From Risk to Rescue: Keeping Children Safe In The Climate-Hit Sundarbans
Community-based anti-trafficking efforts through vigilance hubs, partnerships with law enforcement, and a survivor-focused approach is paying off, reports Safina Nabi and Kanika Gupta
She was only 13 when she was abducted on her way to school in West Bengal’s 24 North Parganas district. A boy who had been stalking her drugged her and took her hundreds of miles away - to Gujarat.
For months, Deeksha* (name changed) endured relentless abuse at the hands of her stalker and two other men. The violence left her so physically weakened that they occasionally summoned a nurse to treat her injuries. It was during one such visit, when the men briefly left, that Deeksha pleaded for help. The nurse alerted her family, and the police traced her location. She was rescued and brought home.
But the ordeal didn’t end with her rescue. Back in her village, Deeksha was met with silence and stigma. “My parents didn’t let me stay, fearing the society would never accept me,” she recalls. At a shelter, she discovered she was pregnant. With support from a local NGO, Basirhat Initiative for Rural Dedication (BIRD), she underwent an abortion, and her parents were counseled about trauma and acceptance.
Climate change is worsening India’s trafficking records
The Sundarbans, a fragile mangrove delta spanning India and Bangladesh, is one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world. Rising seas and increasingly severe cyclones are eroding livelihoods. Families that once depended on farming or fishing now face shrinking incomes and chronic poverty.
In this vacuum, traffickers exploit desperation.
Girls are lured with promises of jobs or marriage and taken across states or across borders. According to Sundarbans police records, nearly 3,700 women and girls went missing in 2023, and over 2,100 of them remained untraced by the end of the year. By mid-2024, nearly 3,000 additional cases had been reported, as per the latest figures available from law enforcement.
“Trafficking is one of the biggest problems in our area right now. More and more girls and young women are being trafficked, and it’s mostly because of climate change, poverty, and lack of awareness,” says Bikash Das, a founding member of the Basirhat Initiative for Rural Dedication (BIRD).
India officially has 788 Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs), which are task forces composed of officials from the police, the Women and Child Welfare Department, and other departments, as well as representatives of the NGOs working in the area and legal counselors. These units are supposed to rescue victims and build databases on traffickers but most are under-resourced.
The response: A safety net
In such trafficking-prone villages of West Bengal, BIRD has become a rare lifeline. What began over 15 years ago as a small effort by local volunteers has grown into a trusted network that families now turn to in moments of crisis. At the heart of this network is Bikash, who started volunteering when he was 14. “We have grown up seeing these problems. I knew I wanted to help, but soon realized it was too big to face alone. That’s why we built an organization,” he says.
BIRD works along the Basirhat border and in the Sundarbans focusing on three areas : prevention, rescue, and rehabilitation of trafficked victims. The team works closely with panchayats, police, Border Security Forces, and AHTUs to protect minors from being trafficked. They offer bridge courses for school dropouts and encourage them to resume education or pursue vocational training.
BIRD volunteers counsel families on the harms of child marriage and child labour, about traffickers’ false promises about jobs and marriages, and convince parents to keep their daughters in school. Those rescued are guided toward safer paths and sustainable livelihoods. Survivors are offered legal support, emotional counseling, and help in accessing government schemes and receive rightful compensation - all small but vital steps toward rebuilding lives ruptured by exploitation.
How BIRD really works
Their work often starts with a whisper, a tip from a neighbor, a worried parent, even a girl’s sudden absence from school. Acting quickly, BIRD members coordinate with the police and, when necessary, step into perilous roles as decoy customers to pull girls back from traffickers before they vanish.
At railway stations and bus stops, BIRD staff and volunteers run quiet but constant vigilance hubs. Many rescues begin here, with a keen-eyed volunteer noticing a young girl led away by a stranger.
In a landscape where official systems often fail, BIRD’s blend of swift intervention, community trust, and continuous vigilance has made it one of the few bulwarks against trafficking. Such actions are made possible by close community integration. “When a girl goes missing, families first come to us, not the police,” Bikash says. This trust allows BIRD to act quickly, often before cases escalate.
Not built in a day
This trust took time to build - by being present, by listening to families, by returning to check on the survivor from time to time after a rescue.
Bikash works alongside schoolteachers and local leaders, offers support to parents who lost children, and shows through action that he’s there for the long haul. His willingness to take risks– from confronting traffickers to joining raids – convinced communities that he is an ally fighting for their daughters’ safety.
For example, in 2024, BIRD intervened in the planned marriage of a 16-year-old whose family had lost their home due to Cyclone Yaas. The parents, facing crippling debt, saw marrying their minor girl off as an escape route. BIRD provided emergency relief and persuaded the family to re-enroll their daughter in school.
Evidence of change
BIRD estimates it has rescued or prevented the trafficking of more than 500 girls since its founding. While official data is patchy, local police confirm that collaboration with NGOs like BIRD has been critical in dozens of rescues. “If there is specific information from any NGO, we conduct the raid and a rescue operation jointly,” explains a former police inspector from West Bengal’s AHTU, who wishes to stay anonymous.
“In regions where NGOs maintain vigilance, we see lower reported cases of trafficking compared to areas without such presence,” says Amrita Dasgupta, a researcher at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, studying Indo-Bangladesh water borders and human trafficking.
After her rescue and rehabilitation, Deeksha, still reeling from the trauma of being trafficked and raped, was about to be forcibly married by her parents. She was 17 at the time. She sought BIRD’s intervention to stop the wedding. Today, she is back in school, training to become a nurse. “Now I fearlessly share my story in the community. What happened to me shouldn’t happen to anyone else,” she says.
Deeksha now works with BIRD, mentors young girls and leads awareness efforts in her own community. “If something happens in my community, I step in, listen, and take action. With BIRD’s support, I help others get justice, too,” she says.
Challenges and limits
“We often receive threats from traffickers because we push for their punishment and try to secure compensation for victims,” says Bikash. “Political pressure allows trafficking to continue without much action being taken. Whenever we step in, we are met with resistance and constant questioning about why we are there, which makes it hard to carry out our work. If we insist, the political pushback only grows stronger.”
Funding remains precarious too; grassroots groups like BIRD often depend on small donations and inconsistent project grants.
Nor can they address root causes alone. Climate-driven poverty, lack of livelihood opportunities, and porous borders continue to fuel trafficking networks. This gap between systemic drivers and individual interventions underscores why, despite rescue efforts, survivors remain vulnerable to falling back into trafficking networks.
“One of the major challenges is that even after girls are rescued and counseled, many are trafficked again. The rehabilitation process remains inadequate, and with climate change and poverty deepening their vulnerabilities, they are often pushed back into the same cycle,” Bikash highlights for UpBeat.
He stressed on the urgent need for stronger government support to create sustainable rehabilitation pathways that can truly help survivors rebuild their lives.
What we learned
Despite all hardships, BIRD’s model shows how anti-trafficking efforts can work when anchored in local trust. Its vigilance hubs, partnerships with law enforcement, and survivor-focused counseling create a low-cost, community-embedded system that can be adapted and replicated in other high-risk regions.
Already, similar grassroots–state collaborations are emerging in Nepal’s border districts and Bangladesh’s coastal belts, proving the approach can travel across contexts.
“The lesson from the Sundarbans is that prevention works best when local communities are empowered to be first responders,” says Amrita.
Does this article convince you that thorough vigilance, working together with the local law enforcement groups, education and mainstreaming can help incidences of trafficking in other vulnerable districts too?
Do you know of other ways that can help prevent trafficking? Or rescue women and children trafficked for labour, bring them back into the society, help heal the trauma?
