Pandemic heightens trafficking risks 27 Nov 2020 10:12 PM (4 years ago)
“Trafficking is the most egregious violation of human rights”, declared Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, at the turn of the new millennium, when the global body adopted a convention against transnational organised crime, and three protocols, one for preventing and punishing trafficking in persons, especially women and children, under the guardianship of the UNODC. So far, 177 countries, including India, have ratified it.
Reported in the Statesman Kolkatta
ARCHANA DATTA | New Delhi | August 28, 2020 11:18 am
Sonu Punjaban @ Geeta Arora’s sentencing for twenty-four years, perhaps evoked little or no curiosity. But her name induces instant recognition in the crime world as ‘Delhi’s flesh trade don’. Slapped with many cases, her present conviction is for kidnapping a 12-year-old schoolgirl from Haryana in 2013, torturing and drugging her, and selling her to different sex agents in Delhi, UP and Haryana. Many Bollywood filmmakers drew story lines from Sonu’s crime-filled life.
“Trafficking is the most egregious violation of human rights”, declared Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, at the turn of the new millennium, when the global body adopted a convention against transnational organised crime, and three protocols, one for preventing and punishing trafficking in persons, especially women and children, under the guardianship of the UNODC. So far, 177 countries, including India, have ratified it. Yet in 2016, around 40.3 million were found to be victims of human trafficking – 71 per cent women and girls, and 29 per cent men and boys.
In 2019, a Supreme Court appointed panel estimated that around 950,000 people, 60 per cent of them women, and about 200,000 children, had been reported missing from 2016 to 2018, and said that it was ‘difficult to ascertain whether someone’s disappearance is intentional or unintentional…..’. It observed that “plausible reasons could be the lure of better living conditions in the face of extreme poverty, illiteracy and lack of opportunities”. Nonetheless, the Global Slavery Index, 2018 said that around eight million people lived in modern slavery in India in 2016.
Yet, India abounds in ant-trafficking laws. Apart from the overarching constitutional protection, the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, has long enlisted well over twenty offences related to the trafficking of minors for commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) and forced labour and a bouquet of special acts like the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA), 1986 and the Bonded Labour System (Abolition), 1985 also exist.
“Despite the ubiquitous legal shield… trafficking continues unabated… and minor girls remain the worst victims,” rued Rishi Kant, Director, Shakti Vahini, a Delhi-based NGO working against trafficking. It rings so true when we listen to the ordeal faced by Manisha (name changed), a fifteen-year-old girl, kidnapped from her village in North 24-Parganas in West Bengal in May 2019, pushed into a trafficker’s den in Delhi, traded with many sex brokers, and finally, rescued from a brothel in Silchar in Assam.
Similar was the fate of Rukhsana (name changed), another teenager from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, who was duped by a local man with the false promise of marriage and left home with him in January this year. She was sexually abused for days together by him, and eventually forced into prostitution. Rukhsana was tracked down from a sex den in Mathura.
Nevertheless, the National Crime Records Bureau’s latest available data recorded a total of only 8,132 cases under the IPC, mostly (45.5 per cent) for forced labour and (21.5 per cent) for sexual exploitation in 2016. Amitabh Srivastava, a veteran journalist with experience of working with an anti-trafficking agency, brushed off its figures saying that “they do not reflect the reality and authorities taking solace in them are showing an ostrich like attitude.”
A global NGO’s anti-trafficking campaign head in India concurred, saying that “there is definitely (a) gap in data… the official data only reveal reported cases… many cases remain unreported… parents are hesitant or sometimes they are complicit.” A lawyer handling trafficking cases stressed that “unless the system of filing the FIR, Charge sheet is digitised, accurate data will not come into the system.”
