Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Calcutta (Agenzia Fides) –Human being trafficking and exploitation, especially women and girls, is a social evil in India, according to estimates it affects 20 to 60 million victims, and on which crime flourishes. It is a real emergency that the Indian Church is helping to fight, as reported by the local Church in the Archdiocese of Calcutta to Fides.
The Archdiocese has set up an authentic "task-force" to stop human being trafficking and, in particular, trade of "little slaves": "Seva Kendra Calcutta", Diocesan Social Service Center, formed 50 supervisory committees in different communities. The Committees, in turn, form groups of 30 young people in every village of West Bengal, to monitor and combat the phenomenon. There are also 50 groups of adolescent girls, who act as "antennae" in their villages.
The Centre tells Fides an exemplary story: Sheila (fantasy name) is a girl from a small town in West Bengal state. She was offered a job as a waitress in another city. Sheila agreed, but instead of a job, the agent who had contacted her sold her in Mumbai, where she was forced into prostitution. Sheila had sex with 25 clients a day. Every time she refused, she was violently beaten, in front of other girls. A social worker, with the help of the Police in Mumbai, rescued Sheila and other girls. Now Sheila is in a nursing home, where she follows a program of "rehabilitation" to face the challenges of a new life.
The "Seva Kendra Calcutta" Centre also takes advantage of modern technological means: it is linked to the government department, with other associations and with the heads of the villages: this facilitates and simplifies operations, which are mainly preventive.
Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery which includes sexual exploitation, forced labor, fraud and violence. Victims are mostly children and women because of ignorance and families in desperate situations. False "mediators", in fact, attract them with illusory promises, to make them fall into traps from which it is difficult to escape. (SD-PA) (Agenzia Fides 04/01/2012)
