In December 2025, I mentored a group of medical students from Lee Kong Chian Medical School on their overseas community involvement project (OCIP) in Kolkata. Project Kolkata serves women who are currently or formerly in the sex trade. Project Kolkata partners local NGOs to conduct health screenings and health education for these women and their children. Human trafficking remains a significant problem in India. West Bengal, where Kolkata is the capital and largest city of, ranks consistently at the top of states with the highest number of human trafficking incidents and resulting crime rates. Most of the victims are women and children, transported through the state’s borders of Nepal and Bangladesh, to be recruited into the sex trade. Many of the women who are actively in the sex trade came to our health screening wearing masks. Their faces are not shown in the photographs.
In December 2025, I mentored a group of medical students from Lee Kong Chian Medical School on their overseas community involvement project (OCIP) in Kolkata. Project Kolkata serves women who are currently or formerly in the sex trade. Project Kolkata partners local NGOs to conduct health screenings and health education for these women and their children. Human trafficking remains a significant problem in India. West Bengal, where Kolkata is the capital and largest city of, ranks consistently at the top of states with the highest number of human trafficking incidents and resulting crime rates. Most of the victims are women and children, transported through the state’s borders of Nepal and Bangladesh, to be recruited into the sex trade. Many of the women who are actively in the sex trade came to our health screening wearing masks. Their faces are not shown in the photographs.