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@empowerpeople
She is one of Amazing Leaders of our Organization, A well known face in her town, A Bride trafficking Trafficking survivor who became a ray of hope for women in bridal slavery Watch her life story and support us by visiting empowerpeople.org.in
It is estimated that India has been losing up to 12 million baby girls over the last three decades. Journalist and filmmaker Carl Gierstorfer explores what it means for a society with such a significant number of women missing. You can watch the full documentary here:bit.ly/1LO6pHc
Role of a tireless activist behind anti-bride trafficking units in HP
By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net
Shimla: In first of its kind in India, the Union government has sanctioned setting up of Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) in Himachal Pradesh in order to deal with the widespread menace of bride trafficking in the state. AHTU will be established in six districts notorious for the widespread cases of bride trafficking -- Shimla, Solan, Sirmor, Kangda, Chanba and Kullu.
Bride trafficking involves trafficking and selling of girls for the purpose of ‘marriage.’ Girls are usually sold and resold more than thrice. Interestingly there is no legal status and well as social sanction to this kind of marriage which is usually exploited to use girls as sex slave as well as labor.
Shafiqur Rahman Khan making a presentation for sensitising the Himachal Pradesh police with the issue of Bride Trafficking
Empower People, the only organization working specifically for rescue/rehabilitation of girls caught up in bride trafficking, had a very important role to play in the formulation of this policy initiative by the HP government.
The scenic Shimla is one of the worst affected areas by the menace of bride trafficking, said Shafiqur Rahman Khan, anti-bride trafficking activist and the founder of Empower People.
Talking to TwoCircles.net, Shafique said, with the trafficking of 4000 girls annually from Shimla to Punjab, Haryana, Kurukshethra and Jharkhand, after Bihar and Assam, the state of Himachal Pradesh is the third biggest supplier of girls in the whole business of bride trafficking. According to unofficial estimates, more than fifty thousands girls are trafficked across the country from backward districts of West Bengal, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Assam and north-eastern states of India.
Shafique has been lobbying with the state administration since last three years to formulate a policy to tackle bride trafficking. Besides his lobbying it took several studies and reports prepared by Empower People to convince the state administration about the gravity of this problem.
“It’s only after four years of negotiation and discussion with the police and administration that this kind of path breaking policy initiative has been possible first time anywhere in the country,” added Shafique.
Shafiqur Rahman Khan (L) with Mr.SR Mardi, IG of law & admin Himachal Pradesh
On the request of the police administration of Himachal Pradesh, Shafiq has also given training to police officers in order to sensitize them with the issue of bride trafficking.
“Bride trafficking is a complicated issue and more often than not, police mixes the issue of bride trafficking with flesh trade and prostitution. So what happens is that a girl who is actually a victim ends up getting treated by the law as a criminal,” added Shafique.
Shafique highlighted the fact that “because there is no separate law to deal with child trafficking, most of the time police use Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, a law frequently used to tackle cases of prostitution which has done enormous harm to the efforts for the rescue of girls caught up in bride trafficking.”
“Establishment of AHTUs is a welcome step because it’s high time that that the government woke up from its slumber and treat the issue of bride trafficking seriously and formulate policy separately to tackle this issue” added Shafique. TCN
Manipuri girl saved from being sold
A 14 year old Manipuri girl was rescued by the Gurgaon Police from the basement of a Sector 56 apartment. The accused, a man named Bikku Ranpal, 24, wanted to sell her off in marriage for Rs 50,000, the police said. “Girls from various parts of the country are brought to Haryana illegally to be
sold for marriage as the state’s sex ratio is very low,” said Rishipal a member of Shakti Vahini, the NGO which helped the police rescue the girl.
But the accused insists that he had eloped with the girl with the intention of marrying her.
A case under various sections of IPC has already been registered against Ranpal at the Sigmai police station of Manipur in January. “We will hand him over to the Manipur police. They have already been informed about his arrest,” said a senior police officer.
Gang of human traffickers smashed
New Delhi, Feb 9 (PTI) Delhi Police today claimed to have smashed a gang of human traffickers with the arrest of four persons, who allegedly kidnapped and molested a physically challenged girl after forcing her to consume alcohol.
