NEWS ON SHAKTI VAHINI

Girl sold, raped and rescued

Posted in ANTI TRAFFICKING, FIGHT SLAVERY by NNLRJ INDIA on March 25, 2013

Girl Sold and Raped

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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Minor help rescued from Gurgaon

Posted in ANTI TRAFFICKING, FIGHT SLAVERY, SHAKTI VAHINI by NNLRJ INDIA on August 12, 2012

Minor help rescued from Gurgaon

Minor help rescued from Gurgaon

HINDUSTAN TIMES

A 10-year-old domestic help, from Moradabad in UP, was rescued from a house in Belvedere Park building in DLF Phase 2 on Saturday evening. Acting on a tip-off, a team comprising officials of the district child protection department, police and NGO Shakti Vahini raided the house.and rescued the girl.“We have conducted the girl’s medical examination and are awaiting the report. She has been sent to a shelter home. We are investigating the matter and will file an FIR against the accused,” said a police official.

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Activists, NGOs root for stronger laws

Posted in ANTI TRAFFICKING, FIGHT SLAVERY, JUVENILE JUSTICE, SHAKTI VAHINI by NNLRJ INDIA on July 26, 2012
Activists, NGOs root for stronger laws

Activists, NGOs root for stronger laws

MALLICA JOSHI IN THE HINDUSTAN TIMES

As voices centred on trafficking crimes are slowly becoming louder and questions marks over the lack of regulation of placement agencies being raised increasingly, the pressure on the Delhi government to come up with a regulatory law has increased. According to experts, however, Delhi government’s draft Delhi Private Placement Agencies (Regulation) Bill, 2012 leaves a lot to be desired.   “The draft Bill provides for no welfare mechanism for domestic helps nor does it stipulate minimum wages. It also does not talk of a monitoring mechanism in procurement areas. These are key areas which are central to the problem of trafficking and also to the betterment of the domestic helps,” said Rishi Kant, member, Shakti Vahini, an NGO working against child trafficking.

The draft Delhi Private Placement Agencies (Regulation) Bill, 2012, would be placed before the assembly in February 2013.

“The draft Bill has not clearly spelt out the rights of the domestic helps. It also does not seek to set up a mechanism whereby domestic workers can lodge complaint of sexual harassment/sexual assault by placement agents,” Kant added. Woman and child department of Delhi government is now planning to bring a new legislation to rein in trafficking of minors, especially girls, and women. “We are working on a separate law,” said Delhi social welfare minister Kiran Walia.

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Kept as slaves, minors are shown no mercy

Posted in ANTI TRAFFICKING, CHILD RIGHTS, FIGHT SLAVERY, JUVENILE JUSTICE, SHAKTI VAHINI by NNLRJ INDIA on July 25, 2012

Kept as slaves, minors are shown no mercy

MALLICA JOSHI IN THE HINDUSTAN TIMES

Stuti (name changed) would wake up at 5 every day to sweep, wash and dust the entire house, cook breakfast and pack lunch for the family of five and then go and drop the kids to the bus stop. But she is not the mother of these children; neither is she their caretaker.

Working at the home of a MNC executive, she was made to work at least 12-14 hours daily, given only two meals and beaten up badly if she made a ‘mistake’. When she was rescued at the instance of a neighbour who could not bear to see her regular trauma, she was found to be malnourished and scared.

But Stuti’s is not alone. Megha (name changed), 13, ran away from her employer’s house to be found by a policeman on the streets in Kalkaji. She had run away from a doctor’s house with a swollen ear, scratches on her face and bruises all over her body. The doctor’s wife, she said, hit her every day.

HOW YOU CAN HELPThere are thousands of minor domestic helps working in the homes of upper middle and middle class Indians who are meted out the same treatment daily. Child Welfare Committees, NGOs and police have rescued close to 200 minor domestic maids in the past six months.

Most tip-offs have been given by neighbours because these maids are regularly beaten up. “I was once hit with a ‘tawa’ because I broke a glass jar by mistake,” Stuti said.

