Cheated, sold, trapped, and abused: Harrowing tales of Bengaluru’s trafficked teens

Bengaluru police booked 129 cases under the Immoral Trafficking Act in 2021. The number of cases rose to 155 in 2022, and 161 in 2023 – an increase of 25% from 2021 to 2023

Tara (name changed), 17, was residing with her grandmother in Kushtia district in Bangladesh before her life took a turn for the worse.

Tara’s mother was a commercial sex worker who had been in Bengaluru for 15 years. After her grandmother’s death, Tara moved in with her maternal aunt in Bangladesh. The maternal aunt secured Tara’s engagement with a local boy, but the marriage was called off. Then, Tara’s mother, with the help of her sister (the girl’s maternal aunt) and a trafficking agent, Laltu, smuggled her daughter over the border into India and then into Bengaluru.