This West Bengal headmaster takes on women traffickers – The New Indian Express

Express News Service 

WEST BENGAL : In a non-descript village called Mathurapur in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas, Chandan Maiti, the headmaster of Krishnachandrapur High School, not only discharges administrative duties and imparts education, but also tours the remote villages of Sunderbans after his work hours to spread awareness about human trafficking.

For the past two decades, Maiti has been visiting 40 villages in the delta region of South 24 Parganas, infamous in the region for trafficking of minor girls, warning girls and their parents on how to stay safe.

He tells them how girls who marry early could get trapped by traffickers and have their lives ruined. He also tells them about the consequences of fleeing with someone in exchange for a smartphone or a few thousand rupees and the promise of a fictitious bright future. In many cases, the victims elope with men who show them starry dreams of a good life in other states.

As per police records, South 24 Parganas district sees nearly 2,500 to 3,000 cases of trafficking a year,
with 80 per cent of the victims being girls aged between 14 and 18 years. Maiti recalls how his efforts had paid off in the case of a young widow who was able to complete her education and is now acting as the sabhapati of Maturapur Block-I.

“Shakuntala Halder got married while studying in Class VII. After two years, her husband died of a brain tumour. Her in-laws threw her out of home, holding her responsible for their son's death. After she returned to her parental home, she started receiving calls and messages from strangers. I realised she was about to fall into the trap of the traffickers. When I interacted with her, she told me that she wanted to pursue education and I helped her,” he says.

Recounting an example of trafficking, Maiti said a poor villager had sold off two daughters for Rs 2.8 lakh to a middleman, who was one of the operatives of a human trafficking racket. “Both the girls were taken to Kashmir Valley where they were forced to marry two locals who already had wives. After a few months, one of them managed to contact me as my number is available with hundreds of families in the Sunderbans. They sought my help. When I was frantically searching for a way to help them, one of my friends told me that she could help me as she knew someone in the Valley.

Finally, we were able to arrange for train tickets for the two sisters and they managed to return home. I gave them refuge in the hostel of my school and assured them of being given education,'' Maiti said.
Elaborating on what prompted him to save girls from being trafficked, Maiti said that he had noticed in 2003 that the school dropout rate was more than 30 per cent among the girls studying in Class VII and VIII.

“When I made inquiries, I came across a startling fact. The parents in the region considered their daughters eligible for marriage as soon as their menstrual cycles started. As a result, many parents fell into the trap of traffickers, who feigned to be eligible grooms,'' he said.

Maiti's persistent efforts have brought down the dropout rate to 5 per cent in the area. A police officer posted in Sunderbans said trafficking in the district is a well-organised crime with operators based in West Bengal and other states.