The US Nagar police on Thursday handed over the custody of six women to a Nepalese NGO working to check cross-border human trafficking that is active along the areas near the Indo-Nepal border.
A police team accompanied the rescued women till the Gaddhchowki, a check post on Nepal border, before representatives of the NGO ‘ Maiti’ welcomed them to their homeland. Prior to this, the women recorded their statements before a magistrate under Section 164 of Code of Criminal Procedure.
“We were promised hefty salaries and lavish life by Nani Maya and others in our villages. We are very poor and are hardly able to earn livelihood in our villages. Our families were lured by the false promises of traffickers,” said one the women.
The police had rescued the group on October 20 from human traffickers in Rudrapur when they arrived from Nepal. Three people, including a woman, were arrested. All the six women are from Nepal’s Sindhupalchok district. “We come from poor families and live in misery. As there is no employment, we have to face miserable condition. Our families work as labourers to earn livelihood,” said another woman.
One of the rescued women was sceptical on whether she would return to her village. “What is there? We are promised that we will be housed in Mahendranagar and we will stay there…,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}One of the rescued women was sceptical on whether she would return to her village. “What is there? We are promised that we will be housed in Mahendranagar and we will stay there…,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Maheshwari Bhatt, a Maiti volunteer, said the group would be kept at a rehabilitation centre in Mahendranagar in western Nepal. “They will be imparted vocational training so that they can become self-dependent before leaving for their villages so that they are not trapped again by human traffickers,” she said, adding that the NGO was trying to contact the families of these rescued women.