Both the IPC and ITPA have critical gaps in implementation, lament legal experts and activists. Mr Colin Gonsalvez, a noted lawyer in Delhi and founder of HRLN, contended that “trafficking thrives with police patronage… existing laws vest enormous discretionary power with the police… each state police functions in its own way…unless there is a federal agency like the CBI, laws will not have the desired deterrent effect.” Others have deplored that India’s innovative labour laws largely remain on the statute books.
However, India earned some brownie points by piloting an exclusive anti-trafficking legislation in 2018, which pushed it up as a ‘Tier 2’ country in the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report, 2019, from the earlier ‘Tier two Watch list’. Even the 2018 bill earned criticism for “creating a parallel legal framework… by retaining all other existing laws and… following the typical raid-rescue-rehabilitation model.”
Dr Ravi Verma, Director, ICRW, Asia, asserted that “since trafficking is a complex socio-economic phenomenon, it requires a well thought out process of social integration for victims, but one should not overlook the other side of it, many victims get sucked in to it… evolve a coping mechanism…they should not be dehumanised and denied the basic rights for survival.”
Crime in India, 2018, reported a 30 per cent rise of sexual harassment incidents in shelter homes for protection of trafficked victims and they mostly come into news for wrong reasons. Nonetheless, Deepshikha Singh, coordinator of a Delhi shelter home managed by Prayas, an NGO, which runs 38 homes across the country, maintained that “it is a big challenge… to help traumatised girls overcome the stigma and learn life skills.”
The experiences of Palak and Khushboo (names changed), two former inmates of Prayas, speak volumes about the tortuous journey they had to traverse at a young age. Palak, a tribal girl from a poor illiterate family in West Bengal, was brought to Delhi and her traffickers were her relatives, neighbours and even her teachers. She landed up in domestic servitude with an oppressive employer. While trying to escape, she fell into the trap of sex racketeers and was ultimately rescued at New Delhi Railway station by Prayas’s team. Khushboo, a school drop-out from Bangladesh, was lured by a group of friends she befriended while working in a garment factory and assured a job as cosmetics salesgirl in Dubai. She found herself in Delhi. She was rescued by Delhi Police when trying to run away.
“Palak sustained severe internal and external injuries…received medical attention, got her unpaid dues and her employers were arrested…Palak returned to her family after staying for four months. Khushboo, during her six-month stint at the home, learnt the finer qualities of life like art, theatrics and dance and also professional skills of a beautician….she rejoined her family with the help of the Bangladesh High Commission and the Bangladesh Women’s Lawyer’s Association (BNWLA),’’ Ms Singh informed.
She admitted that “families are always not keen to take back the girls, it requires multiple sessions with the child and family and also a follow-up process”. A NHRC study corroborated that “a vast majority of re-trafficked survivors (80 per cent), revealed that they have not been able to find any alternative livelihood options …when they returned to their communities.”
Now, when the world is ravaged by a raging pandemic, the UNODC’s warning that “traffickers are waiting for this opportune moment…likely to prey on vulnerable people” rings an alarm bell. In India, an MHA advisory has alerted states to strengthen antitrafficking units. A Centre for Science and Environment study has anticipated “an addition of 12 million poor in India as a pandemic fall out.”
Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini also raised concern that “traffickers are on the prowl(as) this extreme calamitous situation is a breeding period when they look out for potential targets, befriend them, more so in a lead source state like West Bengal, which suffers from the dual impact of Covid19 and a devastating cyclone.”
No doubt, the malaise is deep-rooted in India with rising rural distress, forced migration, unregulated labour market and gender discrimination and needs a fundamental overhaul, not a cosmetic change.
The world anti-trafficking day passed a few weeks ago. As the UN forewarned, trafficking “an abhorrent practice is still prevalent in all its insidious forms, old and new.” Isn’t it high time to take a serious call to counter trafficking in a pandemic whacked world?
The writer is a retired Indian Information Officer and a media educator.
