Women and girls are duped with the promise of a good job - only to find themselves trapped in domestic or sexual slavery
NEW DELHI, May 16 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The Indian government plans to introduce anti-human trafficking courses for police in Hindi and other regional languages, after a disappointing take up of the courses in English, the Hindustan Times reported on Friday.
Tens of thousands of children and women are trafficked within South Asia every year, mostly for sex and domestic work, but also for forced marriages and the trade in human organs, say activists.
The ministry of home affairs said that while a course to inform law enforcement officers and prosecutors about trafficking existed in English, many did not enroll as they were not fluent in the language, said the report.
"The nodal officers of various states said that they have a problem with understanding English leading to low enrollment. They prefer their regional languages..." the report quoted a senior home ministry official as saying.
Human rights activists say most girls are trafficked to cities like Delhi from impoverished states such as West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh where they are duped with the promise of a good job - only to find themselves trapped in domestic or sexual slavery.
Many young girls trafficked in India also come from neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh.
Last month, eight young women - including a minor - were reportedly rescued from a brothel in Delhi after a police raid found them locked inside a wardrobe.
Some of the women, from West Bengal state, said they had been tricked by traffickers who had promised to marry them, but instead put them in the brothel.
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