemen who supplied her a “first rate job” and transferred ₹60,000 to her father’s account.

“It was a transparent case of human trafficking as the lady was forcibly married and confined. After her rescue, we’ve got handed her over to her dad and mom. Now we’ve got expanded the scope of our investigation to search out out if any greater organised gang is at work,” mentioned Sagarika Nath, Sundargarh Superintendent of Police (SP).

Ms. Nath mentioned the police had acquired tip-offs on two extra lacking girls, who might be trapped in Uttar Pradesh. “We’ve got began our probe by constituting a particular police staff to hint the ladies,” she mentioned.

Three circumstances of lacking girls had been pending on the Sadar and Bargaon Police Stations of Sundargarh district in 2021.

The registered circumstances, nevertheless, don’t replicate the magnitude of the human trafficking concern, particularly of girls.

Teenage women from Odisha migrate to different States to work as home assist and subsequently find yourself in pressured marriages. In lots of circumstances, they’re subjected to sexual exploitation. In early 2000, Pragati, a Sundargarh-based NGO, undertook a house-to-house survey and got here up with a horrific estimate of trafficked girls. Its survey discovered over 43,000 girls of various age teams had been lacking in 11 out of 17 blocks of Sundargarh district.

“The survey we had performed was an exhaustive one. Usually, the members of the family of the ladies had not approached the police within the early 2000s. Since then, the scenario has not improved a lot. The variety of lacking girls in Sundargarh might be in 1000’s,” mentioned Subhashree Ray, a lead member of Pragati.

Equally, Suru Mishra, a Sundargarh-based activist who’s engaged on the difficulty of human trafficking, mentioned, “We performed a research in six migration-prone districts. About 30,000 women and men had migrated principally in misery circumstances. Whereas the boys had headed for Goa, New Delhi was the vacation spot for almost all of girls.”

“In 2019, I had organised a gathering in New Delhi’s South Extension. About 300 girls hailing from Sundargarh district attended that assembly. Most of them had been employed as home assist,” Mr. Mishra mentioned.

Based on him, a brand new pattern has come to the fore these days. “Girls are initially induced to work for a profitable pay package deal. Subsequently, they’re married off in States like Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, the place the intercourse ratio is on a declining pattern. On the Kinjirkela Police Station, circumstances pertaining to 13 lacking girls are pending,” he mentioned.

Flora Lakra had been lacking for greater than a decade from Sarajanga village of the Balishankara block of Sundargarh district. She had gone to work in New Delhi. From the identical village, Blasius Lakra had despatched his 14-year-old lady to work in Mumbai. Subsequently, she went lacking. Although circumstances had been registered in native police stations, they’re but to be solved or the ladies rescued. In 2017, two girls, then aged 24 and 36 years, returned from Saudi Arabia after they’d been offered off. Most traffickers are identified to sufferer.

The Sundargarh SP Ms. Nath concurred that naïve women from Sundargarh district had been taken to different States and forcibly married to males in States like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Usually, marriage affidavits had been being proven to the police as supporting paperwork, she mentioned. “Final yr, we had a marketing campaign the place we urged folks to enroll with the district labour officers earlier than heading out of the district for any work, in order that in case there may be any concern later, we can have some contact to start the investigation,” she mentioned.

In the course of the ‘Ama’ group policing conferences initiative, the difficulty of human trafficking is often mentioned to make folks conscious of the misplaced women and girls.