This News Article was Published in The Statesman
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Spurt in Human Trafficking in NE 2 Jan 2016 6:52 AM (9 years ago)
By Spl Correspondent Published in The Assam Tribune
NEW DELHI, Jan 1 – In what should be a cause of concern, human trafficking from Assam is on the rise, with some NGOs now planning to shift their focus to the North East as traffickers have started making inroads into the neighbouring States of Meghalaya and Manipur.
Briefing newsmen, Rishi Kant of NGO Shakti Vahini said that they have decided to set up an office at Guwahati following reports of increase in trafficking from the North Eastern States including Assam.
According to figures of the Ministry of Home Affairs, 48 cases of trafficking from Assam were detected in 2014, while till September last year, 57 cases were registered.
In Assam, 1,597 girls were reported missing last year out of which 616 were traced, while the remaining were reported as untraced by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Rishi Kant said the girls from tea garden and tribal areas are often lured by agents with attractive job offers. “We have found out that two trains, the Avadh Assam and the North East Express, are frequently used by traffickers to transport the victims,” he said.
Shakti Vahini plans to track these agents who are working secretly but plays a key role in the entire chain.
Underlining the need to probe the placement agencies, the NGO activists also stressed the need to launch a crackdown on the identified human traffickers by the local police. “For instance, Assam Police is yet to take any firm action against notorious trafficker Munna Choudhury despite police forces of other States like Delhi and Jharkhand Police having arrested him on several occasions,” he said.
In a bid to strengthen the NGO-police partnership in the Operation Smile II, an initiative of the Ministry of Home Affairs to search missing children and rehabilitate them in their respective States, Shakti Vahini will assist the State police in searching missing children, he said.
In the Operation Smile I initiative in July last year, Shakti Vahini partnered with the police of Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal in 1,200 missing cases.
Rishi Kant said minor girls from Assam are trafficked into various parts of the country, and Delhi has become a major transit route. The placement agencies have emerged as the main culprits. Though courts have issued strict guidelines that only girls above the age of 18 years can be engaged and the mandatory opening of bank accounts in the name of the girls, these guidelines are openly flouted, he added.
In Delhi alone, there are 1,200 placement agencies and all of them are illegal. While the agencies register themselves with the Ministry of Labour, they do not procure licences from the Department of Women and Child Development. “No agency in Delhi has any licence,” he said.
While children are engaged as domestic servants, girls above the age of 18 years are engaged in massage parlours, sold to brothels or sold as brides in States like Haryana and Rajasthan, he said.
“What has become a cause of concern is that in the recent past new ‘markets’ in Southern States have come to our notice,” Rishi Kant said. He also stressed the need of proper rehabilitation of the rescued children and girls.
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Operation Smile-II to Trace Missing Children Begins Today 2 Jan 2016 6:45 AM (9 years ago)
RAIPUR: Union ministry of women and child and home affairs have issued order to Chhattisgarh and each district collector to launch yet another dedicated campaign ‘Operation Smile II’ from January 1 to 31, 2016 to intensify tracking of missing children and conduct raids at public places to identify street children.
Chhattisgarh chief secretary Vivek Dhand has issued orders to departments concerned, including departments of women and child, labour, ChildLine, anti-human trafficking units, CID and state police.
While state has nearly 1,000 children untraced since its conception in 2000, of the 1,861 children, who went missing between January and October 2015, about 359 children are yet to be traced. “During the one-month operation, state police and departments would deploy teams and keep strict vigilance, screen children residing at shelter homes, bus stands, railway station and considering them among missing would initiate to rehabilitate them,” a senior police offer told TOI.
MHA has asked state to upload and document each rescue and recovery of child on the missing child portal of the ministry and the campaign has to be carried out by trained police personnel, who would later be rewarded based on their performance. Delhi based NGO Shakti Vahini would work in support for the cause.
RishiKant of the NGO said, “We have been working on police training to develop clear understanding about various provisions of POCSO Act, juvenile justice Act, protection of child rights act, CrPC and IPC.”
