Assam: Traffickers' happy hunting ground

As more and more girls from the northeastern state end up in brothels, stigma awaits those fortunate to be rescued. "But I cannot go back to my native village because my family will not take me," the petite Assamese teenager said, in what would seem to be replay of the 1981 Bollywood blockbuster "Umrao Jaan". Umrao, the titular character played by Indian actress, Rekha, never got to live with her family when she wanted to return to them – her brothers and parents refused to accept the courtesan-dancer because her presence would stigmatise the family. As scores of Assamese girls are rescued from brothels across India and taken back to their native state, the ‘Umrao Jaan’ syndrome haunts them the most. Rising figures A few NGOs run by woman rights activists have tried to help these hapless women rescued from brothels and forced marriages. The police, which has rescued them, is not trained or equipped to manage their future and have other pressing tasks to perform. Reacting to reports that trafficking of women from Assam is at an all-time high, the state police have been on an overdrive to track down the trafficked women and the criminal networks responsible for the trafficking. Between 1996 and 2006, 3,184 adult women and 3840 female children were taken away from Assam and sold away in other states, according Assam police records. That was nearly two women illegally trafficked out of Assam every day on an average. That seemed to be the case up until the end of the last decade, but the situation has only got worse in the past six to seven years. In 2009, 759 women and girls were trafficked out of Assam. But Assam police records say in 2011, at least 1,243 women and girls were trafficked out of Assam – four a day or more on the average.