PANJIM: In a startling disclosure, ARZ Director, Arun Pandey said in the last five years no medical examination of sex trafficking victims was done only because woman police accompanying them did not want to spend the night in the hospital.
Presenting a statistical analysis on the situation of sex trafficking in Goa for five years (2014 to 2019) at the anti-human trafficking conference held at Panjim, Pandey said nearly 400 girls were rescued in the State. Of these 16 per cent women were from other countries such as Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Pandey said whenever any victim is rescued, she has to be taken to the government hospital for medical examination escorted by a lady police personnel. But often the police are reluctant to spend the night in the hospital because it requires a whole night to spend in the hospital due to various medical examinations/tests to be conducted. Due to this, the police personnel are usually discouraging the victims from going to medical examinations and as a result victims are not giving their consent.
“This has stated by the many victims during the panel inquiry conducted by Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM),” he said.
The commercial sexual activities dominated in the coastal belt of North Goa.
CSE has spread to Bicholim, Verna, Vasco, Margao and Ponda, which are not tourist hubs.
He further mentioned that as per the NCRB Report, 2020, Goa registered highest cases for human trafficking per capita population but there was zero conviction.
Pandey has stressed for better coordination between various agencies such as police, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), doctors, protective homes, women and child development, public prosecutors and NGOs who are working to combat sex trafficking.
Pandey said that girls trafficked from outside Goa are brought for short period of time varying from one week to month or months and they are kept in hotels, lodges or flats rented by traffickers. The abuse and exploitation is more compared to those residing in Goa and registered with the Goa State Aids Control Society (GSACS). Around 5,000 women in prostitution are registered with the GSACS while, girls and women are trafficked to Goa from 23 States of India, he said.