Operation smile-I was launched in July in 2015 for the first time after successfully tracing thousands of children during an operation conducted by Ghaziabad district police. It was followed after Supreme Court directed all states to get vigilant about missing children and those loitering on streets.
In joint operation with state and Ghaziabad police in January, the teams succeeded in tracing 99 kids while 631 were traced in July, of which Durg district performed best in tracing maximum number of children.
Chhattisgarh police had succeeded in tracing about 1,800 children from Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and other parts of the country within three months in 2014 after Supreme Court had summoned state chief secretary and director general of police.
State police records show 33,116 children and 30,618 women went missing between 2001 and 2013 most of who are trafficked to other states for domestic and other kinds of labour. In a recent meeting, it was figured out that Bastar divisions Kanker, Sukma, Kondagaon and Narayanpur are adversely affected with trafficking.
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Centre alarmed by ‘slavery’ in Bengal 2 Jan 2016 6:38 AM (9 years ago)
Published in The Times of India by DwaipayanGhosh
KOLKATA: This year turned out to be one of the worst for West Bengal as far as cases related to missing women and children are concerned. A central government report has identified Bengal with the highest number of cases where the victims were bought and disposed as slaves in 2015.
Weeks after the gangrape of a 17-year-old trafficked girl from Mograhat in South 24-Parganas, the Union ministry of women and child development has released the shocking numbers for the state in Parliament.
The new findings only strengthen a United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) report that had revealed that more than19,000 women and children went missing in West Bengal in 2011.
In 2014, the state had registered 102 cases under IPC section 370 (Buying or disposing of any person as a slave). In 2015, the number of cases jumped to179.Rajasthan, with 124 such cases, and Jharkhand, with 105 cases, come after Bengal. Similarly, the state has registered 23 cases under IPC section 370A (Exploitation of a trafficked person) as against only four just a year ago. However, the state has a minuscule presence while registering Immoral Trafficking Act cases as compared to states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
The number of missing women and children from Bengal stands at 13,500 this year. The state thus will play a crucial role in the newly-formed Central Nodal Agency to Combat Trafficking that has started functioning with representatives of Bengal government and several NGOs in it.
“If there is one thing that the recent Mograhat case has shown, it is the need to combine all resources to stop interstate trafficking. The committee’s first goal should be to try and involve all stakeholders,” said Ravi Kant of NGO Shakti Vahini that has played a pivotal role in curbing trafficking in Bengal.”The prevalence is the highest in three districts -Murshidabad, North and South 24-Parganas. It is mostly poverty-driven and can only be stopped with a large-scale livelihood programmes,” said a senior IPS officer.
The developments assume significance in the backdrop of some trends being witnessed in the state now. “The Ghaziabad rape shows how western UP and not Delhi – has become a hub of trafficking even as girls are being pushed in to interiors of Haryana and Rajasthan. The Rapid Action Battalion, Bangladesh recently arrested eight members of the gang and their questioning revealed a change in modus operandi,” said a source.
In the Ghaziabad rape case, a source said, the girl was kidnapped from Mograhat directly . She was not lured with any promise of marriage or job as was the usual practice. “In several of the rescue operations in the past four months, we found that Bengali girls are being forcefully married off to one or more men in rural Haryana and Punjab. In all these cases, we found them residing in the two Dinajpurs and Malda. Several of these girls were found to have been trafficked from Bangladesh too,” said Rishi Kant, one of the founding members of Shakti Vahini.
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Gurgaon man arrested for Child Marriage at Darjeeling 16 Dec 2015 11:28 PM (9 years ago)
A minor girl Anita Singha (name changed) from Naxalbari Block of District Darjeeling has been rescued from being married to person of Gurgaon in a joint intervention of Naxalbari Block, Police and NGO Shakti Vahini, a National Level Voluntary Organization working to prevent trafficking of human beings.
