Tag / humantrafficking

by NNLRJ INDIA

India’s Child Savers: The Making of…

CHANNEL -4 UK

Friday 18 November 2011 / Evan Williams

“I just want my daughter back, I just want my daughter back,” said 40-year-old Sunabhamu Begam as we sped across the Indian countryside towards the village just outside Delhi where her 16-year-old daughter, Mahinda, was held captive.

After going missing five months ago, Mahinda managed to get one phone call through to her parents. She gave them a rough description of what she could see – a large body of water and a chemists shop. Before hanging up she hurriedly ended with the words “Please Help Me”.

When Sunabhamu and her husband Chandan went to the police, they say they were asked for money before a complaint could be lodged and an investigation started. They didn’t have that money. Eventually they heard about Rishi Kant who runs an NGO in Delhi that does what the police should be doing – rescuing children. It was Rishi who finally got the police to trace the location of the number and pushed the police in this area to join the raid.

We have heard about child disappearances in India. But what caught my attention was the sheer scale. It is staggering. According to the government’s own figures up to 60,000 children go missing in India every year. Seven children a day are snatched and many are trafficked into bonded labour, prostitution, forced begging even selling drugs. If they are paid it’s a pittance, they are denied their freedom, made to work long hours and often abused. They are lost souls.

Bhuwan Ribhu, who runs an organization called Save the Childhood Movement, told us of the 117,000 children who went missing in the past two years. 41,000 remain untraced.

 This is from official figures. In the first attempt to work out the real number of missing children in India, Bhuwan has collated figures from his group’s work in rescuing large numbers of children. He believes the number of children going missing each year could be ten times higher. “Of the 1000 children we rescued in 2010 more than 900 would be construed as missing, most parents did not know where they were,” he said. They had not been listed as missing in any official figures, “So the real figure could be hundreds of thousands (of kidnapped children) – even more than a million – very year”. The Indian Government agrees there is a problem and recently set up anti-trafficking units across India.

Why so many? Well Bhuwan has worked out that because of the slave-like conditions, child labour could be worth millions of pounds each year to the Indian economy.

The booming economy has also sparked a boom in a newer form of exploitation involving the rapidly growing middle class. Tens of thousands of young girls and boys under 18 are being trafficked from rural villages to the cities such as Delhi to work as maids and domestic servants for young professional families who find they need help to run their homes and look after their children.

On one rescue with Rishi we found a 12 year old girl who had just been trafficked in to Delhi. In the same house he found five young boys around the ages of 12 and 14 also about to be sent out as domestic servants.

And there is a new terror stalking the shopping malls and streets of Delhi’s new satellite cities. New Wealth has created a new phenomenon of children being kidnapped for ransom.

Out of the many unsettling moments we witnessed, nothing prepares you for looking into the eyes of a parent with a missing child, especially one who has been taken for ransom and who has not been seen for weeks or months.

They obviously still live in hope that at any moment their child could return. But in their eyes is a terrible haunting helplessness that is simply heartbreaking.

This article relates to India’s Child Savers

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/articles/indias-child-savers-the-making-of

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by NNLRJ INDIA

India’s Child Savers

CHANNEL-4 UK

Across India more than 60,000 children go missing every year. Unreported World explores the dark side of the booming economy, as many children are kidnapped into domestic slavery for the growing middle class and businesses, and others are kidnapped for ransom by those desperate to share some of the country’s new wealth.

In Delhi alone seven children go missing every day. Reporter Evan Williams and director James Brabazon discover that the capital has become a major destination and transit point for tens of thousands of children being trafficked into forced labour, prostitution, begging and drug running.

The team meets child saver Rishi Kant / SHAKTI VAHINI as he cajoles police into joining his rescue of a 16-year-old girl who has been abducted and sold into forced marriage near Delhi. India’s new wealth is allowing more men around the capital to buy ‘brides’ from traffickers in a booming business that seems largely unchecked by local police.

When the team asked the local police commander how big the problem was he said he didn’t know. The team and the girl’s parents are told to wait as Rishi enters a hostile area to save the girl, at one point being surrounded by 200 angry villagers opposed to her rescue.

The team later joins Bhuwan Ribhu, an activist from the Save the Childhood Movement, as his team launches a rescue in shoe and clothing factories in North Delhi.

Within 30 minutes Bhuwan and his team are leading 52 crying and frightened children out of Dickensian squalor where they had allegedly been forced to work 18-hour days for a pound a week that they had to use to buy their food.

Bhuwan tells the team that, according to police figures, almost 120,000 children were abducted in India in the past two years and the figures reveal police are investigating on 13,000 of these. He says the problem could be ten times worse than reported.

