NEW DELHI: In the chaos of busy Swami Shradhanand Marg, commonly referred to as GB Road and known as the capital’s largest red light area, a father wept inconsolably as he hugged his 18-year-old daughter rescued from a hidden chamber in the wall inside a filthy brothel on Thursday.

A Class X student aspiring to be a nurse, the girl was kidnapped from outside her house in a village in the South 24-Parganas district of West Bengal in February this year. She was trafficked to Delhi but police in her home district only registered an FIR in the case on Friday even though the matter was reported by the family on February 15. It was dumped as a mere diary entry of a “missing complaint”.

Even in Delhi all of Friday was spent in deciding whether an FIR should be registered here or not. Finally Delhi Police decided to leave it to the police in West Bengal to register a case and carry out investigations.

This case brings to the fore the plight of the families of missing children. The victim’s father, who is a daily-wage labourer, reveals that the girl was studying for her Class X exam in March. A committed student, the victim stepped out of the house for a short break from her studies and never returned. Her parents and two elder brothers searched in vain and their complaint to the local police failed to make an impact as the records show no effort was made to register a case by police.

Not one to give up hope, the victim’s father contacted NGO Shakti Vahini which had rehabilitated another girl who was trafficked from their village. “I thought maybe someone has taken away my daughter to Delhi like the other girl,” the father told TOI. Some time during the next three months, the father said, an unknown person contacted him to inform she had been kidnapped and kept in a brothel at G B Road. The family was told she was desperate to return home.

The victim’s family joined forces with activists from NGO Shakti Vahini to launch a rescue operation through Delhi Police. The victim’s brother who makes a living by doing embroidery revealed how they went up the narrow stairs to the dingy brothel and finally pulled her out from a hidden chamber. Another girl from Nepal was rescued from a similar chamber in the wall. The victim’s brothers now want to take her home to her mother who has been sick since her disappeared. But the family reunion will have to wait till early next week as the trial court sent her to Nari Niketan for care till final orders are issued for her rehabilitation.

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PUBLISHED IN THE HINDU

AMBIKA PANDIT IN THE TIMES OF INDIA

NEW DELHI: The death of two girls allegedly trafficked from Jharkhand for domestic work in Delhi only underlines the harsh truth that there are no laws that govern domestic work. While the demand for a national legislation gets louder, the fact remains that Delhi government’s draft bill limited to placement agencies – that was put up for objections and suggestions last August – is nowhere close to becoming a law. The much announced and often cited panacea for the many ills surrounding domestic work, the draft bill may not become a law if it’s not finalized for approval of Delhi assembly before the monsoon session. The tenure of the current Congress-led government is coming to a close with the assembly polls scheduled for later this year.

The final contours of the draft which has drawn a lot of criticism from human rights and activist groups working with domestic workers are yet to be fixed. Top sources in the labour department pointed out that the latest delay was due to a debate over whether the ambit of the proposed legislation should be expanded to include workers beyond domestic workers engaged by placement agencies.

This issue was discussed at a recent meeting chaired by chief secretary DM Spolia. A consensus has been arrived at for now that the bill may be restricted to placement agencies for domestic workers. A meeting next month will take a final decision and put up the final draft for approval of the cabinet. Based on the objections and suggestions, some changes have been made to the final draft. For instance, it is now proposed to also register the link person who introduces the domestic worker to a placement agency to guard against trafficking and take measures against miscreants.

TOI had reported last August how the Delhi government’s draft Bill on placement agencies — aimed at reining in agents — had created a flutter among NGOs, with activists claiming it was riddled with loopholes. At that time, when the Bill was put up for objections and suggestions, it came under severe criticism from representatives of around 12 NGOs who voiced their concerns it’s provisions.

Rishikant of NGO Shakti Vahini, who is part of the investigations in the death of the two minor girls from Jharkhand, feels this case is a classic example of how domestic work needs legal regulations. “Just implementing an Act in Delhi will not help as the problem is national. Domestic workers are being brought from states like West Bengal and Jharkhand. It’s important to put in place a national plan of action for placement agencies to ensure coordination between states,” said Rishikant.