Shakti Vahini got the tip off from an informer from Naxalbari area that there is a case of marriage and the groom Kamal Kumar (25) has come from Gurgaon with two other men from Gurgaon, namely Satpal Singh (48) and Satbir Singh (50). After getting the information the NGO representatives immediately coordinated with the Block Development Officer and Naxalbari Police Station and summed up the case. Accordingly a raid was mounted by the representative of the NGO, Police and Block Administration. Mr. Kingshuk Maity, BDO of Naxalbari Block was also present at the spot during the rescue operation.
The girl who has her mother, one married elder sister, two younger sisters and one married brother lives in Maniramjote area of Naxalbari and the financial condition of the family is very poor.
After rescue the minor girl was given shelter at a Childrens’ home in Siliguri with close coordination with the Child Welfare Committee, Darjeeling.
“We have filed a complaint against Kamal Kumar, Satpal Singh and Satbir Singh at the Naxalbari Police Station last night and the three have been booked under sections 9, 10 and 11 of the Child Marriage Prohibition Act, 2006 with an FIR no. of 377/15 dated 15.12.2015. Information have shared with our networks in Delhi and Gurgaon and we hope for a thorough investigation both at the Source and the destination area for the same” said Rishi Kant from Shakti Vahini.
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Trafficked Victim Recovered after Going through Extreme Sexual Abuse 8 Dec 2015 6:45 AM (9 years ago)
DELHI COMMISSION FOR WOMEN PRESS RELEASEThe Chairperson of DCW received information regarding this 13-year-old girl from an Shakti Vahini, an NGO devoted to rescuing victims of human trafficking. She immediately assembled a team headed by Ms. Sarika Choudhary a member of the DCW and comprising DCW counselors and representatives from Shakti Vahini to aid the transfer of Shazia’s case to Delhi jurisdiction so that charges could be filed and all due-diligence can be done. In addition, they wished to assess her status and ensure that she will be rehabilitated. The team was shocked to find that the CWC had not performed an MLC or filed an FIR for over 20 days. Shazia was willing to cooperate and provide us the location of the trafficking racket that ruined her life.
The Chairperson of DCW, Ms. Swati Maliwal had spoken to Mr. Deepak Mishra, IPS, Senior Special Commissioner (Law and Order) and constituted a team consisting of DCW members, Shakti Vahini and Delhi Police to crackdown the trafficking racket in places mentioned by Shazia. Unfortunately, as a result of the delayed response of Faridabad CWC, traffickers got to know of Shazia’s whereabouts and had cleared all evidence from areas that the team raided. As a result, nothing was found. However, Delhi Police is pursuing the case and it is hoped that the traffickers will be brought to justice soon.
It is disappointing to note that although there is a special police unit devoted to anti-trafficking, the groundwork, tip-offs and fact-finding are done by NGOs, which have far lesser personnel and technology. Clearly, the police must step-up its efforts to ensure that such children are not abused in the manner that Shazia was. Shazia’s case has now been registered in New Usmanpur and an MLC was also done. She has been rehabilitated to a safe shelter and has been reunited with her family.
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Foreigners lost in sex maze 6 Dec 2015 12:26 AM (9 years ago)
Published in The Deccan Herald by Vishnu Sukumaran
Police claim prostitution rackets prevail also because there are orders for local cops not to carry out raids under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act without enough evidence and permission from seniors.
The murders of two women from Uzbekistan have revealed one of the open secrets of the capital – hundreds of foreigners are trapped in flesh trade here. Those who try to cheat their Indian handlers are often thrashed and confined. And sometimes killed, like Shakhnoza Shukurova and Atazhanova Kupalbayevna.
Both the women were kidnapped and killed by their Delhi-based pimp Gagandeep Singh. The investigation so far has revealed that they were victims of human trafficking who did odd jobs during the day and helped earn lakhs a month for their pimps through prostitution.