The gang allegedly kidnapped the physically challenged girl and her elder sister from Jharkhand. Both the girls were rescued from the clutches of the racketeers. The arrested have been identified as Saleem (32), Pinku (24), Sumeer (38) and Sanjit (28), all residents of Jharkhand.
"One Jai Singh used to bring poor women from Jharkhand, Bihar, eastern UP, Orissa and West Bengal on the pretext of getting them suitable jobs in Delhi.
"But instead of getting them employed, he used to sell these women to various local agents like Saleem, Rajkumar, Pinku, Sanjit and Sameer after getting handsome amount," H G S Dhaliwal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), said.
They also allegedly used to sexually abuse the women they brought from other states, he said adding, in case, any woman tried to raise voice against this exploitation, they used to suppress it forcibly.
The arrests came following police receiving a call that some persons were trying to abduct a woman in a Maruti van near HDFC Bank in Defence Colony.
"A team rushed to the spot and found a 20-year-old woman from Jharkhand in distress. She told us that one Jai Ram who is resident of her neighbouring village came to her parents and informed that her elder sister whom hew had brought to Delhi to work as domestic help is not well.
"He requested her parents to send her to Delhi to look after her sister. However after reaching Delhi, Jai Ram allegedly sold her on January 31 to Rajkumar, Saleem and Pinku for Rs 10,000. She was handicapped," Dhaliwal said.
On the pretext of taking her to meet her sister, Rajkumar, Saleem and Pinku took her in a room in Gurgaon where they forced her to consume liquor and tried to sexually assault her, but she managed to save herself.
"The same process was continued for next 2-3 days also as they could not find a suitable buyer for her. On February two, she got suspicious and on the pretext of drinking water, she jumped out of the running vehicle infront of HDFC Bank and cried for help. The accused tried to pull her back but could not do so due to the bravery displayed by the victim," Dhaliwal said.
Saleem and Pinku were arrested from Gurgaon on February five following which the elder sister who was sold to Sanjit and Sameer, owners of K K Enterprises in Shakurpur, were rescued.
Trafficked girl kept confined
Manipur Police have requested Udyog Vihar Police in Gurgaon to rescue a 15 year old girl from the state who was trafficked to Delhi recently, an official source said Saturday.
According to the source, the 15 year old girl hailing from Kanglatongbi under Sekmai PS was trafficked by Biku Rampal of Tispara village of Kanglatongbi on January 24 last on the pretext of providing job in New Delhi.
The father of the girl has lodged a complaint with Sekmai PS who registered a case under sections related with human trafficking.
The father complained that his daughter is reportedly kept confined in a room of a rented house at Doom Dera Ramchawk behind Hanuman Mandir near a meat selling centre under Udyog Vihar PS of Gurgoan, Haryana.
Based on this information, Sekmai police asked the Station House Officer of Udyok Vihar PS for verification and to arrest the culprits.
They also informed the state Social Welfare Department to take up action to rescue the girl, the source added.
Last year, as many as 139 children, trafficked from Manipur, were rescued from various illegal children’s homes in Chennai and Bangalore.
In 2009, 97 children were rescued from various other states.
The state government has taken up steps to set up anti-trafficking police units to check the rise in trafficking of children outside Manipur on the pretext of free education.
It had initiated steps to set up anti-human trafficking cells in Churachandpur, Senapati, Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal and Bishnupur which had seen the largest number of child trafficking.
The cells are to be set up as per a directive of the Union home ministry to the state government to take steps to check trafficking of children from Manipur to other states.
Government has sanctioned Rs.15.60 lakh for opening two cells in the first phase, one in Imphal West which will also cover Imphal East district, and Churachandpur.
The State Social Welfare Department has restricted sending children below 12 years for education outside the state following a directive of the Supreme Court in September 1 last year.
