Hyderabad-ing in plain sight: City emerges transit point for human trafficking

Hyderabad has emerged as a transit point for human trafficking, according to a recent study by a city-based NGO. A paper by My Choices Foundation has identified alarming trends concerning the exploitation and forcing of girls into sex trafficking and domestic labour.

“Hyderabad is a transit place, while the source areas are the smaller towns and rural areas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” stated the research team, which conducted operations across the two Telugu states. “This is mainly because of high connectivity and good quality of highways, roads, trains and other modes of transport,” they added. Police sources told TOI that girls are brought from different parts of the country to Hyderabad and then trafficked. “The city is mostly a transit for coastal areas in Andhra Pradesh,” said Mahesh Bhagwat, commissioner of Rachakonda Commissionerate, which has tackled the highest number of human trafficking cases in Hyderabad last year.”Girls are brought to the city , kept here for a few days, and then trafficked to cities like Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Goa and Chennai. It’s also a transit point for girls getting trafficked to foreign destinations like Singapore, Malaysia, and the Gulf.”