Stuti came to Delhi as a nine-year-old from West Bengal. Her mother worked for the family’s parents in their ancestral village and her mother thought she would be in safe hands. “The working middle class is fuelling the child domestic help sector. We think that we are doing the girl and her family a favour by employing her. What we fail to understand is that this girl should be in a school instead of doing work that even a full-grown man would find daunting. Unless a girl is beaten up badly, no one complains,” said Rajasebastian Robertson, who runs a shelter home called Global Family and is currently taking care of Stuti.

“Employing a young boy or girl is not considered a crime. Unless this attitude changes, girls will continue to be trafficked and tortured,” he added.

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Establishments being sealed across Delhi to curb child labour

Posted in CHILD RIGHTS, SHAKTI VAHINI by NNLRJ INDIA on July 15, 2012

Establishments being sealed across Delhi to curb child labour

PUBLISHED IN THE HINDU

“Apart from nearly 18 hazardous trades and about 65 processes, other works involving children are exempted under Sections 8 to 11 of the Act” said Labour Department official. Most establishments from where child workers are being rescued are now being sealed as per a recent Delhi High Court order.A senior Labour Department official said on Saturday that ever since the High Court’s May order, in which it had directed the sealing of all those premises from where child workers are rescued, the Department has been getting such premises sealed through the area Sub-Divisional Magistrates or the Tehsildars.He said it is also pertinent to note that not all cases of child labour are punishable under the law. The Child Labour Actprohibits employment of children in certain specified hazardous operations and processes and regulates the working conditions in others.  He said the Act covers children up to the age of 14.

“Apart from nearly 18 hazardous trades and about 65 processes, other works involving children are exempted under Sections 8 to 11 of the Act. But they also specify the working conditions for the children.”

Stating that children cannot be made to work for over six-and-half hours a day and have to be mandatorily given a rest after every two hours of work, the official said these rules were seldom followed.It was a Division Bench comprising Justice A. K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw which had also directed the Delhi Government to file a status report by July 30 on the matter along with the details of the rescue operations and rehabilitation plans.

“In pursuance of the court directives, we have been actively carrying out raids against establishments and premises engaging child workers,” said the official.

Stating that child labour was basically a “social evil,” the official said the Right to Education Act has also made it mandatory for every child to have access to schools and education. Therefore, to discourage employment of children, raids are being mounted by the Labour Department along with officials of Revenue Department, Delhi Police, Department of Health, Municipal Corporation and NGO representatives.

“Each of these departments play a different role. We also videograph or photograph the raids wherever possible as evidence to prove the guilt of the establishments being raided.”

The official said the District Task Forces, comprising members of these departments and groups, have been carrying out raids across Delhi.

The problem of child labour has been compounded by issues such as growth in population, dependence of families on the incomes of their children or their inability to support the young ones, the demand for cheap labour and the fact that children are seen as docile workers who do not know about their rights and who, for fear of being beaten up, put up with long hours of work. Incidentally, the offence of employing children is bailable and most often those guilty of engaging child labourers get away by payment of a mere penalty.

President of Shakti Vahini, an NGO engaged in rescue and rehabilitation of child workers, Ravi Kant said the time has come to redraft the old, weak Child Labour Act as it neither has prosecution value nor provides provisions for proper rehabilitation. “Even now the reliance is more on the Juvenile Justice Act because of its stronger provisions.”

He said the child labour law was now in conflict with the Constitution, as under the Right to Education Act, there should be a complete ban on child labour whereas it only prohibits it in parts. “The Government should also take a firm stand in the matter. The Act only deals with children up to 14 years of age leading other adolescents up to 18 years prone to all kinds of exploitation while being employed as domestic or other workers.”

