Prostitution fears over Commonwealth Games
Thousands of women from India's north-east have been hired by escort agencies for the Commonwealth Games, a rights group has said.
Impulse NGO Network said this had raised fears that the girls will be pushed into prostitution.
The group said nearly 40,000 women from seven north-eastern states had been hired with promises of "lucrative" pay.
Escort services advertise in newspapers and are suspected to be fronts for prostitution.Hasina Kharbih, chairperson of Impulse NGO Network, a rights group that rescues women trafficked from the north-eastern states, said they had closely monitored the large scale hiring of women from the north-east for the Commonwealth Games.
"We are indeed very worried for our girls because so many of them have been recruited for escort services. They have been lured by good money and future jobs," said Ms Kharbih.
'Dubious agencies'A minister of the government in the north-eastern state of Meghalaya said he was apprehensive about the problem.
"We have appealed to the people to be vigilant.""It is not just girls from Meghalaya, but from across the north-east who have been recruited in huge numbers. We don't have details but we have reasons to be apprehensive," Social Welfare Department Minister JB Lyngdoh said.
The North-east Support Centre and Helpline, a Delhi-based NGO, said it was also concerned about the "large scale recruitment" of north-eastern girls for escort services.
"We are extremely concerned that thousands of north-east girls [have been] lured by dubious placement agencies for the Games. We fear they may fall into wrong hands," said Madhu Chander of the Helpline.
Though ticket sales have been low, thousands of tourists are expected to be in Delhi during the 12-day games, beginning on Sunday.
Recent police investigations in some north-eastern states have indicated that more than 15,000 girls and young women have gone missing over the last decade.
Police say they were lured by lucrative job offers never to return home.
Some have been rescued by police and rehabilitated by groups such as Impulse NGO Network.
(bbc news)
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