Trafficked: The girls sold for sex in India

KOLKATA - Sold by her family as a teenager, Zarin was beaten, drugged and repeatedly gang-raped -- just one of many thousands of young women trafficked in India.

Her home state of West Bengal -- bordering Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal -- is a key trafficking hub where more than 50,000 girls are missing, the highest figure in India, according to the latest national crime records.

Zarin, whose name has been changed, was sold to traffickers by her family after refusing an arranged marriage at the age of 16.

"I said 'no', and told them I was too young," Zarin, now 20, told AFP.

On a trip she thought was to visit her sister in the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, some 1,900 kilometres (1,180 miles) away, she was instead handed over to a man.

Her captors frequently drugged her to knock her out, and it was only when she hid her drug-laced meal that she realised she was being sexually abused.

"I lay there, pretending to be unconscious... then I saw three or four men entering the room," she said.

"That is when I understood what had been happening to me."

She fought back that time, but was gang-raped in the days to come.

India's interior ministry registered 2,250 cases of human trafficking in 2022, according to the most recent data, but the real figure is believed to be much higher.

Many of the missing girls are trafficked through Kolkata, state capital of West Bengal and one of India's biggest cities -- some into forced labour, others into prostitution.

Zarin's captors later sold her on -- she believes for less than $3,500.

"They would beat me up, sexually abuse me," she said, her voice breaking in emotion. "Speaking about this is painful."

She later escaped, and is trying to rebuild her life.

- 'Traffickers exploit millions' -

In the world's most populous nation, the scale of the problem is vast.

A 2023 US State Department report on trafficking said that India is making "significant efforts" but that they still fall below minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

"Traffickers exploit millions of people in commercial sex within India," the report read, saying some gangs arrange "sham marriages within India and Gulf states" before forcing women into the sex trade.

Social media, as well as mobile dating sites, are used to lure victims, it added.

Many are trapped by the long-outlawed practice of bonded labour, dubbed "debt slavery" by rights campaigners, in which victims are forced to work to pay back borrowed cash while interest keeps mounting.

It said "significant numbers" of Nepali and Bangladeshi women and girls are also lured to India for sex trafficking with the false promise of a job.

Pallabi Ghosh, founder of Impact and Dialogue Foundation, which works on rehabilitating trafficked survivors, said the numbers reported were far lower than reality due to "stigma".

Families often don't want to pursue the case once a missing girl is rescued.

"Trafficking cases are tough to lodge," she said. "That is the reason why traffickers are out there at large."

The problem is acute, said Pinaki Sinha, from Kolkata-based anti-trafficking charity Sanlaap.

Poverty is a key cause, said Sinha, saying some parents wanted their daughter to marry into an "economically better off family".

Instead, the girls were abused.

"There is a lack of awareness -- and a lack of adequate support," he said.

- 'Tore my clothes' -

Ayesha, 18, swapped a life working in a garment factory in neighbouring Bangladesh, handing her and her mother's savings of $285 to a broker who promised to smuggle her into India for better paid factory work.

But after arriving in India, she was told the work at the factory was no longer available but that she could instead dance in a bar.

Refusing that, and without income or shelter, she stayed with a man who offered her a room -- only to attack her.

"I was begging him and crying," Ayesha said, also not her real name. "He abused and hit me, tore my clothes and assaulted me."

She was then repeatedly sexually abused by two men. "They raped me more than eight or nine times over 18 days," she said.

Ayesha managed to escape after contacting a neighbour.

"I told the police that I want the two men to be punished for raping me," she said.

But officers told her it was her "mistake" for coming illegally to India and dismissed the case.

Ayesha has not lost hope, planning to return home and become a beautician.

"I want to be self-sufficient," she said. "I want to forget all about it." - AFP