Umeed, a book on 50 convictions in sex trafficking cases initiated by International Justice Mission (IJM) was launched recently in the presence of Dr Shashi Panja, Hon’ble Minister-in-Charge of the Department of Child Development, Women Development and Social Welfare, Govt of West Bengal and others.

The book will help the people understand the findings from the judgements passed by various Trail Courts resulting from actions taken by law enforcement agencies in human trafficking cases in the period of 2007 to 2016.

As a result of the collaboration with the various stakeholders of the public justice system, there was a successful prosecution and conviction of 50 perpetrators associated with the crime of human trafficking.

Some of the notable findings from the analysis were-
Of the 111 victims rescued in the 23 cases, almost half of the rescued victims were minors aged between 13 to 17 years. The remaining was aged between 18 to 26 years.

70 percent of them were promised better occupation and livelihood in big cities, 5 percent of victims were swayed by promise of marriage while 4 percent were conned by other deceptive means.

The highest number of victims belonged to North 24 Parganas district.

It also has been found that West Bengal is not only a source and transit point of trafficking but also a destination point where women are sold for commercial sexual exploitation.

However as the stories in the book reveal, when the police and the shelter homes are proactive, the criminals are penalized and deterred from their crimes.

Priyanka Dutta