Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Police raid has not stopped human trafficking in city' that was published in Newsband

Police raid has not stopped human trafficking in city

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: Thane police had conducted a raid on Kapal Bar and Dimple Lodge on May 3. They rescued many girls who even included minor ones in big number. Some persons who were running the prostitution business at these places were arrested. Some top police officers were suspended or made to go on leave.

Why were Thane police asked to carry out the raid? It was felt that local police were assisting those who were carrying out the prostitution business in the city and hence the authorities found it necessary to ask Thane police to conduct the raid.

But the thing is the prostitution business in Navi Mumbai has not come to a stop. It is going on in full swing even after the raid. The dance bars are active at night.

New girls are employed in these dance bars. They are asked to work as waitresses but soon they are found to be a part of dancing groups at night. These girls are brought to the hotel owners by the pimps who are always on the look out for new girls. It was found that husbands of many of these girls work at construction sites. These girls bring in extra income by working in the dance bars. They are even provided accommodations by the owners of the bars. They are accommodated at places where police don’t care to carry out the raid. They even enjoy the facility of being picked up by the vehicles from their home and taken to their place of work. After the work, they are dropped back at their homes.

These dance bars exist in big number in Navi Mumbai. They do roaring business. A ban was put on dance bars in 2005. That succeeded in controlling the prostitution business for sometimes. But slowly and steadily the business started growing more and more and today it is found to be in full swing. In fact, the human trafficking that occurred just last year has been much more than that took place during the five years prior to that.

These facts prove that the owners of dance bars and those people who carry out the prostitution and human trafficking business don’t fear the police authorities at all. They also prove that the local police have very little control over these people who pursue this immoral business.