Source: Hueiyen News Service
This news is as published by respected news daily at Imphal
New units to tackle Human Trafficking : Government consider Bride trafficking in Himachal pradesh : Our impact
The Union Home Ministry has cleared Himachal Pradesh government’s proposal to set up Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTU) in some of the state’s vulnerable districts, including the border district of Sirmaur, to effectively deal with cases of girls being lured to neighboring Haryana and forced to marry for money. (it is first time in India when any government consider Bride trafficking please watch a training video with Himachal pradesh Police)
There have been similar reports from Shimla’s interiors, such as the Chopal region, and some parts of Solan district, from where girls went missing and were later found in metropolitan towns like Mumbai. Kolkata and Chennai.
Director General of Police, DS Manhas, who was in Delhi, held a meeting with top officials of the Home Ministry to discuss issues related to drug smuggling and growing illegal narcotics trade in parts of Himachal Pradesh. Kullu valley has already become a hot bed of illegal narcotics trade.
Cases of human trafficking had become another concern for the police. “The Centre has given its green signal to set-up AHTUs in six districts — Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur, Kangra, Chamba and Kullu. The Centre will release Rs 96 lakh for this purpose and the units will be functional from next the financial year,” Manhas said on his arrival here.
Our Advocacy in local News papers for last 2 years
Source
Trafficked girl rescued in Dimapur
A ten-year-old girl who was sold off as a domestic help by a Naga woman has been rescued by members of a Dimapur-based NGO after three years of her ordeal.
The girl, rescued from Zunheboto, was reunited with her family in a village in Assam-Nagaland border on February 3 due to a great deal of effort from Nagaland Domestic Workers’ Movement (NDWM).
An FIR was also lodged against the woman at the Women Cell of Dimapur police station, the police said.
The NDWM office bearers told newsmen at Dimapur that the victim along with her elder sister were put to the custody of a Naga woman in the town by their mother.
The woman, who sought custody of the two girls from her mother to keep them as domestic help at her residence at Dimapur, sold off the children to a family at Zunheboto in July for Rs10,000.
Finally, the mother of the victims approached the NDWM for help in July last year and after a great deal of effort younger daughter was brought back to Dimapur by the NGO activists.
DNA
Nepali arrested in Mumbai for kidnapping Goa girl
PANAJI: A Nepali was arrested by Anjuna police in Dharavi in Mumbai on Thursday morning for kidnapping a minor girl from Goa. The accused was a waiter employed in the hotel owned by the girl's father at Anjuna.
The seventeen-year-old girl's family had filed a complaint on January 31 stating that the girl was missing and that they suspected that she had been kidnapped by a Nepal national Mustakin Nadaf, 21. The Anjuna police traced Nadaf's location through his mobile phone signal and went to Dharavi on Thursday where they arrested him and managed to locate the girl as well.
Two Goa policemen -- Babu Madanwar and Gavas -- reached Dharavi locality on February 1 and with the help of the Dharavi police searched over 400 hutments and arrested the accused and rescued the girl.
On interrogation Nadaf said he hails from Nepal. "He was in love with the girl for the last two years and recently convinced the minor girl to elope with him and get married at New Delhi," a police officer said.
The Anjuna police team with the assistance of Dharavi police also arrested Bihar native and Dharavi resident Mohammad Parvez Alam for sheltering the accused and the kidnapped minor. The girl and the accused were brought to Goa on Thursday evening and sent to the Goa Medical College and Hospital for a medical examination.
The accused has been booked for kidnapping the girl from lawful guardianship and under the Goa Children's Act for child abuse.
The Times of India
A safer haven for kids
VARANASI: While Delhi records the highest number of crime cases against children, Varanasi is comparatively a safer place with decreasing cases of crime against children. The other mega cities of the state including Lucknow, Allahabad and Kanpur also have higher number of crime cases committed against children in comparison to Varanasi.
According to the report of National Crime Records Bureau of the Union ministry of home affairs-- Crime in India 2009-- Varanasi reports only 15 incident of crime committed against children while Kanpur records the maximum 162 cases, Lucknow 93 cases and Allahabad 26 cases in 2009. Besides, the incident of crime against children also decreased in Varanasi while a rise was seen in other mega cities.
