As the Covid-19 cases are declining in the country and people are waiting for the unlock to resume their work after two months of lockdown, an incident came to light where the Caritas India Partner DEHAT intercepted a young girl Yamuna (Name Changed) who was trying to cross the border on medical emergency reasons.

The real reason was disclosed after she was counselled by the booth in charge.

Yamuna informed that she is travelling to Rajkot with her cousin who is working in the hotel at Rajkot. When asked about his whereabouts. she replied that he is waiting at the local bus stand. This answer was enough to get into the suspicion. The Team asked her to call her cousin but he denied accepting the story. Now everything was clear and without wasting time, the booth team members rushed to the bus stand and found the person based on the identity given by the girl. The person was taken to the SSB check post where he was questioned regarding his journey. 

The Primary information received from Sunil (Name Changed) was not convincing to the team as he told that the girl is her cousin sister and she is going with him for work. The Swaraksha Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) and SSB team interrogated Sunil about his family where he informed about his wife and two children in Bardiya Nepal. The team spoke to his wife to check the authenticity, which surprised the team when his wife requested the officer to intercept him as she suspects that her husband may be involved in selling the girl to someone.

While preliminary questioning and checking the mobile call records of Sunil revealed the conversation with Tikaram who agreed to pay Rs. 10,000/- for the girl. Now the team understood that this is a case of Eloping and the girl was not familiar with this reality. Whereas the girl was assured that Tikaram will arrange the work for her and will help her in getting married soon. Now AHTU has no option other than to hand over Sunil to the Police custody. 

In these kinds of case, victims were shown only the good side of the picture as to how they will earn handsome money to live a good life but in many cases, this ruins the life of such innocent girls. To prevent such inhumanity and protect human dignity, the Caritas India Partners team are deployed at the Indo-Nepal border to monitor the movements of several young girls who travel to Indian metro cities from Nepal for work on-call and arrangements of their known persons. The only trust behind travelling with this familiar person is that they are from their own families or known to them and they try to convince everyone but this trust breaks when the victims are sold in the big cities just for the sake of small amount which the familiar person gets in return spoiling the life of Young Girls.

Anil Yadav, the SSB Assistant Commandant acted meticulously in this Case and with the help of the DEHAT booth team female member the victim was counselled, and the truth was revealed and the girl was saved. The victim was later handover to the NGO in Nepal that runs a Shelter home and his cousin who was taking her to Rajkot was handover to Nepal Police for further actions in Nepal. The alertness of Caritas India DEHAT team members during the Covid-19 surge has not only saved the life of the young girl but also proved their passion to save the life of others who are at the peril of being Trafficked during this Pandemic situation where everyone is locked at home to save their own lives.