PUBLISHED IN THE HINDU

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Couple held for torturing domestic help

Posted in ANTI TRAFFICKING, FIGHT SLAVERY, JUVENILE JUSTICE, SHAKTI VAHINI by NNLRJ INDIA on June 16, 2012

Gurgaon, June 14 / TRIBUNE NEW DELHI

The police has arrested Amit and Geeta, who were living in a rented accommodation in Sector 57 here, on charges of torturing and confining their domestic help, Sonu, (name changed), a teenaged boy from West Bengal.The couple was produced in a local court, which released it on bail. Sonu was allegedly trafficked from his native village in West Bengal and employed as a domestic help through a Delhi-based placement agency, to which he was reportedly sold.The boy alleged that his employers used to lock him up inside the house, thrash him and deny him proper food. “They did not allow me to talk to my family members, nor did they pay me anything,” he maintained.

On Tuesday morning, Sonu managed to escape from his employer’s house and reached Vasant Vihar in New Delhi on foot. He was standing near a house there when a security guard spotted him. On being approached by the guard, the boy narrated his tale of woes.The guard called up the Delhi Police. The Vasant Vihar police got the child admitted to Safdarjung Hospital and informed the Gurgaon police.

The Gurgaon police took custody of the child after he was discharged from the hospital yesterday. After reaching Gurgaon, the Gurgaon police apprised Childline of the matter. A team from Childline counselled the child and arranged for his shelter at a children’s home. The Childline Shakti Vahini team is trying to get the boy reunited with his family in West Bengal.

Couple held for torturing domestic help

Couple held for torturing domestic help

Couple held for torturing domestic help - EXPRESS

Couple held for torturing domestic help -EXPRESS

Couple held for torturing domestic help -TIMES OF INDIA

Couple held for torturing domestic help -TIMES OF INDIA

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‘Anti-child labour cells need support’

Posted in ANTI TRAFFICKING, CHILD RIGHTS, FIGHT SLAVERY, JUVENILE JUSTICE, SEX ABUSE, SHAKTI VAHINI by NNLRJ INDIA on June 12, 2012
‘Anti-child labour cells need support’

‘Anti-child labour cells need support’

INDRANI BASU IN THE TIMES OF INDIA

NEW DELHI: Anti-child labour laws and their strict implementation have not been able to contain the problem of child trafficking in the city. Children are still being trafficked from states like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Assam to work in factories and households in inhuman conditions.

Industrial estates like Okhla, Wazirpur and Jhilmil Colony see a number of such children steadily working when they are guaranteed free education under the Right to Education Act.

While Delhi Police’s anti-human trafficking cell is over a year old now, and has helped rescue child labourers, there are several areas that need to be worked upon.

Ravi Kant, Supreme Court advocate who is conducting a study on several such cells in Delhi and across the country said, “There is no convergence between the ministry of women and child welfare and these cells and both agencies are working in isolation. The ministry needs to support the work of the police.” Kant’s study will form the India Country Assessment Report for the ministry of home affairs.

“While district level sensitization is going on, the justice delivery system needs to be strengthened. The legal aid system does not properly support the victims right now as the victims have to travel between states and testify in a court. While the travel expenditure is taken care of by the court, the state does nothing to ensure their accommodation,” he said. Many times, the victims and their families do not show up in court due to social stigma. “There is need to conduct these cases over video conferencing to encourage victims to testify. Right now, employers are not getting convicted in a lot of cases because of this,” he added.

Activists also say that the creation of these cells have helped the process of rescue of child labourers. Till April-end this year, 34 cases of child labour have been reported and 149 such children rescued. In 2011, 135 cases were reported and 1,144 children rescued.

Activists say that responsive nodal officers have helped them crack down on employers faster. Increase in registration of cases of missing children is a positive step in this regard. “Each of these state cells are given Rs 35 lakhs per year and a jeep to help them in raids. Video cameras have been provided by MHA for detailed recording of these rescue operations,” said Rishi Kant of NGO Shakti Vahini.

Currently, the cell in each district is headed by one inspector with sufficient number of upper subordinates and supporting staff. “In case of any organized trafficking racket that comes to notice, instructions are that the probe of that case shall be transferred to Anti-Kidnapping section of the Crime Branch for further necessary action,” explained a senior police officer.