Many impoverished parents send their children with traffickers to cities on promises they will earn a living, learn a trade and get an education.

But Bhuwan says that once a child is in the hands of traffickers, in most cases they are cut off completely from their parents, not paid and forced into a life of labour and abuse. In this way, he says, consent is not informed consent and the child is by any legal definition kidnapped.

India’s booming economy is creating a new market too. Bhuwan claims thousands of children as young as 12 are now being trafficked into domestic slavery for the growing middle class in cities like Delhi.

He says the rich families pay an agency but the agency rarely pays the child, who then loses contact with their parents and is subjected to years of unpaid servitude, and in many cases abuse.

‘In and around Delhi alone there are 4000 placement agencies that have not been registered,’ Bhuwan tells the team. ‘We estimate hundreds of thousands of girls throughout the country are being used as domestic labourers, and all are minors.’

Williams and Brabazon rejoin Rishi Kant / SHAKTI VAHINI  as he launches a night raid on one of these placement agencies. Inside they find a 12-year-old girl and three boys between the ages of 12 and 14. All have just arrived, are about to be sent to their middle-class masters and are confused and frightened.

Williams and Brabazon had earlier met an 18-year-old girl who had been kept by one family for five years. She says she was never paid and had been molested and eventually raped by a man in the family.

But it’s not just trafficking that exploits the children of India’s fast-expanding cities. The team meets several families whose children have been kidnapped for ransom by neighbours or gangs desperate for some of the wealth they see around them.

While some police seem to act quickly, many of the people the team speaks to complain about a lack of police action, especially for poor parents whose children are snatched for cash. Some parents get their children back but tragically many do not, even when they pay some of the money.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/episode-guide/series-2011/episode-17

 

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Sold off as ‘bride’, teen rescued from Haryana village

DWIPAYAN GHOSH / TIMES OF INDIA

Delhi: A 14-year-old girl from Assam was rescued from a Haryana village in a joint operation by cops from the city and Haryana and NGO Shakti Vahini. The rescuers overcame stiff resistance by the villagers, who claimed their “daughter-in-law” was five months pregnant. According to Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini, Shabnam (name changed) was lured out of Assam by someone, who promised to marry her. He brought her to Delhi and sold her off to one Rakesh for Rs 25,000 at a Daryaganj hotel. She was then taken to Shahpur village of Jind district. “Rakesh married her forcibly and subjected her to the worst form of slavery. She would perform household chores the whole day; and at night, Rakesh would torment her sexually,” said Rishi.

Earlier, the girl’s family had lodged a missing complaint with the Hajo police station in Assam on May 3. “One day, I read in the local newspaper that an Assamese girl was rescued in Delhi. Instantly, my wife and I came to Delhi and got in touch with the Child Welfare Committee. They told us that the rescued girl was not my daughter. Then one of the committee members gave me the contact number of Shakti Vahini and I approached them,” said Shabnam’s father. Meanwhile, the anti-human trafficking unit of Assam Police also contacted Shakti Vahini and requested them to assist the parents of the girl. The NGO then contacted the anti-human trafficking unit of Haryana Police. The girl was traced to Shahpur village and rescued. She was then taken for medical examination, where it was confirmed that she is five months pregnant.

“The girl was later produced before the SDM, Jind district, who sent her to the Nari Niketan at Karnal. Her parents were asked to produce documents to prove that they are her parents. An Assam Police team has arrived in the capital for further investigations and also facilitate the repatriation process of the victim,” said a Haryana Police officer.

“Her parents are in Jind, but the district administration has made it clear that it doubts that the family itself had sold her off. The girl has, however, expressed willingness to return home. We have lodged an FIR under sections 366A and 346 of the IPC. We will get her back,” said an Assam Police officer. Meanwhile, experts said trafficking in Haryana for forced marriages has reached an alarming proportions.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Sold-off-as-bride-teen-rescued-from-Haryana-village/articleshow/10261983.cms

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Assam girl rescued from Jind village

Assam girl rescued from Jind village

Assam girl rescued from Jind village

THE TRIBUNE CHANDIGARH / Jind, October 5

The local police has rescued an 18-year-old Assam girl from Shahpur village in the district. The rescue followed after the police was told that the girl had been a victim of human trafficking and sold for forced marriage. The victim has been found pregnant.

“The girl was abducted from Kamroop in Assam five months ago on pretext of a job but was sold to a person from Nidana village in the district for Rs 25,000 after three weeks of stay in Delhi,” claimed Rishi Kant , spokesperson of Shakti Vahini, an NGO, which played an instrumental role in tracking the victim and coordinating with her family members.

