HYDERABAD: Even though Telangana has been infamous for sex trafficking in the past, there was no specific data set to corroborate the same. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2017 data, Telangana was among the top three states with the most number of sex trafficking victims.
Among the 384 human trafficking victims who were rescued from the State, 241 were trafficked for 'sexual exploitation for prostitution'. The only other State with higher number of sex trafficking victims was Maharashtra with 474 people. At the third spot was Tamil Nadu, with 137 prostitution victims.
Meanwhile, there have been 438 incidents of human trafficking in the State. It is important to note that ‘human trafficking’ is an umbrella concept that entails forced labour, domestic servitude, forced marriage, drug peddling, sex trafficking and so on.
The figures indicate that a considerable number of human trafficking victims in the State were found to be minors. While 124 boys and girls below the age of 18 fell into the trap of human trafficking, 314 were adults. The data also shows that trafficked minors are less likely to be rescued. Only 30 minors out of the 124, were rescued. In contrast, adults were more lucky with 354 rescued.
As for the action taken against such cases, 329 cases of human trafficking were registered with the police. However, the Telangana police charge-sheeted only 120 of them. As for the court, it was able to arrive at a conviction in only 17 cases -- Far better than 17 States where there were no convictions.