Tag / New Delhi

by NNLRJ INDIA

Pattern of maid abuse

PUBLISHED IN THE TELEGRAPH BY ANANYA SENGUPTA

New Delhi, Nov. 5: The death of a household help at a Bahujan Samaj Party MP’s home appears to be a fresh pointer to a growing pattern of 24×7 domestic hands falling prey to abuse by well-to-do employers.

Rakhi, a 35-year-old maid from Bengal’s Dum Dum, was found dead at Jaunpur MP Dhananjay Singh’s home with injuries on the head, chest, arms and stomach. The MP’s dentist-wife Jagriti has been arrested for alleged torture.

This is the latest in a series of cases in the capital in which 24-hour domestic helps have been ill-treated and tortured by educated and moneyed employers.

As recently as October 1, Vandana Dhir, a senior executive with a French MNC, was arrested on charges of abusing her minor maid, who was from Jharkhand. The teen was reported to have been beaten with brooms, attacked with knives, kept half-naked to block her from fleeing, not given leave to go home and not paid a single month’s salary.

“In the last two years, this has become a trend of sorts — upper-class households resorting to violence against maids. The rich do not understand the compulsions that drive a young girl to leave home to seek work,” said Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini, the organisation that rescued the girl a month ago.

“Cases like these will increase as the economy spirals downwards. These people don’t know what it is to have less. They will show their desperation on their maids, who anyway are like dirt to them.”

Last year, a doctor couple was taken to court for locking up their 13-year-old maid, who was from Jharkhand, in their house while they were holidaying in Thailand. In 2011, a senior MCD officer and his wife had locked up their minor maid before going to a trade fair; the same year, an industrialist went abroad for a week, handing his help Rs 20 for daily expenses.

According to a registered staff-training and placement agency, around 70,000 families look for household helps in Delhi and Gurgaon at any point of time.

According to rough estimates, there are about 50 million domestic workers who are not covered under any law, such as the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, or the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1926.

The Domestic Workers (Registration, Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2008 — amended in 2010 — is still pending. Such workers have, however, been brought within the ambit of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) law that was passed this year.

