Tag / Non-governmental organization

by NNLRJ INDIA

Faridabad maid’s death: One held, second autopsy likely

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AMBIKA PANDIT IN THE TIMES OF INDIA
NEW DELHI: Six days after a tribal girl from Uttar Dinajpur in West Bengal was found dead in mysterious circumstances at the residence of her employers in sector 49, the Faridabad police arrested the owner of a Delhi-based placement agency, Rafiq, on Saturday. He had been booked on the basis of an FIR on a complaint of the deceased domestic worker’s mother. With a second postmortem to establish the cause of death expected only by Monday, the girl’s decomposing body, for now protected by ice bars, lies in an ill-equipped and mice-infested “dead house” in Faridabad.

The police personnel of Dabua Chowki, under Saran police station, arrested Rafiq, who owns Laxmi Placement Agency in Tughlaqabad. He had allegedly brought the girl from her village after taking the consent of a relative, according to the mother, who was unaware of her daughter’s presence in the city.

The police will also be investigating the role of the affluent family that hired the girl for house work in March allegedly for a meagre Rs 3500 despite the fact that she appeared to be a minor. The police have registered a case against both the placement agency owner and her employers under sections related to kidnapping, trafficking, child labour, abetment to suicide and Juvenile Justice Act applicable to minors. The mother also wants a case to be registered under the SC/ST Atrocities Act.

The mother, herself a domestic worker employed in Janakpuri, has alleged that her daughter was only 13 and a very strong person who could not have committed suicide. She has claimed that the child, who was going to school in her village, was brought to Delhi without informing her husband who was taking care of the children while she worked in the capital.

The mother has, meanwhile, expressed shock to learn that a postmortem had already been conducted without her permission and the report declared it to be an ordinary death due to hanging, making it a case of suicide. She has now sought a fresh post-mortem.

Compounding the tragedy is the growing concern over the decomposing body and desperate search for space for burial. Social workers from NGO Shakti Vahini were seen frantically reaching out to different Christian institutions as they tried to seek space in a cemetery. “We were shocked when confronted by the demand for a certificate to show that she was a Catholic Christian before she could get burial space. When we told them that we did not have any such document and explained the situation, we were turned away,” said Rishikant of the NGO.

Similar resistance to burying a minor domestic worker from Jharkhand was witnessed last year and had led the NCPCR to issue directions wherein a list of churches and pastors in Delhi was drawn up for such cases. On Saturday too former NCPCR member Vinod Tikoo reached out to YMCA to intervene in the matter and resolve the crisis.

by NNLRJ INDIA

Minor help rescued from Gurgaon

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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Concerted efforts will weed out trafficking

Concerted efforts will weed out trafficking

MALLICA JOSHI IN THE HINDUSTAN TIMES

Picked up from Simdega district in Jharkhand, Meena was first taken to Patna and then to Delhi by train. She stayed in the national Capital for a week after which she was put on a bus for Ahmedabad. In a story traversing four states, the 13-year-old found herself changing hands four times after which she was finally rescued by the police from a house where she was working as a domestic maid.

Meena’s story indicates how the challenge of trafficking needs coordinated efforts by different states. The growing menace of child trafficking can only be curbed if state agencies formulate laws and work together.

“Political will is very important. It will not help if Delhi alone follows all guidelines. We need a strong coordinated effort by the state governments and police force of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Delhi. The Juvenile Justice Act needs to be followed in letter and spirit in all states and the Child Welfare Committees need to be made functional,” said Raajmangal Prasad, child rights activist.

While child trafficking is an organised crime, the investigation and prosecution of traffickers is lackadaisical.”Inter-state investigation in such cases is very weak. They are not linked from the source states to the destination area,” said Rishi Kant, member, Shakti Vahini, an NGO working in the field of child rights.

While the union home ministry (MHA) has started Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTU) in 225 districts in the country, training and sensitisation of the police is yet to be completed.

“While the AHTUs have been instrumental in rescuing a large number of children, the network needs to be expanded. We have already held a number of training sessions for police personnel to sensitise them. We need to get the message out that the trafficked women are not the culprits. They are, rather, the victims of circumstances,” said Praveen Kumari Singh, director (SR), MHA. The non-implementation of the provisions of the Integrated Child Protection System (ICPS), which talks about identifying vulnerable families and supporting them, is also adding to the woes.

“ICPS can ensure that a lot of poor families and their children don’t have to migrate but its non-implementation remains a big drawback,” Prasad added.

by NNLRJ INDIA

Most rescued childeren are never rehabilitated

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

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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14 children go missing daily in Delhi

MAIL TODAY

Delhi is the 'missing kids' capital of India as 14 children a day go untraced in the city

Delhi is the 'missing kids' capital of India as 14 children a day go untraced in the city

Delhi is dangerous – not only for a woman returning alone from a night shift, as the euphemism goes – but more so for children. As many as 14 kids go missing in the Capital daily, which is an alarming eight per cent of the national total for such cases.

