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Ms. Kumari stated that child trafficking is one of the most serious issues of child rights violation in Bihar. She noted that during the pandemic the trafficking of girls increased manifold but remained largely invisible. Many girls were trafficked without an inkling to authorities. Child trafficking involved one of the most organised crime nexuses in the world. Despite this, trafficking of girls went unreported. Parents and guardians due to fear of protecting their family’s honour neither file FIR in police stations nor seek help from any other mechanism. Resultantly, these girls get trapped in sex work and other forms of exploitation.

During COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, numerous migrants were returning from Delhi and Mumbai to Bihar. Upon their return, they were grappling with abject poverty and were having difficulties in eking out a living. The traffickers in the village appropriated their helplessness in the garb of giving the girls work, money or other help. It was further noted that number of trafficking cases were underreported in Bihar. Districts such as Muzzaffarpur, Madhubani and Gaya had high number of missing children especially those who were child labourers in Jaipur, Mumbai and Hyderabad. However, most of these children were boys. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Bihar observed that not many girls returned during lockdown. This was primarily because many girls were trafficked under the pretext of fake marriages.

Trafficking through fake marriages were on a rise in Bihar. Earlier such marriages happened in Purnia and Katihar, but now they are becoming frequent in Supaul, Saharasa, Madhubani, Jamui and Banka. This form of trafficking is done through gangs of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana. The members of these gangs posed as husbands and lived with girls for some time. Once the girls were pregnant and gave birth, they were left to fend for themselves, and their babies were trafficked. Last year one such gang was caught trafficking a baby from Ghaziabad to Nepal. Another gang trafficking girls as part of orchestras was nabbed in Rohtash. The girls who were rescued were scared and traumatized and recounted horrifying stories of being pushed into sex work. Emergence of this case from Rohtash – a district which has comparatively high literacy rates and better socioeconomic indicators was worrying. Trafficking through orchestras was becoming more and more organised in Bihar. Initially the trafficked girls were made to work as part of orchestras and were later pushed into sex work. Not only this, girls in orchestras were even killed if they raised their voice against ill-treatment by the customers or agents. Such cases were reported from Lakhisarai and Siwan districts of Bihar. Young girls of less than 14 years were being hired as part of orchestras. Many of these orchestras played at high profile events of politicians and celebrities thus, legitimizing and popularizing their presence. Girls who aspired to have a career often joined these orchestras unaware that they would be risking their lives. Modelling rackets making false promise to train girls and become successful models were also being used to traffic girls.

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