Reporting the luring of Punjab's women to the UK to force them into flesh trade, state NRI commission on Thursday asked the state chief secretary to raise the matter with the union ministry of external affairs.
The commission took suo-motu notice of a news report about some organisation's taking a memorandum to the Jalandhar police commission about illegal travel agents in Punjab who trap women from poor families into the racket by the promise of jobs, education, or better lifestyle in the UK.
"Recently, the UK police identified more than 600 women from Punjab trapped in flesh trade in Britain. Their number is reported to have risen," a spokesman of the commission said here on Thursday, quoting the memorandum.
The commission has asked the state to take necessary action by the next hearing on January 31, 2014. Prominent UK Indians united under the umbrella of Sikh Sewak Society International, who had taken the memorandum to the Jalandhar police commissioner, had also requested the state government to give "return expenses" as grant-in-aid to women who wished to come home. The organisation is providing them with shelter and looking for suitable jobs for them.
"The trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation is an organised crime that's challenging to tackle because of its myriad complexities and variations, poverty, low status of women, and the lack of protective environment," the commission observed. It asked the state government to appoint a committee to look into the multiple murders of Punjabis in Manila (in The Philippines) and put a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer on it.
{{/usCountry}}"The trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation is an organised crime that's challenging to tackle because of its myriad complexities and variations, poverty, low status of women, and the lack of protective environment," the commission observed. It asked the state government to appoint a committee to look into the multiple murders of Punjabis in Manila (in The Philippines) and put a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer on it.
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