Released for the first time and disclosed in Parliament, the Union Home Ministry‘s data says 5,111 children disappeared in the city last year. There’s no end to the disappearing acts as 1,146 children have already gone missing till April 15 this year.

It’s another first that the government’s figures are three times higher than the 1,575 missing children for 2011 that the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an NGO, claimed earlier this month. It’s not hard to gauge the gravity of the situation because the ministry’s figures make another horrifying revelation – there is no trace of 1,359 of the 5,111 missing children in 2011.

Given the ghosts of Nithari still lurking in its backyard, there were fears of another incident of similar sadistic killings when the residents of Delhi’s Madanpur Khadar complained that 33 children from their area have gone missing over the past year.

Detectives haven’t, however, found any evidence to link the Madanpur Khadar incidents with a Nithari-type situation.

The ministry has asked the police commissioners in metro cities to personally review every case of a missing child and take stringent action. “It requires concerted attention of the central and state governments. As missing children are exposed to high-risk situations, they are vulnerable and fall prey to exploitation, abuse and human trafficking,” B. Bhamathi, additional secretary in the ministry, wrote in his letter to the chief secretaries and state DGPs.

Giving a 34-point advisory on how to handle such cases, the letter added: “When any heinous or organised crime relating to missing children is reported, the probe should be taken over by the state CID.” Ravi Kant, the president of Shakti Vahini, a child rights NGO, said “Now that the police are registering more number of cases and the government is compiling the numbers we’re seeing the swell in the figures. But the actual number is much, much higher and a lot more needs to be done.” Slamming the Delhi Police, Rakesh Senger, national secretary of Bachpan Bachao Andolan said: “Despite the disappearance of so many children from the city in the last four months, we’ve not heard of a single children abduction gang being busted. This is sheer laxity on part of the police.”

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by NNLRJ INDIA

India’s missing daughters

NDTV 24X7 visits the Village in Jharkhand from where the 13 year old trafficked victim was rescued by Shakti Vahini on 29 March 2012 .  In village after village in Jharkhand, we find the story of missing daughters. The girls belonged to the weakest, most vulnerable families, and they were lured by traffickers who lived amongst them.

They find out a no rule of law – no access to justice and no child protection systems

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Placement agencies or exploitation hubs?

NDTV 24X7

Placement agencies have mushroomed over the past five years in Delhi, providing domestic helps to NCR families. But almost ninety per cent of these agencies are unregulated, and become the not registered, and become the first point of exploitation for girls brought from other parts of the country to the capital.

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by NNLRJ INDIA

Raped maid rescued in Gurgaon

IANS NEWS

A minor girl working as a domestic help raped by two men on several occasions was rescued Thursday from Sushant Lok area in Gurgaon by activists of NGO Shakti Vahini, police said. One of the accused, a driver, was arrested. The 16-year-old girl from Punjab, employed at school teacher Nansy Singh’s house, said in her complaint that she was last raped a week ago, police said.

She was raped by 24-year-old driver Sandeep and another man living in the same neighbourhood. Sandeep was arrested. District child protection officer and Sahkti Vahini’s executive director Nishikant recommended to police to file a case for rape and under the Juvenile Justice Act, a police official said.

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Placement Agency owner held in rape abortion case

RAJ SHEKHAR IN THE TIMES OF INDIA

NEW DELHI: A placement agency owner was arrested on Tuesday in a human trafficking case where an 18-year-old woman was raped and forced to get an abortion. The main accused Rajesh who allegedly raped the woman, co-owns the placement agency in Sarita Vihar. He has been on the run since December.

Police is on the lookout for Rajesh and also Kunti, who allegedly got the young woman to Delhi. The doctor who allegedly performed the abortion is also being questioned, said sources. Meanwhile, the Child Welfare Committee of the area has also taken cognizance of the matter on its own. The CWC has asked why the victim had not been produced in front of the committee till now.

The accused Raj Kumar was nabbed from Malviya Nagar in south Delhi where he had come to meet one Pancham, another accused in the case and also a placement agency owner, said sources.Sources said Raj Kumar claimed during interrogation he had only facilitated the abortion and not raped the girl. Police sources said that Raj Kumar told them that he already has two cases of rape lodged against him. He claimed he had not raped the 18-year-old maid and was managing the agency after Rajesh disappeared.

While working in Faridabad, the woman complained of stomachache and vomiting one day. Her employer contacted Raj Kumar and she was called back. The woman told Raj Kumar that she may be pregnant.Raj Kumar told cops that his friend Pancham then told him about a lady doctor in Madangir.

The pregnancy was confirmed and the victim was taken to a nursing home in Saket where her foetus was aborted. Acting on a tip-off, NGO Shakti Vahini informed police about the incident. The girl was rescued, but Raj Kumar fled.

Many illegal and unlicensed placement agencies in the capital, a police source said, are part of an organized trafficking racket involving women and children. They coordinate with doctors/quacks who come in handy when any girl gets pregnant. The same happened in this case too, said the source.

RAJ SHEKHAR IN THE TIMES OF INDIA

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