When a victim of trafficking is rescued, the reports often describe in detail the physical torture, the sex and the violence that was forced on her. But not where she came from, nor where she is going. Now that she has been rescued, what does life have on offer?
“Trafficking is an invisible crime,” said Malini Bhattacharya, chairperson of the West Bengal women’s commission. No camera captures the moment a person is being sold off. The victim is only seen briefly in the media after the rescue. “The media can help to make the entire story visible,” said Bhattacharya, who was speaking at the release of a handbook for reporters on the issues of safe migration and trafficking. The book, written by Rajashri Dasgupta and Laxmi Murthy, has been translated into Bengali by Mahua Santra.
The book lists terms associated with migration and trafficking, including the words migration and trafficking, which are often assumed to be synonymous.
Trafficking involves force and money transaction. Not every woman who is leaving her home for another place in search of livelihood is being trafficked. Not every woman who has been trafficked has been forced into prostitution. Not everyone who is trafficked is a woman. A migrant is not necessarily a man; a woman, of course, can be a migrant too.
Migration is the right to move. According to the 2001 census, there were 53.5 million rural-rural migrants in India, while the figure for rural-urban migration was 20 million.
Trafficking of a child, woman and also a man can happen when a person is migrating. To check such trafficking, migration must be made safe, for it is a way of life.