How Bihar's devastating floods open doors to child labour and sex trafficking networks

Bihar floods

In Bihar, where annual floods wash away homes and livelihoods, another, more sinister devastation unfolds - human trafficking. As rivers breach their banks, leaving families destitute, traffickers swoop in, preying on the most vulnerable with false promises of jobs and security. What follows, as reported by TOI, is a life of exploitation, forced labour and for many, no way back.

For traffickers, natural disasters are an opportunity. Districts like Sitamarhi, Araria and Madhubani ravaged by floods year after year, become hunting grounds for traffickers to capitalise on desperation and displacement. Arriving with promises of food, shelter and work, they entice parents anxious to secure a future for their children. Desperate parents, with no crops or income, send their children away, hoping for a better future. However, these offers often become a one-way ticket to a world of exploitation. Many vanish into bonded labour, forced entertainment or worse.

"Most of the boys I rescued were working 15-16 hours a day," Farooq Alam of Tatvasi Samaj Nyas was cited TOI. Many were from marginalised Musahar or minority communities, trapped in informal contracts with no escape.

Shovan Roy from Siktia village in Katihar was just 14 when floods destroyed his home. With his father dead and no income, his mother sent him to a bangle factory in Jaipur. "We were not children - we were machines made of flesh and blood," he said, as cited by TOI. Many like him report working from morning to night in cramped workshops, with their suffering overlooked and their childhoods stolen.

Trafficking in Bihar isn’t just opportunistic, it’s systematic. "There’s money behind every child," says Suresh Kumar of Bal Mitra, an NGO involved in rescues for two decades. "Many parents don’t even know where their children are sent."

The stories are harrowing. Children collapse from exhaustion, surviving on two rotis a day. Those who resist are beaten. But the reach of traffickers extends beyond child labour. As per TOI report, women in flood-affected regions frequently fall victim to forced marriages, only to be sold multiple times, or find themselves pushed into the flesh trade.

Others are funnelled into orchestra troupes or travelling dance groups, which are often a mask for sexual exploitation. "More than 500 orchestras operate in Bihar," says Amit Kumar Jain, ADG (weaker sections). Between May 2024 and July 2025, 194 minor girls were rescued from Saran district alone.

Field workers stress that the orchestras often serve as a facade for more nefarious acts. One rescuer, quoted by TOI, sums it up: “What the audience sees is performance. What happens off-stage is something else entirely.”

Jain identifies three key patterns: forced labour (Gaya, Nawada, Jamui), sexual exploitation (Seemanchal, Arwal, Sitamarhi) and the booming orchestra trade (Siwan, Saran, Gopalganj). Flood-prone areas and regions with high scheduled caste populations are particularly vulnerable.

“The business thrives where floods strike or where scheduled caste communities are clustered,” Jain notes. “It’s a low-cost, low-risk venture for traffickers, with most victims being helpless minors forced to work over 16 hours a day, often under threat and in inhumane conditions.”

The traffickers’ targets are typically the most impoverished: widows, orphans and landless labourers. Banku Bihari Sarkar, a child protection specialist at Unicef, Bihar, was quoted by TOI as saying that “they strike when people are most vulnerable - after a flood, a death, a failed harvest, through a well-established ring of contacts. They offer a lifeline in despair, but it is laced with chains.”