Traffickers turn to northeast India for sex trade


Biswajyoti Das

Human traffickers are increasingly turning to India's poor and insurgency-wracked northeastern states in their search for young girls to work in big city brothels, police and activists say.

Over the past five years there has been a rise in reports of missing girls from the remote region of eight states, an increase which authorities believe is due to trafficking.

Police say at least 700 girls from the region have been reported missing over the last five years, 300 of whom disappeared in 2005 alone.

But activists estimate thousands of northeastern girls disappear every year - most of whom are not reported by families due to the stigma associated with being part of the sex trade.

"Substantial trafficking of girls is taking place from the region. People in the northeast have recently realised what human trafficking is," said Ajit Joy of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in New Delhi.

Traffickers are mostly women, often well-known in their respective villages, who promise poor, rural families good jobs for their daughters, most of whom are between 12 and 16.

But in reality, they sell the girls to brothel owners in towns and cities like New Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata, earning between 20,000 ($440) and 40,000 rupees for each girl.

Police estimate that around 20 percent of the girls in India's big city brothels come from the northeast.

At least one million Indian girls and women work in India's sex industry which is estimated to be worth around 400 billion rupees ($9 billion) annually, according to the UNODC.

The rise in the number of girls disappearing from states like Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh is partly due to tighter surveillance on India's northeastern border with Nepal, where most girls were being trafficked from before.

Authorities say increased security along the border to curb Maoist insurgencies in both countries has deterred many traffickers, and the number of Nepali girls being brought into India annually has halved from around 10,000 three or four years ago.

Police, who are more used to fighting rebels in the troubled region, are now receiving training on issues ranging from dealing with traumatised victims to the legal complexities of investigating the crime.

"The police were not aware of such things earlier, they are still a little raw in dealing in dealing with such cases," said T Pachuau, director of the Northeast Police Academy. "We are training them to get better and investigate with full authority." Twenty-year-old Jaya Basumatary from the northern Assam district of Udalguri, was rescued after a raid on a Delhi brothel last year.

At the age of 16, she was taken by traffickers who promised her impoverished family that they would get her a job as a domestic maid.

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Taiwan busts 11 suspected of smuggling Chinese women

Taiwan authorities have detained 11 people, including a senior immigration clerk, on suspicion of collaborating with gangs that smuggle Chinese women to the island for prostitution, local media reported.

The Taipei District Prosecutor's Office detained immigration clerk Lee Jo-ling and 10 other suspects, including a gang boss, on Saturday (local time) after a night of questioning, the China Times reported.

Taiwan's Central News Agency said that clerk Lee Jo-ling is accused of taking bribes from a snakehead ring to let about 80 Chinese women into Taiwan by having them pretend to be local men's pregnant wives. They were apparently smuggled for prostitution.

Lee allegedly received $T30,000 ($NZ1389.81) to $T80,000 per case, Central News Agency said, and she has been fired.

On Friday, the prosecutor's office ordered a search of Lee's office, her home and 17 brothels run by the smuggling ring, the news agency reported. She faces five years in prison if convicted of corruption charges.

Taiwan seldom allows Chinese people to live on the island for any reason, as relations with China are strained by deep political issues and Beijing's occasional threats to use miliary force. But for humanitarian reasons, Taiwan sometimes fast-tracks residency processing for pregnant Chinese wives of Taiwan men.

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China: Draft bill details sexual harassment

Cao Li and Mark South

Shanghai - Telling sexist jokes, emailing porn to colleagues or sexually-salacious texting are all set to be outlawed under a draft bill currently under review by the city authorities.

Once approved by the Standing Committee of the Shanghai People's Congress, the Shanghai Supplement to the Women's Protection Law will become the first law in China's history to clearly define sexual harassment.

Ge, an official with the Shanghai Women's Association, said the group had received few complaints about sexual harassment but the subject is a hot topic in the media and stories of "groping" in public transport abound on the Internet.

"A major problem is that we just don't know how widespread sexual harassment is because so few women speak out many women who suffer harassment are too embarrassed to take the matter further," Ge explained.

Shanghai lawyer Si Weijiang told China Daily that despite their high profile, there are currently very few cases brought for sexual harassment. The lack of a clear definition of the offence and the difficulty in proving a case which often boils down to one person's word against another's, have made pursuing such cases difficult, Si said.

Last year, Shanghai Xuhui District People's Court heard the city's first ever suit for sex harassment. A young woman sued her doctor for unnecessarily touching her private parts during an examination. The first court ruling went against the woman, but she has since appealed to the Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court to review the decision.

