Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Indo-Nepalese border a conduit for trafficking of Nepalese girls
Press Trust of India Lucknow, February 25
The porous Indo-Nepalese border has of late become a conduit for trafficking in teenage Nepalese girls who are lured to India with promises of jobs but end up working in Indian brothels.
About 7000 Nepalese girls are brought into India every year, says a study carried out by an NGO Manav Seva Sansthan in collaboration with Maiti of Nepal with the focus on the border areas of India and Nepal.
The pimps bring these girls to India on the pretext of giving them good jobs, but they are sold for anything between Rs 8000 and Rs 10,000 and then pushed to the brothels across the country, said Jata Shankar, of Seva. According to an estimate, over 1.5 lakh Nepalese girls have ended up in India as victims of the world's oldest trade. Nepalese girls are found in every brothel - be it in Sonagachi in Kolkata or GB road in New Delhi or Moolganj of Kanpur, the NGOs claim.
The police officials are aware of this flourishing trade. ADG, UP-Nepal border police, CM Bhatt told PTI that the police have information about such trafficking through porous Indo-Nepalese border. Girls and pimps are being arrested from time to time, he said.
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