25% sex workers rescued are from massage parlours: Goa NGO

Nearly 25 per cent of the women rescued from commercial sexual exploitation in Goa are from massage parlours, an NGO said on Friday, and added that Nepali and Thai women top the list of foreign women rescued from such parlours, which promote cross massages.

Addressing a press conference in Panaji, Arun Pandey, who heads Anyay Rahit Zindagi, an NGO operating in the area of human trafficking in Goa for decades, also said that the government should formulate a law against cross massages.

"From 2010 to 2017, 683 women were rescued from commercial sexual exploitation in Goa. Out of this, 171 were rescued from massage parlours," he said.

Pandey's comment comes two days after state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said the state government was planning a crackdown on cross massage parlours -- where men give massage to women and women to men -- because it has the potential to promote sex trade.

Goa is one of the top beach tourism destinations in the country and the state also has more than 300 registered spas and massage parlours across the tourism-friendly coastal belt and major towns.

Pandey also released statistics which showed that in the last eight years, 134 women of foreign nationalities were rescued from massage parlours, out of which 20 were from Nepal and 17 hailed from Thailand. He also said that 32 women rescued during the same period were from Manipur.

--IANS

maya/nir/bg