HYDERABAD: Trafficking in women from Andhra Pradesh to red light areas in Delhi apart, many are now being sent to Haryana to boost the skewed male-female ratio there.

"I was shocked to see 13 women from Andhra Pradesh in Haryana serving as paros, virtually `sexual brides.'

The women-to-men ratio has fallen drastically to as low as 700 to 1000 in that State, especially in places like Soneput," Rishi Kant, a social activist from Delhi, told The Hindu .

Mr. Kant, credited with rescuing many Andhra women from the flesh trade, narrated tales of how some Haryana men used these women to bear boys and "sold them to others" if they delivered female babies.

The activist, who heads Shakti Vahini, a civil society group with a strength of over 10,000 volunteers in north India, said that despite taking efforts to curb the trend, women from Andhra Pradesh continued to top the list in the brothels of New Delhi's G.B. Road, followed by those from Nepal.

Concerted approach

"I am puzzled by the trend as Andhra Pradesh is counted as one among the well-developed States. There is something wrong and the Government, police and the community need to ponder," he said.

The demand for women from Andhra Pradesh could be linked to the increase in migrant labour from Bihar and other northern States, Mr. Kant suggested. Mr. Kant, who is here to form a network of NGOs who could check trafficking in women and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, said he was on the lookout for organisations and community workers who could motivate poor parents in rural areas to stop "donating" their daughters to the flesh trade. "We need to match the traffickers who are united in carrying out their nefarious activities, if we want to checkmate them."

During Mr. Kant's interactions with such women in Delhi, they said middlemen and women lured them with jobs as domestic helps.

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