13 Bangladeshi girls rescued from Mumbai

A group of 13 Bangladeshi girls who were recently rescued from illicit trade in Mumbai are sent back home by an NGO, according to The Free Press.

The journal quoting sources said many of these girls are from poor backgrounds and often lured to Mumbai on the pretext of getting better jobs.

“Some of them are told that they can work as house maids while others are told that they can work as waitresses in bars and that they will get good money,” said Rajesh Chaturvedi from the NGO called Rescue Foundation.

In some cases, there is also a ‘husband’ somewhere in the background, who brings the girl to Mumbai and then creates a drama of poverty, the activist reportedly said.

There is a network of traffickers who are active at the border area and who manage to sneak the girls in India through some porous spots, said Leena Jadhav, a counsellor at the NGO, was quoted to have said.

“The girls are issued some sort of fake identification which they use when they are confronted by the local authorities in India,” she explained.

But, the report added, once the girls are brought to India they are forced to work at various brothels and other pick up joints at Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Bhiwandi, Nerul and Vashi.

These 13 girls were rescued in some of the recent raids that were carried out at these places and they are presently placed in a rescue home, Jadhav reportedly said.

The NGO has to co-ordinate with the police and other departments like the Customs and Border Security Force to take the girls to the border point, said the report.

Further, it is in touch with the authorities in Bangladesh so that they victims can be handed over to them, Chaturvedi said.

“Once the girls are handed over to them, they are taken back to their families in Bangladesh so they can get back to normal life,” he added.