Contraceptive pills being smuggled to India

Contraceptive pills have now turned into a lucrative trade for smugglers along the Indo-Bangladesh border. With cattle smuggling becoming too much of a risk, thanks to increased vigil by Border Security Force along the South Bengal Frontier, smugglers have turned to other items that are easier to smuggle such as drugs, Fake Indian Currency Notes, Phensedyl (a banned cough syrup in Bangladesh), gold, silver and now contraceptive pills. 

On Thursday, BSF troops along with customs officials carried out a raid at a border village in Ghojadanga, North 24 Parganas and seized 10,500 strips of contraceptive pills that are distributed in Bangladesh by an NGO.

This is the first such seizure of pills by the BSF in 2020. Records, however, reveal the pill from Bangladesh has been entering India clandestinely for years now, both in West Bengal and Assam.

Women among these states’ border population are known to purchase these pills from local pharmacies for Rs 30 a strip but a senior official pointed to a more sinister role. 

 “We have come to know that these pills are ground to powder and then mixed with other chemicals to make some kind of drugs. It has now come to light that an Indian version of party drug Yaba is made in villages along the border and sent across. We can’t say whether there is any connection between the contraceptive pills and this,” the official said.

The villagers held by troops of 153Bn posted at BOP Panitar have been identified as Gauranga Sardar (25) and his mother Jyotsna Sardar (50). _Times of India

Dhaka/AKA