by NNLRJ INDIA

कानून का खौफ पैदा करना आवश्यक

RASHTRIAY SAHARAरवि कांत अध्यक्ष, शक्ति वाहिनी/अधिवक्ता, सुप्रीम कोर्ट

PUBLISHED IN RASHTRIYA SAHARA – HASTKSHEP

राजधानी नई दिल्ली में घरेलू बाल मजदूरों पर जारी अत्याचार को देखते हु ए प्लेसमेंट एजेंसियों के कार्य करने की पद्धतियों को रेगुलेट करने की आवश्यकता है क्योंकि इनकी सहभागिता घर के कामकाजों के लिए रखे गए बच्चों के आर्थिक शोषण और मानसिक उत्पीड़न में रहती है
भारत में मानव तस्करी खासकर महिलाओं और बच्चों की तस्करी पूरी तरह संगठित अपराध है। आज प्रत्येक राज्य इसके सामाजिक और आपराधिक डर की गिरफ्त में है। वहां व्यापारिक तौर पर यौन उत्पीड़न जारी है और बेगारी कराने, बंधुआ मजदूरी और गुलामी के लिए बच्चों और महिलाओं की तस्करी में काफी वृद्धि हुई है। मजदूरी के लिए झारखंड, छत्तीसगढ़, ओडिशा, असम, पश्चिम बंगाल और मध्यप्रदेश जैसे राज्यों से बच्चों की तस्करी में काफी बढ़ोत्तरी हुई है। बच्चों की तस्करी के धंधे को अंजाम गैरकानूनी रूप से चल रही प्लेसमेंट एजेंसियां दे रही हैं। इनमें से अधिकतर प्लेसमेंट एजेंसियां दिल्ली और एनसीआर के शहरों से संचालित की जा रही हैं। इन राज्यों से बच्चों को लाकर ये प्लेसमेंट एजेंसियां खूब मुनाफा कमा रही हैं। जब एक बार ये बच्चे राजधानी पहुंच जाते हैं तो ये एजेंसियां इन बच्चों को नियुक्त करने की चाह रखने वाले नियोक्ता तक पहुंचा देते हैं जो उन्हें अग्रिम रकम के तौर पर 30 से 45 हजार रुपये और प्लेसमेंट एजेंसी की चार्ज फीस के रूप में अतिरिक्त दस से पंद्रह हजार रुपये देते हैं। जब एक बार पैसों का भुगतान हो जाता है तो बच्चों की देखभाल का जिम्मा पूरी तरह नियोक्ता का होता है इसके बाद नियोक्ता इन बच्चों को बिना किसी वेतन या अवकाश दिए पूरे 10-14 घंटे काम कराते हैं। वहीं दूसरी ओर, प्लेसमेंट एजेंसियों के द्वारा लिया गया अग्रिम भुगतान कभी भी उस बच्चे के परिवार के पास नहीं पहुंचता। कुछ दिनों के बाद ये बच्चे बंधुआ मजदूर बन जाते हैं और उनसे लगातार जबर्दस्ती काम कराया जाता है। मालूम हो कि बंधुआ मजदूरी से मुक्त कराए बच्चों ने शारीरिक और यौन शोषण, प्रताड़ना और मारपीट को लेकर कई शिकायतें भी दर्ज कराई हैं। दिल्ली पुलिस की क्राइम ब्रांच ने 2010-12 के बीच विभिन्न संस्थाओं से मिलकर ऐसे सैकड़ों बच्चों को मुक्त कराया। दिल्ली सरकार के श्रम विभाग ने ‘दिल्ली प्राइवेट प्लेसमेंट एजेंसीज (रेगुलेशन) बिल, 2012’ नामक कानून तैयार किया था। राजधानी में घरेलू मजदूरों पर जारी अत्याचार को देखते हुए इन प्लेसमेंट एजेंसियों के कार्य करने की पद्धतियों को रेगुलेट करने की आवश्यकता है क्योंकि इनकी सहभागिता घर के कामकाजों के लिए लिए रखे गए बच्चों के आर्थिक शोषण और मानसिक उत्पीड़न में रहती है।
नौकरों के यौन उत्पीड़न को लेकर भी काफी खबरें आती हैं। ये घरेलू नौकर सुबह से लेकर देर रात तक घरों में काम करते हैं, बावजूद इसके वे भोजन, साफ-सुथरे कपड़े यहां तक कि मूलभूत सफाई से भी वंचित रहते हैं। इनके बदले जो उन्हें मिलता है, वे हैं शारीरिक, यौन और मानसिक उत्पीड़न। दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण है कि उन्हें जो भी मजदूरी मिलती है वे प्लेसमेंट एजेंसी चलाने वाले एजेंटों के हाथ पहुंचता है। उनके मालिक कभी भी दोबारा इसे लेकर नहीं सोचते कि जो पैसे वे उन बिचौलिये के हाथों में दे रहे हैं, वे कभी उनके घर पहुंचते भी हैं या नहीं। साथ ही, ये प्लेसमेंट एजेंसियां कभी भी उन बच्चों के घर वालों को इस बात की जानकारी तक नहीं देते कि वे कहां काम कर रहे हैं। इन मामलों को लेकर जागरूकता और सुग्राहीकरण कार्यक्रम आयोजित भी किए गए और इन मसलों को मीडिया में भी पर्याप्त जगह मिली। काफी संख्या में लोग भी सामने आए और इस तरह के उत्पीड़न के मामलों की जानकारी एनजीओ और पुलिस को दी। दिल्ली उच्च न्यायालय ने 24 सितम्बर, 2008 को नेशनल कमीशन फॉर प्रोटेक्शन ऑफ चाइल्ड राइट्स (एनसीपीसीआर) को चाइल्ड लेबर प्रीवेंशन एंड रेगुलेशन एक्ट, 1986 सहित दूसरे संबंधित कानून को लागू करने को लेकर विस्तृत एक्शन प्लान लागू करने का निर्देश दिया। एनसीपीसीआर ने मुक्त कराए गए बच्चों को आर्थिक मदद करने के साथ शिक्षा, स्वास्थ्य से संबंधित उपाय मुहैया कराने के सुझाव दिया। एनसीपीसीआर ने एमसी मेहता केस मामले के बाद सुप्रीम कोर्ट के निर्देश पर समय रहते पैसे खर्च करने और उसका उपयोग करने का भी निर्देश दिया है।
विभिन्न हितधारकों के साथ बात करने, रिसर्च और सव्रे करने के बाद नेशनल कमीशन ने कोर्ट के सामने दिल्ली एक्शन प्लान फॉर टोटल एबोलिशन ऑफ चाइल्ड लेबर नामक रिपोर्ट सौंपा। बाल श्रम के पूरे खात्मे के लिए बने एक्शन प्लॉन दो नीतियों पर आधारित थीं। पहली नीति बाल श्रम को खत्म करने के लिए ‘एरिया बेस्ड एप्रोच’ था, जहां छह से चौदह उम्र के बच्चों को कवर करना था चाहे वे स्कूल में पढ़ रहे हों या स्कूल से बाहर हों। नेशनल कमीशन ने प्रस्ताव रखा था कि इस प्रोजेक्ट को दिल्ली के उत्तरी-पश्चिमी जिले में पायलट प्रोजेक्ट के तौर पर लागू किया जाए। दूसरी नीति प्रवासी बाल श्रमिकों को लेकर था। इसके तहत उनकी पहचान करना, बचाव करना, री-पैट्रिएशन (पुनर्वापसी) और पुनर्वास को लेकर था। इस नीति को दक्षिणी दिल्ली जिले में पायलट प्रोजेक्ट के तौर पर लागू किया था। हाल ही में भारत सरकार ने इंडियन पैनल कोड की धारा 370 लागू किया है जिसमें साफ तौर पर मानव तस्करी को परिभाषित किया गया है और इसमें सजा का कड़ा प्रावधान किया गया है। यदि कानून लागू करने वाली एजेंसी इन कानून को लागू की बात सुनिश्चित करते हैं और मानव तस्करी को लेकर कानून का डर पैदा करते तो हम आशा कर सकते हैं कि मानव अपराध को लेकर इस तरह के मामलों में कमी आएगी।
by NNLRJ INDIA

