KOLKATA: In common parlance, it is called the orchestra. But those who are involved with prevention of trafficking call it a façade for sex slavery . According to them, this is currently the most common way to traffic minors out of this city. Many of them finally land up in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to do “orchestra”.Incidentally, Bengal has reported the highest number of women and child trafficking cases in the country for the second year in a row and the number of such incidents has increased by around 70 per cent since 2015, the Centre has said.Krishna Raj, the Union minister of state for women and child development, has told the Rajya Sabha that in 2016, a total of 19,223 women and children had been trafficked from all states and Union territories in the country. Among them, Bengal recorded the highest number of cases at 6,672. In 2015, the number of trafficked women and children in India was 15,448 and 3,856 of them were from Bengal, the highest in the country.Indrani Brahma, the chairperson of Child Welfare Committee , said instances of minor girls from Bengal being trafficked to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh has been on the rise. “In the three years of my service here, I am seeing a steady increase in the number of such trafficked girls. Most of them come from very poor economic condition,” Brahma said.Getting girls to confess about what exactly these dance shows are all about is tough. But research by anti-trafficking activists suggest these shows are just a front for sex trade . “It is an old type of façade for exploitation of women and children . Their consent is not an informed one. By lure, deception or coercion, these girls are trafficked. They are told they will be given food and money. Finally, these women are turned into sex slaves without them realising that they have fallen into a trap. Normally, these shows happen post-harvest,” said former IPS officer PM Nair, who has done seminal work on anti-trafficking issues.Brahma, however, said such girls are trafficked from Bengal across the year. “Many of them are duped into believing that they are being invited to perform at weddings,” Brahma said. Basically, these girls are made to parade on stage when men actually choose their prey. After the dance show is over, the chosen girls are then whisked by the men to indulge in sex slavery.Tinku Khanna, director of Apne Aap, an organization working with victims of sex-trafficking, said she has often come across such incidents of trafficked girls from Bengal working in ‘melas’ in Bihar. “While working in Bihar, we came across travelling theatre companies and orchestra parties. They used to bring lots of young girls to entertain. We had done a sting operation to find that these girls were made to dance nude in severe winter. We have found recorded evidence of sexual exploitation of these girls, based on which we ran a sting operation in January 2012,” Khanna said.Based on the video footage, Aapne Aap had filed an FIR in 2012. “Subsequently, a PIL was filed at the Patna High Court which then ordered ban of orchestra and travelling theatres in this village melas. But we have also found out that mushrooming of home-based brothels under the name of orchestra parties in many districts. Right now, such shady orchestras are the biggest haunts for girls trafficked from Bengal. However, I must add that trafficked girls from others states, especially Rajasthan, are equally vulnerable to being exploited this way,” Khanna said.