Trafficking Jalpaiguri

Pinak Priya Bhattacharya
tel: 03561-255119
By Pinak Priya Bhattacharya(Times of India)

Jalpaiguri: Dooars Jagaran, an NGO working in the Dooars against human trafficking,on Wednesday lodged an FIR against two pimps operating in the tea belt of northBengal.The two, who happens to be a couple—Kalpana Tamang and Lal BahadurTamang& had taken seven young girls from Kathalguri tea estate to Delhi inJanuary this year on the plea of providing them with jobs there at Kamdhenu Securityand Detective Service and Quality Enterprise-both at Sankarpura in Delhi. After that all those seven girls went traceless. Dooars Jagaran on investigating found that this couple, who lives at the PrimarySchool Line in Chalsa tea estate works as carrier for traffickers. “We had caught the two and they had promised us to get back the girls. Butthey managed to get released from the Baherhat PS on PR bond and from then the twoare absconding, said Victor Bosu, secretary of Dooars Jagaran.

On Wednesday, about 1500 workers of Kathalguri tea estate went to the Banerhat PSand lodged an FIR against the two pimps. The failing economy in the region, caused by the long-lasting crisis in the teaindustry, has increased the vulnerability of trafficking here. The utmost crisis in the tea industry has forced the garden workers lead a miserablelife, which has helped the traffickers penetrate into this region. The failure of the state as well as the central governments to improve thesocio-economic condition of the tea workers has worsened matters. Women are falling prey to them in a bid to earn money for their families. And gardens like Kathalguri, which is lying abandoned for more than four years now,are turning to be heavens for traffickers to trap women and children.