Claiming that it was one of the several cases of human trafficking that took place in the state, he said majority of the victims were poor and unable to communicate in the local dialect

Alleging that two persons, Raju and Rahul, were the main accused in the case who brought the girl to Delhi and then to Haryana, Rishi Kant said the victim was sold again a few weeks back to another resident of Shahpur village for Rs 60,000. The girl was rescued from a house of Nawab of Shahpur on Monday night after the NGO informed the police. The person who was keeping her in the house as his wife, however, managed to escape. She will be soon handed over to her family after some legal formalities, the police said.

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Girl from Hajo rescued in Haryana

SPL CORRESPONDENT / NORTH EAST TRIBUNE

NEW DELHI, Oct 4 – A minor Assamese girl hailing from Hajo was rescued from Shahpur village of Jind district in Haryana on Monday.

The 17-year-old girl, who was forced to change her religion, was rescued by a joint team of Haryana Police and the non-government organisation Shakti Vahini. She was lured by one person in Assam on the pretext of marrying her. He brought her to Delhi and sold to one Rakesh of Jind for Rs 25,000, according to Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini. Rakesh married her forcefully and she was allegedly subjected to slavery.

The victim’s family reported that she had gone missing from her house on April 25. They approached the Hajo Police Station in May. The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit Assam Police informed Shakti Vahini to assist the parents of the trafficked victim to rescue their daughter. A team of Shakti Vahini got in touch with Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of Haryana Police. With the help of Jind Police, the victim was located in Shahpur village. Preliminary enquiries revealed that the girl was five months’ pregnant. The victim has indicated that she wanted to go back home, as she has been forced into marriage.

After the medical examination, the girl was produced before the SDM, Jind district and the victim has been sent to the Nari Niketan, Karnal. The victim’s parents were asked to produce authentic documents to prove their real parenthood. A team of Assam Police is on its way to Haryana to investigate the matter. The girl’s parents have also reached Jind.

According to Advocate Ravi Kant, President, Shakti Vahini, the situation is alarming. Trafficking for forced marriage is the ramification of the skewed sex ratio in Haryana. It is to be noted that skewed sex ratio is leading to trafficking of women and children from the north-eastern region.

http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=oct0511/at09

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Trafficker from Bengal held, 5 girls rescued

DWAIPAYAN GHOSH , TIMES OF INDIA

NEW DELHI: One of the most wanted human traffickers working on the West Bengal-Orissa-Bihar-Delhi route has been arrested from the Najafgarh area.

Nemai Sardar (33), a resident of West Bengal, pretended to run a domestic servant placement agency in the capital and used to lure girls from West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar by promising them high salaries. “Once in Delhi, these girls were turned into bonded labourers with very little wage. We are probing whether there were physically exploited, too,” said P S Khuswah, additional DCP (crime). The crime branch of Delhi Police, along with a CID team of the West Bengal police and the non-government organization Shakti Vahini, carried out a raid on Kalka Mail on Thursday and rescued five girls brought from North 24 Parganas. Raju, Sardar’s associate accompanying the girls, gave the police team the slip. However, he left behind some papers that helped the police to zero in on Sardar and arrest him from his hideout in southwest Delhi’s Najafgarh on Friday.

The cops also found in the hideout several incriminating documents, including photos of hundreds of girls who have gone missing from West Bengal in the past several years. A hunt is still on to trace more victims and two other human traffickers, Rajesh and Sushma. According to sources, the accused had allegedly been operating for the past several years. He started functioning from Naraina but shifted base to Najafgarh five years ago to evade detection.

The operation was carried out on the directive of the Calcutta high court following a habeas corpus petition moved by the mother of a girl who had gone missing from South 24 Parganas last year. The girl, who was allegedly smuggled out through a trafficking network of which Sardar was reportedly a part, is yet to be traced. Raids were earlier conducted in Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Hapur in co-ordination with the local police.

Rishi Kant of the NGO Shakti Vahini said girls were brought to Delhi in batches and by trains originating from Howrah. Many of them were also sold off as brides in Haryana, he said.

During interrogation, Sardar reportedly said that when he entered into the trade in 2000, he would get Rs 2,500 per girl as his commission. “Now he gets Rs 10,000 per girl,” Kant said. Sardar also claimed that his agency was registered.

Based on the worldwide data on trafficking, 43% of the victims are forced into commercial sexual exploitation, out of which 98% are women and girls and the majority belongs to the age group of 18 to 24 years.

