Click to play videoKamrup (Assam): A UN report in October warned that human traffickers are turning to North-east states in search of women who they force to join the sex trade.
What’s happening in Koyanjani village of Hajo subdivision of Assam proves that the warnings the report are correct.
Mitali Das was 15 when her sister, 16-year-old Kunika, disappeared. The man who took away Kunika in 2001 promised to marry her but little did the family know it was the last time they would see her.
"My sister was sold to a man in Rewari in Haryana, and there she died mysteriously," says Mitali.
Her family has nothing to remember Kunika by, not even a photograph. But what happened to Kunika helped save Meena's life in the neighbouring village. Cradling her baby, Meena recounted how she was sold.
"I was sold to a man who wanted me to be a wife to all his three brothers. I remembered my uncle’s number in Delhi and he came and rescued me," says Meena.
Thousands of girls have disappeared from villages like Koyanjani across the north-east lured away with the promise of marriage and big city dreams and then forced into sex trade.
It’s estimated that at least 500 girls disappear from just Assam every year, and officials admit they have a huge problem in their hands.
“We are trying to spread awareness about this problem not just amongst the people but also the police force," says G Bhuyan, Inspector General of Assam Police.
The UN is funding a special training programme for police officials and as part of it the North Eastern Police Academy in Shillong teaches them how to deal trafficking cases. Civil society groups though say the problem can’t be solved by policing alone.
"The sex ratio in Haryana is falling and the child sex ratio is even worse. Just imagine in the next 20 years what will happen when children in those states become adults. The demand (for women) is huge and the northern states are much better off than this region," says Ravi Kant, of NGO Shaktivahini.
Economic disparity is growing and its seems that in the next few decades, the North-east states could face their biggest social problem: missing women.
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