However, the NGO coalition Action against Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children (ATSEC) claims that nearly 42,000 girls have been trafficked from Jharkhand to metropolitan cities turning the state as the major hub of human trafficking in India. Incidentally, a 2013 report by the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime identified Jharkhand as one of the most vulnerable states for trafficking of women and children.

This report makes is obvious that the girl trafficking in Jharkhand has been an open affair, known to everyone in the state. If what a trafficker alleged is to be believed, the operation has a long list of beneficiaries. An operator cannot continue with his activities by remaining on the wrong side of the people in system. In fact, anyone who matters in the governance and bureaucracy is aware of it, but no substantial action has been initiated to stop this practice and punish the perpetrators of the crime.

Some time back, the chairperson of the National Commission for Women had gone on records that a growing number of tribal women and young girls from Jharkhand are being trafficked, lured by promises of employment and marriage, to Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, West Bengal and Maharashtra. The girls are promised good jobs by touts but they end up as domestic help, bonded agricultural and brick kiln labourers.

A section of these victims are also forced into prostitution. Most of them find place in G B Road of Delhi. In the poverty ridden tribal dominant areas of the state this is the most lucrative profession. It is not that only males are in the racket. Even a substantial number of women have been active in the operation. Of course there main task is of carriers. They operate as the guides and guardians of the girls transported to Delhi, Rajasthan or other states.

Undeniably, the prime reason for the trafficking is acute poverty and illiteracy. It is a shame and in fact a blot on the political institution of the state that the political executives, though belong to the tribal communities, have callously ignored this dreaded menace. Since it is known fact that the operators lure the tribal girls and women with the promise to offer a job, no effort has ever been made to open a cell at the lower level, preferably at the police station level, for the registration of the agents. This would certainly have put a check on the illegal operation. Since the operators are quite strong influential it is a tough proposition for the small NGOs or the local people to stand against them and challenge.

What is worse in absence of a mechanism easily available to the people such crimes against women are seldom reported. If in case an operator is apprehended it is very difficult to prove him guilty and charge him as trafficker. As a result, the conviction rate is extremely poor and the accused get off scot-free.

It is a paradox that a government for the tribals run by the tribals has been quite negligent of the security and safety of the tribal girls and women. The politicians could have cracked against the operators and forced the state government to go for mandatory registration of gents who take five or more persons out of the state. Some time back the then Director General of Police had assured to carry out sensitisation programmes for the police in every district for curbing the menace but it is yet to fructify and acquire the institutionalised character. Only one initiative would not serve any meaningful purpose. This would only embolden the perpetrators of the crime.

The ugliest part of the operation has been the trafficked women performing the task of surrogate mothers. The women brought from the state are forcibly impregnated. This new industry is thriving in Delhi. Girls and women brought to Delhi on the pretext of being employed as helps are raped and sexually assaulted by the owners and employees of placement agencies and forced to bear babies. They are kept in secluded places. Once it is known that they have conceived the agency owner puts the unborn baby on auction. The price of a baby ranges from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4 lakh, depending upon how old the foetus is.

In a complaint filed with the Child Welfare Committee of Jharkhand the parents of a fifteen year old girl have narrated the horrific exploitation she had to undergo in Delhi. She along with other girls from Jharkhand were locked in a dark room and not allowed to leave the agency premises. She was raped frequently. At the age of 15 she gave birth to a child. Though several cases of trafficked girls have come to light from many parts of the state, the government is act on these complaints. The placement agencies have virtually been working like organised crime syndicates but no actions are being taken against them. Jharkhand government could well discuss the issue with the Delhi government and police and evolve a mechanism to combat the menace.

At a time when the new rulers of the state claim to have provided good governance, the state has earned the dubious distinction of being the major area for intra-country trafficking in India. The illegal placement agencies take advantage of legal loopholes to traffic mostly innocent girls and put them into the conditions of forced labour. 12-14 hours of work every day is a routine practice for these girls. Several cases of Sexual slavery have also been reported from the victims.

Most of the women trafficked from Jharkhand belong to Oraon, Munda, Santhal (including endangered Pahariya) and Gond tribes. Palamau and Garhwa districts are highly prone to trafficking for child labour in the carpet industry in Uttar Pradesh. Jharkhand is also a transit for the traffickers from Chhattisgarh. The traffickers from Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Odisha have a well knit operational net work. They usually exchange the trafficked girl to evade the police.

Sources reveal that the girls and women who have been in the profession for at least two or three years have also picked up the thread and started recruiting new faces. The task is easier for the reason that nearly 40 per cent of the tribal population live below the poverty line. These pockets are also the Maoist war zones of Jharkhand. Unfortunately the Maoists have so far not taken initiative to weed out such elements from the region. The extent of the racket could be gaged from the simple fact that a young operator had amassed assets worth over Rs 65 crore in Delhi and Jharkhand, having allegedly trafficked about 3,000 girls and women by the time of his arrest a couple of years back. (IPA Service)