3 Jharkhand, Bengal girls rescued

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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by NNLRJ INDIA

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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by NNLRJ INDIA

Teen mother freed from brothel

Teen mother freed from brothel

Teen mother freed from brothel

Shaurya Karanbir Gurung / Tribune News Service / New Delhi, March 31

The story of 19-year-old Kalpana (not her real name) is not different from other women who are involved in sex work at brothels in Delhi. Her dreams of a better life were shattered when she was duped by a man who sold her at a brothel on GB Road. Kalpana was rescued by the police and an anti-human trafficking NGO, Shakti Vahini at 7 pm today. A police officer said she had been brought to Delhi by a human trafficker about a month ago.

According to a member of the NGO, she had worked as a domestic maid in Kolkata. She is married and has two young children. “She met a man on a local train at Kolkata. She calls him Bappi. He promised to provide her employment in a hotel at Howrah, West Bengal. She agreed and they boarded a train. Instead of Howrah, he tricked her into going to Delhi,” said the member. The man kept her at Kotla for two days before selling her at a brothel on GB Road.

“The owner of the brothel said that she had bought two women, including the one from West Bengal, for Rs 1.70 lakh. She claimed that they were to work for her for a year and thereafter they were supposed to be sent back homes,” added the member. Kalpana disclosed to the members of Shakti Vahini that when she refused to get involved in sex work, she was beaten and repeatedly raped.

She will be lodged at a shelter home until the West Bengal police arrive in Delhi to take her back to Kolkata.

Teen mother freed from brothel

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by NNLRJ INDIA

Couple in India sued after maid locked in home for days

LOS ANGELES TIMES  –  By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times – March 31, 2012

The 13-year-old domestic worker called for help and was rescued after running out of food in the Delhi home while her employers, both doctors, reportedly vacationed in Bangkok.

NEW DELHI — Child welfare officials filed suit Friday against a couple whose 13-year-old domestic worker was found locked in their house for several days without food while the family reportedly vacationed in Bangkok, an incident that raised questions here about the values of India’s expanding middle class. The alleged mistreatment was even more shocking to many because the husband-and-wife employers were both doctors.

The girl, who was not identified, told local television reporters her food ran out soon after the family left on an extended holiday. With the doors and windows of the house sealed, she became increasingly hungry and desperate, eventually prying open a window and calling for help, which attracted the attention of neighbors. They called the charity Shakti Vahini, which helped rescue her. The charity was unable to force open the door. She eventually was able to descend a ladder from the third floor Thursday evening. She was taken for a medical examination and then to a shelter. The girl said her employers cut her and pulled out clumps of her hair as punishment.

“If I didn’t water the plants, they’d beat me. Last September I told them I wanted to go home, but they beat me more and warned me to behave,” she said.