According to police, prostitution rackets prevail in the capital also because there are orders for local police not to carry out raids under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act without enough evidence and permission from senior officers. The orders were issued by senior officers at Delhi Police headquarters after regular complaints of corruption and harassment of sex workers by policemen.
“The order has come to the aid of pimps. Nowadays, no raid is conducted until we are approached by NGOs or other state police requesting rescue operations,” says a police officer.
The figures with Delhi Police show that 24 people were arrested under the Act in 2010, and the number went up to 30 in 2011. Since then, the numbers have been declining and only one pimp was arrested in 2014. The number of FIRs registered under the act has also fallen. While 28 cases were registered in 2010, only three have been registered in 2015 so far.
“Prostitution involving foreign women is not only rampant in Delhi, but seems to be flourishing with the support of authorities. While many are willing sex workers, there are also those who have been tricked into the trade. A coordinated effort by law enforcement agencies and immigration authorities is needed to crack down on the gangs,” says Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal. She recently visited Delhi’s largest red-light area GB Road with the United States ambassador Richard Verma and US Permanent Representative to United Nations Samantha Power.
Police and NGOs suggest that Uzbekistan has turned out to be one of the preferred countries for these gangs. It is also alleged that women from the country are managed by women of Uzbek origin settled in India for many years.
“Women who would otherwise have sought other types of employment are turning to sex work in order to support themselves and their families,” says Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Parmaditya. It is estimated that the gangs lure 50-60 women to the capital every month with promise of employment and then push them into prostitution.
Most of them carry valid tourist visas. Some are brought here through Nepal, Sri Lanka and Dubai. Once in Delhi, they are kept in groups at Saket, Lajpat Nagar, Mahipalpur and Paharganj.
“The gangs arrange day jobs as a cover for the women. They work as models, dancers and waitresses, but the money is nothing compared to what they earn from prostitution,” says Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime).
While on an average, the charges for short-time services are Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000, it goes up to Rs 25,000-Rs 30,000 if the women are engaged for the entire night. The prices can be Rs 1 lakh if a client wishes to avail special services, including belly dancing, weekend parties, or to have the women accompany them to a destination of their choice. The money, however, is paid to the pimp. The women only get paid a portion of the amount. “At times, they are made to attend 10 guests in a night. But the money never goes to them,” Singh adds.
Some prostitutes offer riskier sex acts that clients will pay more for, such as unprotected sex – which carries a premium price, but may also lead to HIV infection.
After some months with a pimp, some women even go independent using social networking websites and advertisement in newspapers. “The pimps then seek revenge and inform local police. The women are physically and mentally tortured,” Singh says.
With their passports and money in the pimp’s control, the women often return to the gangs. Most of them choose against informing police or the Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO).
While foreigners have long been involved in sex trade in Delhi, a recent investigation by the south-east district police has exposed how dirty it can get. The probe into the missing complaint of Uzbek woman Shakhnoza in September has helped blow the lid off the actual reach of these gangs.
Sordid tale
It was revealed that Shakhnoza was murdered by her pimp Gagandeep and another Uzbek woman named Atazhanova in September. However, Atazhanova also went missing thereafter and her body was found in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district.
Atazhanova’s murder came to light when Gagandeep admitted that he had killed her as she was the only witness to Shakhnoza’s murder.
Police hope to unearth many international gangs with the phone numbers found in the call data records of the women and their colleagues, including Gagandeep. A team has been formed to scan phonebooks and obtain call detail records of everyone involved in the case in any manner.
Police have also interrogated Gagandeep’s wife for leads. Gagandeep has confessed that Atazhanova was a friend of his wife, Masha, who is also of Uzbek origin. Gagandeep told police that his wife was blackmailing some of the women. In a letter, Atazhanova had written that Masha had brought her to India. She came from Tashkent to Almaty, then to Istanbul, and from Istanbul to Kathmandu. Atazhanova had drafted and addressed the letter to the Uzbekistan embassy in India, but did not deliver it.
