Trafficking in Women and Girl Children for Commercial Sexual Exploitation: An Inter State Explorative Study in Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal

This 2015 report, based on a study by the Social Awareness Institution (SAI), Cuttack, was sponsored by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The study was conducted in six districts in West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand – Darjeeling and South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, Khurda and Balasore in Odisha, and Palamu and East Singbhum in Jharkhand. These states, the SAI says, have been badly affected by the trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation. The report aims to provide a sense of the enormity of such trafficking of women and children and identify the gaps at the policy level to prevent this practice. It says that 90 per cent of trafficking in India is internal – most of it occurs across states or within a state. However, accurate data on trafficking for sexual exploitation, especially of minor girls, is not available because of the clandestine nature of the trade and so, estimates of its magnitude vary. The report notes that, at present, there is a lack of well-researched databases on and analysis of trafficking in India.