While 33 persons – including 22 women – have been arrested under the immoral trafficking (prevention) act already this year, 121 such persons were arrested last year

 INDRANI BASU IN THE TIMES OF INDIA

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Most rescued childeren are never rehabilitated

Posted in ANTI TRAFFICKING, CHILD RIGHTS, JUSTICE FOR RUCHIKA, JUVENILE JUSTICE, SHAKTI VAHINI, SURVIVORS by NNLRJ INDIA on June 12, 2012

Most rescued childeren are never rehabilitated

Most rescued childeren are never rehabilitated

 PRERNA SODHI IN THE TIMES OF INDIA

NEW DELHI: The teenage help who was rescued from a Dwarka apartment in March is now enrolled in a school in Jharkhand. She has received her wage arrears, besides support from the state. But hers is an exceptional story of rehabilitation. Experts say most trafficked children, even when rescued, lead bleak lives.

Take the case of two girls — aged 12 and 13 — who were brought to Delhi a year ago and sexually assaulted at a placement agency. After their rescue, they were sent to a shelter home in West Bengal, and have not received any significant help.

Experts say care and aid are lavished on victims only after their cases grab media attention. Generally, though, rescued children get trapped in procedural hurdles. The luckier ones are ‘reunited’ with their families but not rehabilitated and, occasionally, children even slip back into the hands of traffickers.

Rishikant, an activist from NGO Shakti Vahini, said, “We get many complaints and some of the offences are grave. The state machinery moves when a case gets highlighted. In most cases, the child welfare committees (CWCs) merely dump the children back home without follow-up,” he said. The chairperson of the Lajpat Nagar CWC said, “Reuniting does not mean rehabilitation.” Shakti Vahini claims that of the 200 children it rescued last year, none has been properly rehabilitated.

In most cases, delays occur due to poor inter-state coordination. “The authorities here are not so concerned as 90% of the cases are from other states. Their attitude is that the other state has to take care of them,” said CWC chairperson Raaj Mangal Prasad. It is also observed that the CWCs of the other states are not so zealous in their work.

Rishi Kant, another Shakti Vahini member, said this hampers follow-up action. “The CWC might pass orders in the city and, to an extent, also recover children’s due wages, but it becomes difficult to follow up on a case on a day-to-day basis.” He suggests that the labour department should act as an intermediary between source states and cities from where children are rescued.

The director for policy and research at Child Rights and You (CRY), Vijaylakshmi Arora, said lack of manpower is another important hurdle in rehabilitation. “If you go to the district level or the CWCs, you don’t find much manpower. It is usually one man taking care of 50 cases. That ratio has to be improved.”

Arora said a system needs to be in place to track each and every child’s case separately “as each child’s case is different and the factors for trafficking are different. This will also keep tabs on children who have been re-trafficked; at present there is no system to monitor that.”

While lack of manpower and poor interstate coordination hinder the process of rehabilitation, Prasad said transferring the monitoring of child labour to the department of women and child development will help. “The Child Labour Act that falls under the labour department does not look into the rehabilitation of a child; this is done by the Juvenile Justice Act that is the responsibility of the department of women and child development,” he said, adding, “Shifting the child labour issue to them would speed up the process”.

PRERNA SODHI IN THE TIMES OF INDIA

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Court Asks Govt to Probe Into CWC Functioning

Posted in ANTI TRAFFICKING, CHILD RIGHTS, FIGHT SLAVERY, JUVENILE JUSTICE, SHAKTI VAHINI by NNLRJ INDIA on May 13, 2012

PTI NEWS / OUTLOOK

The functioning of Child Welfare Committee (CWC) has come under the scrutiny of a Delhi court which directed the city government to look into the allegation as to how the committee had released the minor girls, who were victims of human trafficking, to their relatives. The court’s order came in a case pertaining to the raids conducted by the Crime Branch of the Delhi police and an NGO at various placement agencies here last year from where many girls, including minors, were recovered and their custody was handed over to the CWC. The NGO ‘Shakti Vahini’ had recently told the court that the girls have been released by the CWC without its consultation and the victims have again been pushed to work as maids, while one of the girls has also been raped by a placement agency official.

