Of late, women traffickers have found marriage as easy means to trap innocent women into the flesh trade in India. In recent years, incidents of ´husbands´ taking wives to India and selling them after a few months or a year of marriage are rising alarmingly, say police. 

With conventional ruses to traffic women to India gradually turning ineffective, traffickers have been using marriage as an effective technique to smuggle women to India right under police noses, according to women organizations and other stakeholders. 

Local authorities and human right activists have taken the ´new mode of trafficking´ very seriously just as the world is set to mark International Women´s Day on March 8. The international day is marked globally draw the attention of the authorities toward the empowerment and development of women.

Serious concerns shown by the local authorities and activists is evident from the fact that a man involved in trafficking a woman after ´marriage´ was given maximum sentence in the district as per the existing legal provision of Human Trafficking and Transportation (Control) Act, 2007. The anti-trafficking act includes a jail sentence up to 20 years and fine of up to Rs 200,000 to the convict.

Biren Deusali Rai, a trafficker, who hails from Deurali, Sulubung VDC-1 of Ilam was given 20 years on charge of trafficking. 

Earlier, some seven years ago, he had married a woman and sold her across the border in India. After the couple had lived together for a year in a rented flat in Sikkim in India, the perpetrator had sold her to the houseowner for Rs 50,000 and returned home in Nepal.

Only after the husband fled leaving her behind that she realized Biren was a trafficker, the victimized woman said. "I spent six hellish years in India after he left me," said the victim. "After many attempts, I finally was able to escape from the home, which was like a prison." 

Just five months ago, the woman came back to Nepal and first thing she did was filed a complaint at the District Police Office (DPO) of Ilam against the trafficker. Unlike in other cases, the victim was able to get justice just after a month. The trafficker, who married her and sold in India, is currently serving his term in the district jail.

The punishment slapped by the court on Biren Biren is the maximum possible that can be given, according to Krishna Adhikari, police sub-inspector at Women Cell of Ilam DPO. The District Court had given Biren 20 years jail, slapped a fine of Rs 200,000 and ordered him to pay Rs 100,000 as compensation for the victim. 

"The court´s decision is commendable and in favor of the victim. We believe that it will greatly discourage anyone from committing such crime," said police sub-inspector Adhikari. 

Laliman Giri of Jeetpur village in Ilam is another trafficker who had also married a woman with the intention to sell her in India. He was nabbed by police along the Nepal-India border. He is serving two years of jail term in Ilam. 
According to Adhikari, trafficking under the cover of marriage is growing rampant in the district.

Published on: 5 March 2015 | Republica