Apart from Uzbekistan, the other preferred countries include Greece, Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan.
Whether the women get into sex trade willingly or are being forced, they have been provided immunity by the Union Home Ministry. An order says foreign prostitutes caught in raids must not be prosecuted, but repatriated to their countries unless there is concrete proof that she is a trafficker.
A Delhi Police order says only ACPs or the SHO will investigate such cases. Reports have to be sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) every month and shared with the Delhi government twice a month.
Although there is no official estimate, police say there must be around 2,000 women from these countries working in the capital. Currently, foreign nationals apprehended on charges of human trafficking are treated in line with the SAARC convention.
“Foreign nationals come here on tourist visas as part of dancing troupes and get into flesh trade. Most of them are international rackets,” says Rishi Kant from NGO Shakti Vahini. He feels it is important that instead of targeting just the victims, the actual traffickers are arrested.
“Traffickers are no longer gutkha-chewing, uneducated men and women. They carry mobile phones, speak English and can be respected members of society,” Kant adds. The probe in such cases has revealed evidence that traffickers are increasingly using technology to coordinate, swap and share information, move money, and yet remain anonymous.
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Woman trafficker caught, gives leads in 1,000 cases 5 Dec 2015 10:48 PM (9 years ago)
PUBLISHED IN THE HINDUSTAN TIMES
NEW DELHI: Almost a year after the arrest of most-wanted child trafficker Panna Lal Mahto, who had allegedly smuggled more than 10,000 minors out of Jharkhand to metro cities, the Jharkhand Police busted a similar racket in Delhi and arrested a woman.
The woman, whose husband was killed by a rival gang in Jharkhand, has revealed details of about 5,000 minors whom she has placed through her an illegal placement agency.
“We had got a complaint from a family whose 11-yearold girl was missing. We came to Delhi in search of her and the woman was apprehended. We have received registers with photographs of girls who were trafficked by her,” Aradhana Singh, in-charge of the antihuman trafficking unit of Khunti district of Jharkhand.
According to the police, the placement agency is located in Shivaji Enclave is west Delhi. During the rescue operation, Jharkhand Police seized important documents which provided leads in over 1,000 cases of trafficking of girls, which will now be investigated.
“The girl, who has been rescued, is the eldest daughter in the family and was the helping hand to her poor parents in earning livelihood. Due to the poor economic condition of her parents, she was lured by traffickers, who brought her to Delhi on the pretext of better job opportunities. About a month ago, she was brought here without the knowledge of her parents. Here she was handed over to the owner of the illegal placement agency,” said Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini, who was part of the rescue operation.
The placement agency was started by arrested woman’s husband. But after he was killed two years ago, the woman took up the business and was running the placement agency in Delhi, involved in trafficking of young girls mainly minors from different parts of Jharkhand on the pretext of providing good job and later placing them at households for the purpose of domestic work.
Jharkhand Police have also arrested the agent who brought the girl to Delhi.
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Trafficked Odisha girl found in Palwal was married to ‘mentally challenged’ man: Police 5 Dec 2015 10:28 PM (9 years ago)
PUBLISHED IN THE INDIAN EXPRESS
Investigations into the case of a 12-year-old girl from Odisha who was allegedly trafficked and sold by her ‘uncle’, and raped many times threw up a gut-wrenching twist Thursday as it emerged she was married off to a “mentally challenged” man, said police sources. “She was sold by her ‘uncle’ first for Rs 50,000 and then the buyer sold her to three persons including the groom’s father for Rs 80,000. She was in the forced marriage for nearly 12 days,” said a police officer.
Police Thursday arrested three more men in the case, taking the number of accused held to seven, said Sushila Devi, in-charge of Palwal women’s police station. The girl’s ‘uncle’, Suresh, who first sold her to accused Beeri Singh and his wife, is among those nabbed, said the police. The case spanning Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana was registered at the women’s police station on the girl’s complaint after she was rescued in Palwal on November 30.
