Thousands of girls sold and forced into sex trade in India

West Bengal a key trafficking hub, with more than 50,000 girls missing

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Sold by her family as a teenager, Zarin was drugged and repeatedly gangraped just one of many thousands of young women trafficked in India.

Her home state of West Bengal bordering Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal is a key trafficking hub where more than 50,000 girls are missing, the highest figure in India, according to the latest national crime records.

Zarin, whose name has been changed, was sold to traffickers by her family after refusing an arranged marriage at the age of 16.

"I said 'no', and told them I was too young," Zarin, now 20, told AFP.

On a trip she thought was meant for her to visit her sister in the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, some 1,900km away, she was instead handed over to a man.

Her captors frequently drugged her to knock her out, and it was only when she hid her drug-laced meal that she realised she was being sexually abused.

"I lay there, pretending to be unconscious... then I saw three or four men entering the room," she said. "That is when I understood what had been happening to me."

She fought back that time, but was gang-raped in the days to come.

India's interior ministry registered 2,250 cases of human trafficking in 2022, according to the most recent data, but the real figure is believed to be much higher.