Women as merchandise: 'Fear factor of the penis'

In the 1971 War, when East Pakistan became Bangladesh, an orphanage in Kolkata had rescued an abandoned Bangladeshi girl. When a young French intellectual Indophile came looking for a bride, this innocent girl was found to be suitable. With all good intentions, the orphanage made arrangements for Mahuwa's marriage and her travel to France. When her husband proudly introduced Mahuwa as his wife, people appreciated him for his humane gesture. I came to know her after quite a long time. One day this simple girl confided in me her worry that the noisy grunts and rowdy behaviour emanating from her husband's room were getting louder, and the number of men visiting him every night was steadily increasing. It was so evident that he was a homosexual, but Mahuwa did not understand that. She never even discovered what marriage meant. When she explained her plight to her orphanage, they told her to adjust to her new home, without listening to her specific concerns. It transpired her husband actually trafficked Mahuwa to make her his housemaid. Luckily I was able to secretly help Mahuwa file for divorce after she became a French citizen. Her story has a happy ending. This brave woman learnt French, found a job, met someone who loved and married her, and they are living in Belgium now. But not everyone is bold and fortunate enough to escape when duped.

Human trafficking is a lucrative industry, second only to the world's most profitable illegal industry, drug trafficking. In 2005, ILO's Patrick Belser estimated a global annual profit of $31.6 billion. The UN's 2008 estimate was that almost 2.5 million people from 127 countries were trafficked. Trafficking women for commercial sexual exploitation violates their dignity and right to life. In India, as rich and poor alike choose to abort baby girls for dowry reasons, there's a skewed gender ratio. The 2011 census showed the sex ratio of children under age seven to be 109 boys to 100 girls. That means approximately 7 million fewer girls than boys in our 1.2 billion population. So in states like Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat, young girls are openly sold for marriage to older men.

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