 ”As an immediate measure, I hereby direct that a copy of the application along with its annexure placed before this court, be forwarded to the director of Department of Women and Child Development and also to the secretary, Social Welfare Department, GNCT, Delhi, who will look into the allegations involved and shall inform this court with regard to the remedial measures taken at their ends,” Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Kamini Lau said. The court also said as per available records, the issue raised by the NGO appears to be genuine and it cannot be ignored due to the seriousness of the matter.

 ”Prima facie, the grievances of the NGO (Shakti Vahini) appears to be genuine and it is writ large that the rescued children are being again pushed back into placement at various places through other agencies.”The entire purpose of the rescue and rehabilitation as contemplated under the act appears to be defeated,” it said. During the hearing, NGO Director Subir Roy and one of its official Rishi Kant, had said they were aggrieved with the CWC’s decision which refused to provide any restoration information about the rescued girls and due to lack of details, they were finding it difficult in tracing the children.

 The NGO had also apprised the court that many of the children rescued by them were given by the CWC to their relatives who have again pushed them back to the same work.”Some of those girls have not been found till date on account of which we are unable to provide any help to victims so that they could depose before the court,” the NGO said.Out of the rescued girls so far, only four have appeared before the court to record their testimonies after several reminders to the CWC.

 The court noted that a minor, who was earlier rescued, is again back to work through another placement agency and in the last hearing, she was brought to the court by her employers.”How the minor witness, who at the time of recovery, had disclosed her address as that of Bangladesh was released to some relative rather than being handed over to the FRRO for deportation?,” the court asked the CWC.It also said due coordination with the NGO in terms of the provisions of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act should be ensured for rehabilitation of rescued children and they should also be produced in the court at the time of recording of witnesses statements.

 PTI NEWS / OUTLOOK

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3 Jharkhand, Bengal girls rescued

Posted in ANTI TRAFFICKING, CHILD RIGHTS, FIGHT SLAVERY, SHAKTI VAHINI, VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN by NNLRJ INDIA on May 8, 2012
3 Jharkhand, Bengal girls rescued

3 Jharkhand, Bengal girls rescued

DWIPAYAN GHOSH IN THE TIMES OF INDIA – MAY 5 , 2012

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police, under fire from the Child Welfare Committee for failing to trace trafficked girls, has rescued three girls from different parts of the capital. The girls from Jharkhand and West Bengal were brought to the city after being drugged and locked up inside toilets of express trains. Once in the capital, they were either employed as domestic help or sold off to brothels.

On May 2, a 15-year-old girl from Simdega in Jharkhand was rescued from the house of one Virender Singh in Pitampura by a joint team of Maurya Enclave Police and Shakti Vahini, an NGO. The girl was allegedly brought to Delhi by one Taleshwar from her village and was employed in Singh’s house as a domestic help allegedly by one Ajit Pyari of a placement agency. But she had not been able to contact Pyari for the past two months.

Two other trafficking victims have been rescued from the GB Road area by a joint team of West Bengal Police and Delhi Police. One Jahangir has also been arrested from Manikchar village in Bengal’s Joynagar and sent to judicial custody. One of the girls, from South 24 Parganas of West Bengal, was lured by one Bappa Haldar with the promise of a better job. She was earning Rs 1,000 a month as a help. The trafficker took her to Howrah station but they boarded a train to Delhi. “I asked him where we were going. He said the owner of the hotel where I was supposed to work lived nearby. When I got suspicious, he threatened me, saying he would push me off the train,” the girl said.

After reaching Delhi, she was kept in a house at Kotla Mubarakpur in south Delhi. There she met another girl from Bengal. After three days, both girls were taken to GB Road. Following a tip-off, a team of Delhi Police and Shakti Vahini, raided the brothel and rescued them on March 31.

3 Jharkhand, Bengal girls rescued

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