Fifteen-year-old Laxmi Naskar (name changed), from Joynagar in South 24 Parganas, was trafficked in September 2019, just before Durga puja. She was rescued five months later from a brothel in Maharashtra. Her family — all of them fishermen — was pushed into dire straits by the Covid-19 pandemic. Then two cyclones, Amphan and Yaas, struck deadly blows. The dams in her area broke and saline water overflowed into ponds, killing all the fish. To make ends meet, Laxmi had to borrow Rs 32,000, after already having borrowed Rs 20,000 last year. A year-long study by Tafteesh — a coalition of anti-trafficking stakeholders including lawyers, researchers, psychologists, social workers and survivors — has found 47% of trafficking victims from Bengal had to resort to borrowing for survival since Covid-19 struck. The cyclones made matters worse. These women have borrowed amounts between Rs 10,000-Rs 1.3 lakh, 10% of them engaging in non-banking and high-risk borrowing. The NGOs have now sought financial packages from the state government to help them. “It appears that people belonging to this vulnerable section have far more been hit economically during the second wave, believed to have started in India around March, than in the first wave when they have at least accessed free ration and cash support provided by the state and central governments.
However, this time around, the government’s focus was mostly to strengthen the healthcare system, this section was left out “ the report stated. Rukshana Khatun (name changed), 36, from Basanti area was trafficked in May 2018 to Maharashtra before being rescued six months later. Covid snatched her regular income after the small shop she owned had to shut down. “Her house was broken after Amphan and Yaas destroyed the roof. Even her shop was damaged. She had taken a loan of Rs 60,000 last year and this year, she had to borrow Rs 45,000,” said Shaswati Mallick, one of the main surveyors of the project. “There are areas of serious concern. The loan rate is very high,” said Subhasree Raptan of Goranbose Gram Bikash Kendra, one of the partners of Tafteesh. “Out of 53 survivors we interviewed, 25 said they took a loan. The amount borrowed in South 24 Parganas varies between Rs 5,000 and Rs 1,30,000 and annual interest rate goes up to even above 200%. Out of these 25 survivors, 24 said ‘no work was going on’. Of these 24 women, 23 do not have any land. Of the 23, 18 have household income less than Rs 3,000. In fact, 16 of them have zero household income. Among these 16 survivors with no work, no land and no household income, the amount they have to repay per month goes up to Rs 10,530.” It was also found that a significant proportion of the survivors took new loans to repay existing ones. These debt traps again increased their risk of becoming indentured labourers and victims of trafficking, the study concluded.
2021 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.