KOLKATA: Railway engineer Rajesh Kumar (name changed) turned a savior for Sakina Khatun (name changed), who was forced into sex work in Bihar’s Sitamarhi.
Sakina was trapped in the dark world by her former lover from Malda’s Kaliachak. He didn’t think twice before ‘selling; her off to a brothel where she was confined for two years.
Help came in the form of Rajesh, a Sitamarhi local, who met her several times at the brothel after his first encounter as a ‘customer’. “I felt bad when she narrated her ordeal and pleaded with me to help her escape. Since then, I thought of ways to free her,” Rajesh said.
Soon, Rajesh visited the woman’s home at Uttar Dinajpur’s Raiganj in WB and narrated the situation to her parents. He contacted a local NGO before leaving for Sitamarhi. “I went to the brothel again and on the pretext of eating ‘paan’, I escaped with her and directly took the train to Raiganj,” Rajesh added.
“There are many more girls from this region in the brothel and administration should take necessary steps to stop trafficking and to bring back the girls languishing there.”
The police said two accused were arrested soon after she was trafficked and they have now recorded the woman’s statement.
According to the NCRB data, WB had the highest number of human trafficking cases in 2016. Of the total 8,132 cases of human trafficking reported in India, the eastern state alone accounted for 3,579 of them.