New Delhi, Aug 6 - Congress MP from Andhra Pradesh Madhu Gaud Yaskhi Thursday made an impassioned plea to the government to evolve an effective action plan to check trafficking of young women and girls in the country.

During zero hour in the Lok Sabha, Yaskhi said that women from villages and towns were being lured by unscrupulous elements on the promise of providing them attractive jobs or roles in movies, but were later forced into prostitution.

'Such hapless young women and girls are taken away to foreign countries by means of fraud and deception,' Yaskhi said.

He also said that human trafficking from India to other countries is on the rise.

'A large number of internationally trafficked women are from India, and other countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The estimated number of such women is 2.5 lakh,' Yaskhi added.

The Middle East is being used as a transit point for this trafficking, he said.

Such women are afflicted by a host of illnesses, including AIDS, Yaskhi said, and urged the government to set up a one-stop national help centre to check trafficking where these women can get help, protection, counselling and be rehabilitated.