Trafficking survivors took more loans at higher rates, finds study
The Hindu
Second wave of COVID-19 forced vulnerable women to take high risk loans beyond their repaying capacity
Months after she was rescued, 16-year-old Asma, a resident of Sunderbans in South 24 Parganas, took a loan of ₹20,000 from local moneylenders in May 2020 to rebuild her life. The first wave of COVID-19 had made it difficult to get any work. A year later, in May 2021, Ms. Asma, who was unable to repay the loan she took last year, took another loan of ₹32,000. The second wave of COVID-19 and its related distress has pushed survivors of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation into more debts at higher rates of interest in the year 2021 than compared 2020. Stories like that of Ms. Asma and the debt trap that the pandemic has pushed them into have come to fore in a survey carried out by Tafteesh, a platform for anti-trafficking stakeholders.More Related News
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