Trafficking rampant in districts lacking social infrastructure’

A report prepared by the West Bengal Women Commission on women and child trafficking has revealed the lack of social infrastructure, including police station, in the districts where illegal trafficking of girls and women is rampant.

The survey, which was conducted by state women commission member Sharbani Bhattacharya in the six districts of North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad, South Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri, has come up with a detailed account of the distance between the victim’s house and the nearest police station, primary school, high school, market and primary health centre.

For instance, in Nadia the nearest police station is located at a distance of 3 to 18 kilometres from the victim’s house.

In Murshidabad, the same is 5 to 20 kms while the corresponding figure for Jalpaiguri is 6 to 17 kilometres.

“One cannot always pass the buck on the police and blame them for any failure to tackle trafficking. It should be noted that most of these interior locations lack even the basic social infrastructure,” said Bhattacharya.

In case of location of primary health centre, the picture is equally disturbing. In some cases of Nadia, the nearest health centre is located as far away as 20 kilometres from the victim’s house while the same figure for North 24-Parganas is 15 kilometres, the report highlighted.

It is same for the locations of primary schools and high schools. While the primary schools are located at a distance of 0.5 to 5 kilometres on an average, the high schools are located as far as 10 to 12 kilometres from the victims’ house.

“This only highlights the need for an overall development in those areas,” Bhattacharya added.