A.K. Ojha, deputy police commissioner for southwest Delhi, confirmed that the girl had several bruises that suggested she had been beaten regularly. He said the police were beginning their investigation and that the immediate whereabouts of the employers were unknown. According to police and charity workers, the girl was brought to Delhi and sold to a placement agency, which sent her to the couple’s house a year ago.

“They gave her only one meal a day, only two chapatis, no vegetables, nothing,” said Nishi Kant, the Executive Director of Shakti Vahini, who uses only one name. She received no wages, she told her rescuers, and was constantly watched through at least two closed-circuit TV cameras installed in the house.

Shakti Vahini, which is helping bring the case against the unnamed employers, said it also will push the Indian Medical Assn. to disbar the couple. Statistics on the number of underage domestic workers in India are unavailable, but in a recent survey, Save The Children India found 50,000 in Kolkata alone and estimated that there are 2 million to 3 million nationwide.

Activists and labor experts say the exploitation of domestic workers is often driven less by money than by issues of caste or a desire to feel powerful. Recent high-profile cases include the rescue of an 11-year-old girl from her doctor employer in Lucknow, a 9-year-old who worked for a senior government official and an another 11-year-old in Mumbai. All were allegedly abused by their employers.

A U.S. district judge in March awarded the maid of a counselor in the Indian Consulate General in New York $1.5 million after she accused the diplomat and her husband of harassment and slavery, forcing her to work 15-hour days for $70 a week. The diplomat returned home and India has rejected the judgment, citing diplomatic immunity.

 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-india-maid-20120331,0,1253276.story

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by NNLRJ INDIA

Rising demand for helps has led to increase in trafficking of girls

Rising demand for helps has led to increase in trafficking of girls

Rising demand for helps has led to increase in trafficking of girls

HINDUSTAN TIMES

NEW DELHI: The rescue of the 13year-old girl working as a domestic help, has once again highlighted the increasing incidents of trafficking of minor girls to be employed as domestic helps. In this case too, the victim was brought to Delhi from Gumla district in Jharkhand by her uncle’s friend.

“I was brought to Delhi by one Mahadev, who knew my uncle Narayan Sahu. Mahadev handed me over to one Mukesh, owner of a placement agency in Punjabi Bagh. Mukesh asked me to work at a flat in Dwarka,” the victim said in her statement. Police said the trafficking of minor girls had increased since there was a huge demand for domestic helps in Delhi and the NCR. Organised gangs bring minors from Jharkhand and West Bengal and later sell them to placement agencies in Delhi, the police said. There are 2,300 placement agencies in Delhi out of which 325 are registered under the Commercial Establishment Act.

This registration is not mandatory, so not many get themselves registered. “A number of these placement agencies are in Shakurpur in northwest Delhi,” a senior police officer said. Officials of Delhi government’s labour department said that more than 1,000 juveniles — both boys and girls — are rescued from different areas working in different occupations by the government’s task force every year. And the number is only increasing.

“There is an increase in the number every year because there is greater awareness among people that kids should not work and such people inform the police and other departments if they come across such a case. Also, our list now incudes more occupations, in which juveniles are prohibited, and hence our catchment area has increased,” a senior labour department official said.

The official said that each district in Delhi had a task force.

“Kids who are rescued are rehabilitated and repatriated to the home district,” the officer said.“but the unfortunate part is that parents send their kids to work due to their poor financial condition. There have been innumerable examples where parents have sent them back to work again,” the official added.

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by NNLRJ INDIA

Most cases are not detected

Most cases are not detected

Most cases are not detected

TIMES OF INDIA / DURGESH NANDAN JHA

NEW DELHI: Back to back cases of doctors employing and abusing minors may have shocked the city but child welfare experts say exploitation of poor children from Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal is rampant among the middle class here.

Activists and NGOs say hundreds of children from impoverished families in these states are rescued in the capital every year. Placement agencies lure them from home with promises of work as fulltime domestic helps but leave them exposed to every kind of abuse – financial, mental, physical and sexual.

“In 2011, we got 25 cases of domestic child workers who were abused by employers and placement agencies. This year, till March, we have received nine such cases,” said Raaj Mangal Prasad, chairperson of Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Lajpat Nagar. There are six CWC offices in the city’s nine districts.

“Only 10% of the actual number of children employed as domestic helps are identified and rescued due to lack of monitoring by the labour department, which is supposed to conduct raids regularly,” said Prasad.