According to Unicef, India harbours 19% of the world’s child population and almost 42% of the total world population. According to the International Labour Organisation, there is a larger child labour force in India than anywhere else in the world. Official Indian statistics put the total number of child workers at 11 million full-time labourers and 10 million part-time ones. Unofficial figures, however, vary between 55 million and 90 million. The Child Labour Act was passed in 1986, which bans children below 14 years from being hired for any labour.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Trafficker-from-Bengal-held-5-girls-rescued/articleshow/10201055.cms

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Massive girls trafficking racket busted

Massive girls trafficking racket busted -Trafficker Arrested

Massive girls trafficking racket busted -Trafficker Arrested

DEVESH PANDEY IN THE HINDU

An alleged human trafficker, who is suspected to have smuggled hundreds of girls from different parts of West Bengal in the past few years on the pretext of their placement as domestic helps in the Capital, has been arrested in Najafgarh here. While five minor girls were rescued from him, the police are on the lookout for more victims and two human traffickers.

Accused Nemai Sardar (33) had been running one Alo Domestic Service at Jay Vihar in Najagarh. He has allegedly been operating for the past several years and earlier ran the agency in Naraina, but had recently shifted base to evade detection. The accused, against whom several cases are registered in West Bengal, was wanted for the past five years.

Following a tip-off, a West Bengal Police team in coordination with the Delhi Police Crime Branch and non-government organisation Shakti Vahini mounted a raid at his three-storey building and arrested him. The five girls who had been brought from 24 North Parganas were fo-und locked up in one of the rooms.

The operation was carried out on the direction of the Calcutta High Court on a habeas corpus petition moved by the mother of a minor girl who went missing from South 24 Parganas last year. The girl is yet to be traced. She was smuggled out through a human trafficking network of which Nemai was allegedly a part. “Two more accused in the case, Rajesh and Sushma, are absconding,” said a raiding team member. Raids were earlier conducted in neighbouring Ghaziabad in coordination with the local police, but Rajesh and Sushma remained untraced.

Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini said one Raju, who had brought the five rescued girls, is also at large. “Two of the victims had been brought on board Kalka Mail the day the operation was conducted, whereas the other three had been working for the past 18 months purportedly without any salary. Two of them earlier worked in Noida and the third in Jaipur. As news of their whereabouts reached their parents, they approached the local police to lodge complaint,” he said.

Nemai purportedly confessed to having brought the girl the police were looking for. “However, he claimed that she went missing from her employer’s house,” said Mr. Kant, adding that the girls being brought by the traffickers were later not allowed to contact their parents back home.

During interrogation, Nemai allegedly disclosed that when he entered into the trade in 2000, he would get Rs.2,500 per girl as his cut. “He had now been getting a commission of Rs.10,000 per placement. He said his agency was registered,” Mr. Kant added.

The accused was produced in a Dwarka court that granted three days’ transit remand to the police, which took him to West Bengal on Friday. After medical examination, the five victims were produced before the Child Welfare Committee that sent them to a shelter home.

Stating that trafficking of children from Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar for placement as domestic helps has become rampant, Mr. Kant said Delhi had emerged not only as a destination but also as a transit point for placement of such girls in the National Capital Region.

“In the absence of any legislation for regulating placement agencies, they are being registered as sole proprietorship, partnership and under the Shops and Establishment Act, and also as NGOs. The Delhi High Court had last year directed the Labour Department to register placement agencies. The High Court, in an elaborate order, had suggested that the registration process should not only be for agencies located in Delhi but also for all agencies who were placing women and children in houses located in Delhi,” Mr. Kant added.

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TRAFFICKER WANTED IN SEVERAL CASES ARRESTED

SOURCE: SHAKTI  VAHINI

IN A SEARCH OPERATION CONDUCTED FOR TWO DAYS ACROSS DELHI AND GHAZIABAD BY A CID TEAM FROM WEST BENGAL (AHTU) / DELHI POLICE (AHTU) AND SHAKTI VAHINI A TRAFFICKER WANTED IN SEVERAL CASES IN WEST BENGAL WAS ARRESTED AND FIVE MINOR GIRLS WERE RECOVERED. THE ARRESTED HAPPENED ON 29 SEPTEMBER 2011. DOCUMENTS CONTAINING DETAILS OF HUNDREDS OF GIRLS HAVE BEEN SEIZED . DOCUMENTS MENTIONING FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS HAVE ALSO BEEN RECOVERED. THE ACCUSED WAS RUNNING AN ILLEGAL PLACEMENT AGENCY. THE CID WEST BENGAL (AHTU) HAD COME TO DELHI UNDER THE ORDERS OF THE KOLKATTA HIGH COURT. THE DELHI POLICE AHTU PROVIDED ALL TECHNICAL , LOGISTICAL AND INVESTIGATION SUPPORT .