Commenting on the new law, Xu Yuzhou, lawyer for the woman who claims to have been groped by her doctor, said there was still much work to be done since sex harassment became an offence enshrined in law for the first time last year.

"The Shanghai Supplement helps give a much clearer definition of what the law means by sexual harassment," he said.

Jiang Qin, a 33-year-old designer, said she fully supported the law, adding that in the past she had received sexual text messages from men which she considered to be harassment.

Ida Relsted, from Denmark, said it was good to have a law, which might make men think twice before sending sexist or harassing messages.

"It's still not enough though and more needs to be done, both in terms of the law and in educating people what is and isn't acceptable," she said.

According to Xu, evidence is the most important but problematic area of such cases. "At the moment there is no law which specifies what kind of evidence is admissible and how much evidence is needed.

"The draft also does not include definition about damages."

The revision stipulates that words, pictures and electronic information insinuating sex or bodily contact that "injures" a woman is sexual harassment. It does not, however, define the extent of the "injury."

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Today in history - Nov. 1


The Associated Press

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 1, the 305th day of 2006. There are 60 days left in the year. This is All Saints Day.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 1, 1765, the Stamp Act went into effect, prompting stiff resistance from American colonists.

On this date:

In 1512, Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel were first exhibited to the public.

In 1861, Gen. George B. McClellan was made General-in-Chief of the Union armies, succeeding Winfield Scott.

In 1870, the United States Weather Bureau made its first meteorological observations.

In 1936, in a speech in Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini described the alliance between his country and Nazi Germany as an "axis" running between Rome and Berlin.

In 1944, "Harvey," a comedy by Mary Chase about a man and his friend, an invisible 6-foot-tall rabbit, opened on Broadway.

In 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to force their way into Blair House in Washington to assassinate President Truman. The attempt failed, and one of the pair was killed.

In 1952, the United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb, code-named "Mike," at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

In 1954, Algerian nationalists began their successful eight-year rebellion against French rule.

In 1973, following the "Saturday Night Massacre," Acting Attorney General Robert H. Bork appointed Leon Jaworski to be the new Watergate special prosecutor, succeeding Archibald Cox.

In 1991, Clarence Thomas took his place as the newest justice on the Supreme Court.

Ten years ago: Accused of peddling access to the Oval Office, President Clinton demanded an end to what he called the "escalating arms race" for political money. Bob Dole countered with his own solutions to what he called "a growing scandal" of Democratic financial sins.

Five years ago: President Bush issued an order allowing past presidents, beginning with Ronald Reagan, to have as much say as incumbent presidents in keeping some of their White House papers private. The New York Yankees took a 3-2 lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks as they won Game 5 of the World Series 3-2 in a contest that ended after midnight.

One year ago: Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session, questioning intelligence President Bush had used in the run-up to the war in Iraq; Republicans derided the move as a political stunt. The Federal Reserve increased a key interest rate by a quarter-point to 4 percent, the highest level in more than four years. Musical conductor Skitch Henderson died in New Milford, Conn., at age 87.

Today's Birthdays: Newspaper columnist James J. Kilpatrick is 86. Golfer Gary Player is 71. Country singer Bill Anderson is 69. Actress Barbara Bosson is 67. Actor Robert Foxworth is 65. Actress Marcia Wallace is 64. Magazine publisher Larry Flynt is 64. Actress Jeannie Berlin is 57. Pop singer-musician Dan Peek is 56. Rhythm-and-blues musician Khalis Bayyan (aka Ronald Bell) (Kool and the Gang) is 55. Country singer-songwriter-producer Keith Stegall is 52. Country singer Lyle Lovett is 49. Actress Rachel Ticotin is 48. Rock musician Eddie MacDonald (The Alarm) is 47. Rock singer Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers) is 44. Pop singer-musician Mags Furuholmen (a-ha) is 44. Rock musician Rick Allen (Def Leppard) is 43. Country singer "Big Kenny" Alphin (Big and Rich) is 43. Rapper Willie D (Geto Boys) is 40. Singer Sophie B. Hawkins is 39. Country musician Dale Wallace (Emerson Drive) is 37. Actress Toni Collette is 34. Actress Jenny McCarthy is 34. Rock musician Andrew Gonzales is 34. Actress Aishwarya Rai is 33. Rock singer Bo Bice ("American Idol") is 31. Actor Penn Badgley is 20.

Thought for Today: "It is easier to admire hard work if you don't do it." — Anonymous.

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