Rakesh Sengar, activist with Bachpan Bachao Aandolan, said children are commonly employed as domestics in metro cities. “Middle class double-income families tend to employ children as full-time domestics as they are docile and not demanding.”

Sengar said his organization rescues 10-20 children every month. “The culprits are mostly from the middle class: doctors, professors and businessmen. They are aware that child labour is illegal and punishable yet flout the rules for their convenience.”

Nishi Kant, executive director of the NGO Shakti Vahini said oversight and absence of registration requirements had led to the unregulated growth of placement agencies.

Another activist said, “Employers need to be careful in determining the age of domestic helps and the possibility of their being trafficked. An employer can be jailed if the child help complains about forced labour and denial of minimum wages”.

Most cases are not detected

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Doctor couple lock 13-yr-old help in house, fly to Bangkok

INDIAN EXPRESS NEWSLINE

New DelhiA 13-year-old who was locked inside an apartment in Southwest Delhi’s Dwarka, allegedly by a doctor couple, was rescued by an NGO, police and fire officers on Thursday. According to police, the couple had gone to Bangkok after locking up the girl in their second-floor house in Hanemaan Apartment in Dwarka Sector 6. The girl was left without food and had been starving for three days, police said.

According to police, said a medical examination was conducted on the girl on Thursday night and they were waiting for her to make a full statement to register a case against the couple under the Juvenile Justice Act.

Police said that officials of an NGO, Shakti Vahini, were informed about the girl by neighbours and other residents, who saw her at the second-floor apartment window, crying for help.

“We received numerous calls after which we informed police and fire personnel. The fire brigade was called as we didn’t know if we would have had to rescue her through the window. Around 5.30 pm, the girl was finally rescued. She was taken to a local hospital for an examination. We are in the process of signing papers. The girl will be provided shelter at Nirmal Chaya,” said Subir Roy, Shakti Vahini official.

Police said there were several bruises on the girl’s body, which they claimed indicated that she was regularly beaten. “ The girl also told us that the wife, also a doctor, had cut off her hair, which had left some bald patches,” a police officer said.

According to police, the girl is from Jharkhand and was brought to Delhi and sold to a placement agency and later sent to the couple’s house to work as a maid. The girl told police that in the last three months she had not been paid any salary.

The victim told police and her counsellors that the couple had installed at least two CCTV cameras in the house through which they monitored her activities.

“The girl told us that the couple used to come home and check if she had eaten anything or watched television in their absence. If she consumed food or sat on their bed she would be beaten. She was allowed to sit only on the floor,” a police officer said.

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Surgeon Accused of Employing Minor

SURGEON ACCUSED OF EMPLOYING MINOR

SURGEON ACCUSED OF EMPLOYING MINOR

PRERNA SODHI IN TIMES OF INDIA

NEW DELHI: A senior west Delhi based cardiologist has been accused of employing a minor at home, and the city’s Child Welfare Committee (CWC) has directed the police to register a criminal complaint against him. Police said a group of volunteers and a team from the Kirti Nagar police station rescued the teenage girl from the surgeon’s Kirti Nagar residence on Wednesday noon.

“Preliminary investigations were done today. We will talk to the girl again. However, we have asked for an FIR against the employer under Section 23 of the Juvenile Justice Act, relevant sections of Indian Penal Code and the Child Labour Act,” CWC chairperson Neera Malik told TOI at the committee’s Nirmal Chhaya campus.

Guddi (name changed), a native of West Bengal, was reported missing in January this year. It was later learnt that she had been abducted and sold off to a placement agency in Delhi. Acting on a tip-off from volunteers of an NGO in West Bengal, police and members of the volunteer group Shakti Vahini raided the surgeon’s home on Wednesday.

“We had received a tip-off from our partners in West Bengal. They provided us with a number and we asked the police to trace it,” said Subir Roy, director programmes and projects at Shakti Vahini. “After the number was traced to an address in Kirti Nagar, we decided to rescue the child.”

Roy said the minor was made to do household chores apart from taking care of the surgeon’s two children. “The girl says her work hours were from 6am to midnight, and she was not paid,” said Roy. “She was given to the family by a placement agency, which bought her from the abductors in January.”

When TOI called up the surgeon, he admitted to employing the girl but claimed he was not aware of her age. “The placement agency which gave us the girl said she was 17 years old. Thus we never really thought of complaining,” said the surgeon. All attempts to contact the agency failed.

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