She was 15 when she was trafficked from her home in North 24-Parganas' Baduria by her husband and his family. She fell ill at a brothel in Mumbai. After she was sent back home because of her ill health, she went to court against her husband. Three years later, the case is still on.

On Saturday, the 18-year-old asked an auditorium full of judges, including Calcutta High Court's Chief Justice Manjula Chellur, how many more days she would have to wait for justice.

The woman said the villagers abused her even now and saw her as a bad influence. "I cannot step out of home. After my rescue, when I went to the police station, the policemen told me to show a mark on my body as evidence. When they didn't take my complaint, I went to a court in Basirhat," she said while speaking at a conference on Human Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation at the high court.

The court directed police to register her complaint. "But now the court is setting one hearing date after another. How long will this continue? I know girls who committed suicide in shame." There was absolute silence in the auditorium while the trafficking survivor was narrating her plight.

Another survivor, aged around 26 and resident of Canning in South 24-Parganas, shared the ordeal she had been going through even after being rescued from Pune around six years ago. During the period she had to appear in a Pune court thrice for deposition against the owner of the brothel where she had been taken to.

"When the fourth notice came for me to depose, I wrote back expressing my inability to go to Pune. It is so taxing," she said.

Each visit to Pune - stretching across six or seven days - was a financial and emotional strain on her. "Every time I came back after deposing in the Pune court, villagers would say I went there to make some easy money. I couldn't take it any longer."

Chief Justice Chellur later promised to look into the matter and see whether the deposition through video conferencing could be arranged for the woman so she did not have to visit Pune anymore.

The woman got married when she was 17. Her husband would regularly abuse her, forcing her to walk out.

During a visit to a Alipore court to attend a hearing on her complaint against her husband, she met a woman who promised her job outside Bengal. "I needed money to fight the case. I decided to accept the offer to earn some money and help my family," she recounted.

She was put on a bus in Canning one day and made to eat something. She soon passed out. When she regained consciousness, she was on a train with her husband and the woman she had met at the Alipore court.

"I realised it was all part of a plan and my husband was a party to it," she said. "My husband asked me on the train to withdraw my complaints against him."

Both women later told Metro that their honour would be restored at their villages only after those who trafficked them were punished.

Speaking after the two women, Chief Justice Chellur said she felt ashamed at hearing their plight. "I was in a dilemma. I didn't know whether to clap after hearing them or feel ashamed."

The chief justice appealed to the judges of lower courts present at the seminar to reduce the gap between two hearings. "Are we not responsible for this? Should we not act at least now instead of saying what can I do? You can do many things. If you think about the people who come before you, that is enough. (Think) Where you can act? (Think) Where you can protect?" Chief Justice Chellur said.

"If victim and witness are scared of deposing because of threats, can't the police give protection? If such cases come before you for evidence, can't you give short dates?"

According to the website of the National Crime Records Bureau, Bengal reported 1,096 cases of trafficking in 2014, about a fifth of the nationwide figure of 5,466. Tamil Nadu came second with 509 cases.