Social activist Subhash Bhatnagar too feels the government’s focus on regulating agencies is misplaced and monitoring employers who engage domestic workers is critical. NGOs want employers to be mandatorily registered with the state. Like in the case of the two girls from Jharkhand, most agents who bring girls to the city promising employment are exploiters not wanting to get themselves registered, say activists.

The Draft Delhi Private Placement Agencies (Regulation) Bill 2012 lays down that no agency shall employ, engage or deploy anyone under the age of 18 as a domestic help. Violation of the Bill’s provisions can fetch a jail term up to one year and a fine of Rs 20,000. The provisions state that only licensed individuals or private agencies can provide private domestic workers. The licences will be issued for a period of five years by a controlling authority comprising officers of the level of joint labour commissioner. All existing placement agencies are required to register with the state within three months of the new law being notified.

The Bill mandates a placement agency to display its licence at the office and maintain a register with records of domestic workers and employers. The labour department has been empowered to inspect and crosscheck these documents. The agency has to issue photo IDs to workers and inform the controlling authority about deployment of workers within five days of their getting employed. Each worker will have a bank account and a pass book in which their salary will be deposited.

DEVESH PANDEY IN THE HINDU

The long journey of Debyani (name changed) from her village in the Burdwan district of West Bengal to Delhi and then to Bharatpur in Rajasthan is a saga of a minor girl who was kidnapped by traffickers and sold off for forced marriage and then subjected to continuous physical and sexual abuse for the past four years. The girl, who has now been rescued, is the mother of two children.

On the pretext of getting her employed as a domestic help, a fellow villager had one day taken Debyani along to a place where she was handed over to a trafficker four years ago. It was two years after she went missing that the local police registered a specific case on the basis of a complaint lodged by her father who raised suspicion about the complicity of a girl named Sulekha.Police investigations revealed that she was handed over to a person named Kalu Sheikh, who sold her off for a paltry sum. She was then forcibly married to a resident of Deeg village of Bharatpur in Rajasthan. “About a year ago, the investigating officer tracked her down and rescued her. He also arrested Kalu Sheikh. The girl had by then become the mother of two children. Surprisingly, she was escorted back to West Bengal by some villagers. In her judicial statement, she claimed that she had fled on her own as her parents wanted to push her into prostitution. As a result, the accused was released on bail and the girl was taken back to Rajasthan,” said a West Bengal police officer.

It was after the victim’s family moved habeas-corpus petition in the High Court that an Anti-Human Trafficking Unit team led by Inspector Sarbari Bhattacharya was directed to probe the matter. The officer discovered that the case had been closed. She got it reopened and in coordination with non-government organisation Shakti Vahini reached Bharatpur.

“The moment the girl saw the Bengali-speaking woman officer, she clung onto her pleading to take her back home. She even forgot to take her elder son along and wanted to leave immediately. She kept crying, alleging that she was sold off and subjected to torture,” said Rishi Kant, who was part of the rescue team.The police officer made enquiries and found that a woman named Rakhi from West Bengal, who had settled down there 20 years ago, lived in the neighbourhood. “During questioning, she disclosed that she had bought the victim from her relative Kalu Sheikh. Her brother had tortured the victim so much that she still dreads him.”

Realising that it was purely a case of human trafficking, the officer decided to rescue the girl along with her two children and arrested Rakhi. “However, it will be difficult for us to now track down Kalu Sheikh and Sulekha…there are umpteen number of cases were girls and women from West Bengal are being trafficked to places like Delhi and being pushed into prostitution, forced labour and marriage. But we come across officers who do not realise the gravity of the problem and treat the victims as just ‘poor Bengalis’,” said a West Bengal Police officer.

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SUMATI YENGKHOM IN THE TIMES OF INDIA

Several Delhi-based placement agencies, that claim to provide work to these trafficked girls, are being run illegally and without any registration. These agencies work in nexus with the ‘agents’ who are local tea garden workers and known to the victims.

The ignorant poor parents, who cannot feed their children, are ready to lap up the opportunity of sending the children to Delhi for work. in order to get rid of the their responsibility and also in the hope of getting a regular monthly income.