However, the activists working for child right protection say that the magnitude of crime against children may be many times more if all cases are recorded properly. Interestingly the NCRB reports no case of buying or selling of girls in Varanasi as claimed by people working in this field, who say many trafficked girls have been rescued in 2009-10. "We have rescued 10 victims, including eight minor girls in Varanasi district," claims Ajit Singh of Guria, an NGO working against human traffickers. According to him, his organisation has been fighting case against over 400 human traffickers in over 100 cases. He has also been included in the team constituted by the National Commission for Women ( NCW) to investigate trafficking channels from Azamgarh to the Middle East.
Two poor minor girls were brought to Sarnath by a Tibetan couple and kept in captivity for 27 months. They were allegedly raped repeatedly by the man during that period. They somehow managed to flee from the captivity and took shelter of police in August 2009. The police arrested the couple and sent it to jail. According to the report of the Ministry of Women and Child Development on Child Protection in the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012), poverty is the root cause of trafficking of children for various purposes.
According to report, India is home to more than one billion people, of who one-third are children under 18 years of age. The world's tenth largest economy unfortunately ranks 127 on the human development index (HDI). If all child rights indicators were to become a critical measure for HDI, India would fare even worse, especially because of its poor performance on child protection. India has the world's largest number of sexually abused children, with a child below 16 years raped every 155th minute, a child below 10 every 13th hour, and one in every 10 children sexually abused at any point of time. The girl children are especially at risk of violation of their protection rights simply because they are girls. It is estimated that 90% of trafficking for sexual exploitation is within the country. Many of those trafficked are children, sometimes as young as eight years old, or even younger. Trafficking is an organised crime. The nexus between traffickers, law enforcement officials and politicians allows very little scope for protecting children from being trafficked. Victims who are able to return to their communities often find themselves stigmatised or ostracised, and therefore are re-trafficked.
But, the NCRB records show that the graph of crime against children is decreasing in Varanasi. The incidents of crime against children reduced from 20 in 2005 to 15 in 2009. However, an increase in such cases was recorded in other mega cities of the state. The records also reveal that Kanpur reports 18 cases of child rape followed by Lucknow (17), Varanasi (4) and Allahabad (2). Kanpur also leads in children kidnapping with 97 cases followed by Lucknow (39), Allahabad (11) and Varanasi (5) in 2009.
The Times of India
US: Key Allies Risk Consequences Over Human Trafficking Issues
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gestures during a meeting
of the President's Interagency Task Force on human trafficking,
Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011, at the State Department in Washington.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted senior U.S. officials at the State Department Tuesday afternoon for an anti-human trafficking task force meeting. Speaking after the Cabinet-level gathering, the ambassador who coordinates anti-trafficking efforts, Luis CdeBaca, said some key U.S. allies could see themselves downgraded in the State Department's annual human trafficking report.
The State Department has issued its 'Trafficking in Persons Report' for the past 10 years. Using a four-tier scale, the report ranks countries' compliance with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Countries given a Tier 1 ranking are considered to be in full compliance, while those with a Tier 3 ranking are deemed not in compliance and not making significant efforts to combat trafficking.
Within the second tier, there are two levels - the lower of which is the Tier 2 Watch List. Nations on that list are considered to be making efforts, but trafficking remains a significant problem and the country is not being as responsive as necessary.
Ambassador Luis CdeBaca told reporters at the State Department that 2011 is the first year of the automatic downgrade provision. He explained that countries on the Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years will have to either improve or be downgraded to the lowest level, Tier 3.
"First and foremost, the annual 'Trafficking In Persons Report' will be published again this year, notably with some of our key strategic allies at risk of automatic downgrades from Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 3, due to a potential failure to address trafficking in persons adequately," he said.
Russia, India, Iraq, Qatar and Yemen are among the nations that were on the Tier 2 Watch List in both 2009 and 2010.
Also Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice says it prosecuted more human trafficking cases in the past year than ever before. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said it is the third year in a row that his agency has been able to make that claim.
The Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Labor also announced a new initiative to streamline federal criminal investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking. Federal agents and prosecutors will work across agency lines to combat trafficking threats, dismantle networks and prosecute traffickers.
