Towards eradicating human trafficking in India: A focus on West Bengal

In the past week, two major human trafficking attempts have been foiled in our region—the first involved rescuing 56 young women from New Jalpaiguri Railway Station near Siliguri in Darjeeling district.

- RAJU BISTA Member of Parliament from Darjeeling, and the National Spokesperson, BJP

The other involved rescuing 34 young women from Tenzing Norgay Bus Terminus, in Siliguri. In both cases, the victims were young, vulnerable girls from economically and socially marginalized sections, and hail from remote rural villages of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts, mostly from the tea gardens.

In the first instance, the women were promised jobs in Bengaluru; however, they were being taken to Patna when they were rescued. In the second case, the women were being transported to Jharkhand by bus when the rescue took place. In both cases, the traffickers claimed that their final destination was the garment factories of Tamil Nadu.

Contrast this with the fact that since 2019, 143 workers from West Bengal, including 60 children, have been rescued from bonded labour in gold manufacturing units in Tamil Nadu. Many such instances of vulnerable people from West Bengal, particularly from the Darjeeling hills, Terai and the Dooars region, being lured by human traffickers are coming to light.

What is worrisome is that, unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon.