Calcutta, Sept. 19: More than 20,000 women from Bengal are smuggled to north Indian states, Pakistan and West Asia annually.

The districts on top of the trafficking chart are Murshidabad, the 24-Parganas, the two Midnapores, Birbhum, Hooghly, Burdwan, Nadia and the two Dinajpurs.

?A majority of the women are taken to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana after fake marriages or on the pretext of job offers. Once there, a substantial number is routed to Pakistan and West Asian countries,? said Manabendra Mondol, the executive director of Socio-Legal Aid Research and Training Centre, at a workshop on Migration and Trafficking of Women.

Bengal also provides transit to about 5,000 to 10,000 women brought from Bangladesh every year via the Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar borders. About 10 per cent of these women stay in India while the rest are taken to Pakistan or the Arab countries. Calcutta is largely a transit point, with about 5 per cent of the women ending up in brothels in the city.

Recent studies have shown that the number of minors falling prey to traffickers and being forced into prostitution is on the rise. According to a study, 15 per cent of the sex workers across India are below 15 years and 25 per cent below 18.