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13 Traffickers Arrested, 4 rescued in a week

The ramifications of female foeticide in Haryana i.e. buying girls for forced marriage is in its peak as the cops arrested 13 traffickers from Haryana in a period of one week and rescued four victims.

On September 21, 2011 The City PS Sirsa, Haryana busted a sex racket in Prem Nagar area. Four persons have been arrested including Two women trafficked from Nadia District, West Bengal and Delhi. The gang used to bring girls from Eastern states and involve them in Prostitution and forced marriage.

A case was registered u/s 3/4/5/6 of Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act. The FIR number is 730/11. The police said preliminary interrogation revealed that Ramesh Bhatia, a resident of Kirti Nagar, used to bring girls from Kolkatta and Delhi for supply to Dharmender Saini, a resident of Chatargarh Patti. Saini, in turn, supplied these girls to brothels functioning in some residential areas of the town and to farmhouses of influential persons.

The two women Pooja and Sonali had been brought here about a month ago on the monthly “remuneration” of Rs 60,000 each, said sources.

 On September 19, the Seelampur police arrested a 14 year old girl from the clutches of the trafficking gang run by two women in their late 40s. According to the complaint made by the victim’s father a case of kidnapping was registered in the Seelampur Police Station. The technical surveillance led the police team in Karnak and Kurukshetra  where the girl was rescued and two traffickers Sanjida (45) and Ashuya (49) were arrested. The trafficker lured the victim on the pretext of offering her a cold drink when she lost her way to home from Khajuri Khas. The girl was then forcibly taken to Shahbad to Ashiya. Ashiya sold her to a customer for Rs.70,000.

One of the traffickers Sajida said that her husband Jaipal was also involved in the human trafficking. He had sold more than 12 girls as brides in Haryana. The woman also said that there is high demand of girls in Haryana because of the low sex ratio. Her husband was murdered five months ago by her her step son. Then involve herself in this illegal profession.

On September 12, a team of Mizoram Police, Shakti Vahini NGO and CHAN NGO from Mizoram rescued one minor girl from Rewari District Haryana and arrested 6 traffickers. The prime accused of the case the BSF Jawan Satyawan was arrested in Mizoram.

During counseling the victim it was revealed that on 6th June, 2011 Satyawan, BSF personnel of SHQ, Aizawl, Mizoram dispatched the victim to his home village Rotwal, Alwar District, Rajasthan via Guwahati (Assam). He handed her Rs. 3,000/- (Rupees three thousand) only for her journey expenses. The girl arrived New Delhi Railway Station and was received by Raju Yadav who is a brother of Satyawan Yadav. Raju in connivance with other accomplices sold the victim for sexual exploitation at Rs. 90,000/- (Rupees ninety thousand) only. Satyawan who availed leave also reached his home village Rotwal. He was paid Rs. 50,000/- (Rupees fifty thousand) only out of the sale of the girl.

It was also revealed that the victim had been seduced and exploited by the BSF personnel Satyawan posted at BSF Sector Hqrs. Durtlang, Aizawl, Mizoram. BSF Hqrs and residence of victim girl are close by at the same locality of Durtlang North, Aizawl. Mobile phone contacts made by unidentified callers to the family members of the victim traced the callers to Haryana and Rajasthan. BSF personnel Satyawan had availed leave w.e.f. 9th June, 2011. His past acquaintance with the victim and the coincidence of his leave with the disappearance of the victim pose a strong suspicion on the involvement of Satyawan on the disappearance of Sonia.

In yet another incidence two traffickers were arrested by Delhi Police and rescued one victim from Haryana. The victim was kidnapped from Seelampur in September. The girl had been sold to a farmer in Haryana for Rs.70,000. The gang involved in this case used abduct minor girls and sell them off in Haryana as brides. The victims are subjected to do house hold works in the day and to become the sexual slaves in nights.

According to Adv. Ravi Kant, President Shakti Vahini, “The situation is highly alarming. Trafficking for forced marriage is the ramification of the skewed sex ratio in Haryana.”

He added “the female foeticide in Haryana on one hand, if it is killing several innocent lives before they open the eyes, on the other it is causing serious gender imbalance which finally is devastating the lives of equally other who have been lucky enough to see this world. Like breeds the like, the evil of killing females in womb is giving rise to a chain of several other social evils like trafficking of which the female gender is at the receiving end. Due to the fall in sex ratio people are facing the shortage of Brides and for this they are resorting to trafficking to get their sons married. Recently several cases of Human Trafficking have been reported from Haryana.”

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS – Police Rescue 13 minors from New Delhi Railway Station – Trafficked victims brought from Jharkhand


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