Once the victims reach Delhi, they stay in touch with the families for a few days. some of them is in contact with the family. But soon they are barred from communicating with their parents and also, money stops reaching their families. Only a handful of them get work as domestic help, while the rest are either sold in brothels or for marriage.

About four months ago, a placement firm by the name Sai Placement Agency lured four girls from the Mateli police station area. Shakti Vahini members rescued the girls with the help of West Bengal Police. The agency was found to be fake and the trafficker Neelima Sharma was arrested after an FIR (number 223/12 under section 363/366/374 dated 21/11.2012) was lodged with the Mateli police.

Though the trend of migration by tribal girls started way back in 2000, the exodus has taken a massive proportion in last five to six years after several tea gardens were declared sick. Many of these tea estates do not even have primary schools and heathcare facilities. There is hardly any penetration by organizations that work for the welfare of the tribals.

Jalpaiguri police are aware of the magnitude of the problem and admitted that there is need to do much more to prevent trafficking. Police’s anti-trafficking activities like awareness programmes are restricted to educational institutions, a place that is out of bounds to the girls here.

“Poverty is the main issue. Unless it is addressed, the girls here will remain vulnerable. Though we cannot do much on that front, we are working on other preventive measures. Few days back we arrested two agents in Banarhat for trying to lure some girls. We need to penetrate deeper into the tea gardens. Officers-in-charge of all police stations have been asked to maintain records of girls who are going away for work, the persons taking them away, contacts of employers in collaboration with the local panchayats,” said Jalpaiguri SP Amit P Javalgi.

The schemes for the poor, like the BPL card and old age pension, are distant dreams. Most are not even aware of the existence of such schemes. There is no effort worth mentioning on part of local politicians for uplift the economic status of this tribal population. A major portion of the funds under schemes like NREGA are being pocketed by local panchayats.

“Recently we found misappropriation of NREGA funds by the local panchayat. Many garden workers were made to sign that they were paid for 100 days work, whereas these illiterate workers were paid only for seven days. We were even threatened by some panchayat members for unearthing this information and educating workers on their rights and dues,” said Omega Minj, a field worker.

Unfortunately NGOs active in anti-trafficking in many pockets of North Bengal seem to have left out these tea gardens of Jalpaiguri.

“We have been working in various parts of North Bengal but we need better penetration in the tea gardens. We will work out with the district administration, police and other stake holders to start off,” said Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini, an orgnisation that has successfully worked with administration and police in Malda.

Going all guns out on the traffickers by the police could only serve a temporary purpose. Till the concerned departments salvage the tea garden community out of poverty and hunger, young women and children will continue to be smuggled unabated from the cursed tea gardens.

DEVESH PANDEY IN THE HINDU

They were subjected to continuous sexual abuse, physical torture

They were kept confined under claustrophobic conditions in an unventilated chamber inside a G. B. Road brothel here to evade detection. Until they were rescued by a joint team this week, the two minor girls were subjected to continuous sexual abuse and physical torture by the woman brothel owner and her men. One of the girls is seven weeks pregnant.

Members of the rescue team now suspect that bogus voter identity cards are being used by flesh traders to portray minor victims as consenting adults.

It was on the basis of a tip-off about some minor girls forced into the flesh trade that a team comprising officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Delhi Police besides representatives of non-government organisation Shakti Vahini was constituted to conduct the rescue operation.

“There were numerous cubicles on the first floor. While looking for the girls in the cubicles we noticed that a wooden plank had been affixed to the wall in one of them. As we removed the plank, it led us into a narrow tunnel wide enough only for a single person. We found two girls inside it. The tunnel had no ventilation,” said a team member.

The team member said both the girls looked traumatised. Once out of the brothel, the victims were offered some eatables and then counselled by experts. They were then produced before the Child Welfare Committee.

One of them disclosed that she belonged to 24 Parganas in West Bengal and was trafficked into the Capital by an unknown person and sold to the brothel keeper for Rs.1.5 lakh.

The victim said she was in love with a village boy, but her family members was against the relationship and even beat her up. About eight months ago, the girl fled from her home and reached a railway station where she met a boy who took her to a place, kept her in confinement and raped her.