According to the officer, the girl managed to leave Roop Chand’s house one day when he was sleeping and reached the main road, about 4 km away. “While she was walking on the main road, two autorickshaw drivers, Goverdhan and Jitender, spotted her. Both the drivers worked in Gurgaon and were travelling to Palwal via Dhatir Road. They took the girl to a jungle-like place off Dhatir Road and raped her,” added the officer.
“The accused drivers, who have been arrested, planned to drop her at the railway station, but Goverdhan dropped Jitender and kept the girl. The girl escaped when he dozed off,” said the officer. The girl’s uncle had first brought her from her Odisha village to a village in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, said the police. “More accused are likely to be arrested,” said Devi.
Kamal Saksena, home secretary, UP, said, “UP government has been sensitised about the case by Shakti Vahini- Child Helpline NGO.” He said UP police would go to Palwal. Sources in Odisha Bhawan, Delhi, said a probe was on and the girl’s address was being verified. A medical report has corroborated the girl was sexually abused.
Girl not produced before child panel, sent to Nari Niketan Haryana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (HSCPCR) has taken note of procedural lapses in the case of the rescued girl, who was sent to an adult protection home instead of one for children. What’s more, Palwal police did not produce the girl in the court of the Child Welfare Committee.
Paramjeet Singh, chairperson, HSCPCR, said, “The police should have taken the girl to the CWC and procedures of taking the statement should have been followed there with proper counselling. This is a violation of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2006.” Singh added it was wrong to send the girl to a Nari Niketan. A police officer said, “The girl recorded her statement in civil court and was sent to Nari Niketan on the orders of the duty magistrate.” Ashok Kumar Meena, Deputy Commissioner, Palwal said, “The main issue is the counselling of the girl, which is why she was sent to the Nari Niketan. Facilities at the child protection home are not upgraded. We assure all possible help is given.”
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12-year-old Odisha girl sold by uncle, raped, escapes, raped again 5 Dec 2015 10:24 PM (9 years ago)
Brought by her uncle from their village four months ago for a job; sold by him; sexually assaulted by the buyers; escape only to be raped again by two others in a field — this is how a 12-year-old girl from Odisha has pieced together days of her ordeal before Haryana Police.
The child was rescued on November 30 after a villager in Palwal, about 50 km from Gurgaon, spotted her lying in the field and took her to the local women’s police station. The police have arrested the two persons who allegedly raped her and left her in the field, and are on the lookout for her uncle and persons who “bought” her, said sources.
According to the child’s complaint lodged at Palwal women’s police station, her uncle brought her to a village in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, four months ago. Later, he expressed his desire to marry her, and when she declined, he sold her to people he knew for Rs 50,000, she stated in her complaint. The men who ‘bought’ her sexually assaulted her for days, she told the police.
According to the girl’s complaint, she somehow managed to escape and reached the bus stand in Palwal. While she was waiting for a bus, two persons came in an autorickshaw and forcibly pushed her into the vehicle, took her to a field and raped her, she stated.
Acting on her complaint, in a joint rescue operation with Shakti Vahini, a child helpline NGO, Palwal police arrested two persons on charges of kidnapping and raping the child, said sources. Police identified the arrested duo as Goverdhan and Jitender. A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Section 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, said the police.
“We have informed the Uttar Pradesh home department secretary about this and requested him to direct officers to conduct an extensive inter-state investigation — as the crime occurred in Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana — so that the well-organised trafficking syndicate may be busted,” said Rishikant of Shakti Vahini.
The letter has been marked to nodal officers of anti-trafficking units in Haryana and Odisha, he added. Rishikant said the girl was in a child protection home and arrangements would be made to send her back to Odisha after verifying her address and family background.
The post 12-year-old Odisha girl sold by uncle, raped, escapes, raped again appeared first on Shakti Vahini.