TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Goa Police disclosed that girls from 18 states are trafficked to Goa as part of the commercial sex trade.
“In my 20 months of service in Goa, we rescued many girls from different parts of the country. Almost 18 states and even the neighboring parts across international borders, especially from the economically backward areas,” said IPS officer Karthik Kashyap, superintendent of police , Crime Branch. He further said that the police was rescuing girls even from Karnataka and Delhi.
The number of girls rescued from the sex trade is increasing in Goa every year as per police records. 125 girls were rescued last year, while 100 were rescued this year so far.
However, Kashyap said, “The figures are increasing, but that only means the number of cases and attempts to curb the illicit activities has increased. It is the result of our hard work to curb trafficking.”
Director of non-government organisation ARZ Arun Pandey, who has been working against human trafficking in Goa, said that Goa was a source and destination for commercial sex trade. He informed that trafficking from the North-Eastern states had been reduced due to a combined crusade of the NGOs and state police.
Pandey also stated that awareness was needed to control the
demand for commercial sex workers. He said, “To address the demand of commercial sex trade in Goa, one of the options is to educate customers, hotels, guest houses, public, taxi drivers etc that commercial sex in Goa is a crime.”
NGOs and police were at the Police Headquarters in Panjim to release awareness posters about human trafficking. Pandey said that posters, street plays and distribution of pamphlets would help educate the locals and tourists visiting Goa. He also stated that a special court was needed to deal with trafficking cases, and that it was also conveyed to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Delhi.
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Escort services source untraceable
PANJIM: SP Crime Branch Karthik Kashyap stated that although the list of websites hosting escort services was with the Goa Police, tracing the servers was a problem as they were located abroad. He said “All servers are located outside the country. Whenever we try to ask the source of the websites, they deny giving information, and hence we are unable to catch the culprits who run this online trade. These operators are using the loopholes of this situation to carry out their operations.”