She was then raped by the boy’s friend.

She was then brought to the Capital and sold off to the brothel keeper. The girl once tried to flee, at which she was beaten up badly. She told the CWC that she was forced to entertain nearly two dozen persons every day.

“Her medical examination revealed that she is seven weeks’ pregnant. When she was brought before the CWC, a woman approached the Committee and produced a voter identity card claiming that she was an adult. However, it appeared to be a fake document. The CWC has ordered investigations into its authenticity.

In case the identity card turns out to be bogus, we suspect that a similar modus operandi is being used by the flesh traders in G.B. Road to evade law,” said Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini.

The other victim, a Nepalese national, was brought to the city by her brother-in-law about five months ago and kept at a hotel for a few days before being sold off to the brothel keeper for Rs.3 lakh. “She disclosed that her elder sister died a few years ago. Her brother-in-law who lives in the same village had brought her to Delhi on the pretext of getting her a job in Saudi Arabia. She was beaten up by the brothel keeper whenever she refused to entertain clients,” said Mr. Kant, adding that both the girls were medically examined at JPN Hospital.

During the Question Hour, the matter was brought-up by Congress MLA Ram Niwas Rawatwho asked in the House: Will the home minister tell us whether the police headquarters has information about girls being abducted for human trafficking? If so, from 2008 to January 2013 how many such cases have been reported and from which districts?” Rawat wanted to know the number of persons arrested in connection to human trafficking cases.

The Congress also asked if special cells were constituted in the districts of Gwalior and Shivpuri to stop human trafficking and the facilities these cells were provided so they could work efficiently.

In reply, home minister Uma Shankar Gupta admitted that the police had such information that girls were going missing. From 2008 onwards, 4990 minor girls were reported as missing. Human trafficking and the sale of minor girls is a matter of great concern for us,” the home minister said. He explained that 426 accused were arrested and special anti-human trafficking cells have been constituted in Gwalior and Shivpuri under the supervision of a joint superintendent of police for each cell to control the menace. Gupta added that the special cells have been provided with vehicles, motorcycles, computers, furniture and all other infrastructure.

But the Congress was not convinced. Rawat argued that all reports of missing girls are only registered as missing reports while cases should be registered for buying and selling of minor girls under sections 372 and 373 of the IPC.

Uma Shankar Gupta defended that every case cannot be put one a set of IPC sections. There are circumstances when girls come back to their homes and the parents don’t come back to tell the police that their ward is back. So not every case is that of human trafficking,” he added.

Congress leader of Opposition Ajay Singh told the House that the state government did not seem to be serious on the issue. He said while the state runs a ‘Beti Bachao Abhiyan’ against female foeticide, it was not concerned about girl children being abducted and sold. The state is not serious about such a sensitive issue and hence, we are walking out,” he said. All Congress MLAs followed him out of the House.

A 13-year-old girl who was allegedly abducted from a village here earlier this month has been rescued from Malda in West Bengal. She was rescued by the local police following a tip-off by a non-government organisation, Shakti Vahini.

The girl’s family had lodged a complaint with the police on January 13 stating that she had been abducted by their neighbour, a native of Malda in West Bengal. The complaint said the accused had abducted her on the pretext of marrying her. A First Information Report was registered at Kherki Dhaula police station in this connection.

The NGO took up the matter with the police and also met the victim’s family.

“We then contacted the Malda Police and the girl was rescued from the Habibpur police station area. During counselling the victim revealed that the accused took her along on the pretext of marriage. It is a clear case of human trafficking and the accused probably wanted to sell her,” said Shakti Vahini activist Rishi Kant. The accused has been arrested.

Mr. Kant, who has been working on the issue of human trafficking in Haryana, said it was the first such case of reverse trafficking in which a girl from Haryana was trafficked to West Bengal.

“Every year a large number of girls are being trafficked from West Bengal to Haryana, but this present case is the first instance where the opposite has happened. It could be the tip of an iceberg and hints at the possibility of a reverse trend. In 2011, more than a thousand minors and 2,677 adults had gone missing in Haryana. There is need for strengthening inter-State police and non-government organisations’ partnership to combat human trafficking in the State.”