CdeBaca said the task force recognized that more needs to be done to help trafficking victims - citizens and non-citizens alike - access resources they need in the United States. "We will seek to ensure that those who work in our juvenile justice, child welfare and immigration systems have the knowledge and training necessary to identify and help victims and become a true model for the rest of the world as far as victim care is concerned," he said.
He also said the State Department will establish an annual briefing for foreign diplomats and the domestic workers who travel with them, in an effort to increase the protections of household help.
Major forms of human trafficking include forced labor, sex trafficking and involuntary domestic servitude, among children and adults. Source
Delhi HC to govt: Register, regulate placement cells to curb trafficking
In a landmark judgement to tackle trafficking of adults and minors from various parts of India to Delhi through placement agencies, the Delhi High Court has directed the Labour Department of the Government of NCT of Delhi to register all the placement agencies within a finite period of time.
Hearing a public interest petition, the Bench said the registration would involve recording the details of the persons running the placement agencies as well as the full details of the persons who are provided employment through these cells.
The Court issued these directions after being told that trafficking in men, women and children was taking place on a large scale and in the guise of providing employment these persons were kept in bondage with their wages not paid for years together.
The High Court also directed the Child Welfare Committee and the Delhi Commission for Women to verify the information provided by the placement agencies and particularly decide cases regarding withholding of wages, harassment and abuse, long hours of work and lack of basic facilities, including medical care and food. Legal aid was to be provided to the child or woman and the placement agencies were to be fined for any misconduct, the court stated.
Delhi HC to govt: Register, regulate placement cells to curb trafficking
MiD DAY sting operation shows how infants are sold without any paperwork in an east Delhi clinic
Story of MID-DAY
Dalit girl raped by three, sold for Rs 50,000
AHMEDABAD: A 24-year-old girl was abducted and raped by a group of three persons in Amraiwadi. She was then sold for Rs 50,000 to a prospective groom in a village of Amreli. The girl was abandoned by her husband and in-laws last week when they realised that she was not from the same caste.
The victim was sent for medical examination after she filed a complaint with the Amraiwadi police on Monday. The Dalit girl, a resident of Baliyanagar in Amraiwadi, used to work as a skilled labourer at Bharti Estate near Rabari Colony.
As per her complaint, she was abducted by a co-worker Manu Vankar who took her to an isolated spot in Bhuriyo Rabari's autorickshaw. There she was raped by Vankar. Later, one Lagha Bharwad also violated her modesty.
According to police, the gang held her captive for more than six months at different places in Ahmedabad district and elsewhere where she was repeatedly raped by Vankar. Then they took her to several villages to pass her off as a prospective bride. They finally struck a deal at Jambuda village in Amreli district where they got Rs 50,000 and forced her to marry Gabhru Rabari.
"Vankar had told Gabhru that the girl was an orphan and has been in their care since many years," said M S Sindha, inspector of Amraiwadi police station.
Soon after the marriage in November, 2010, Gabhru noticed his wife's behaviour suspicious and when he confronted her, the girl told him her tale of woes. Furious, Gabhru tried to hunt down the trio who had duped him but in vain. He then left her near her residence in Amraiwadi last week. The girl later lodged a complaint with Amraiwadi police.
"We have sent the victim to Civil Hospital for clinical examination. The case will subsequently be transferred to the city's SC/ST cell for further investigation," said Sindha.
The Times of India
Bill seeks to let 12-yr-olds have non-penetrative sex
CHENNAI: Twelve-year-old children will be legally permitted to have non-penetrative sex with children their age, according to a draft Protection of Children From Sexual Offences Bill, 2010, that has been sent to states by the ministry of women and child development for their views.
The Bill also seeks to introduce a gradation in the age of consensual non-penetrative sex (12-14 years and 14-16 years) against the existing age of consent for sex which is 16 years. It proposes that in case of the age group 12-14, the maximum age gap between partners should be two years. For the 14-16 group, the maximum gap should be three years.
The age of consent in the US is between 16 and 18 years, depending on the state they live in; in the UK it is 16. Spain has one of the lowest ages of consent, at 13 years.
While a senior official of the ministry of women and child development confirmed that the Bill has been sent to state governments, law minister Veerappa Moily said he was not aware of it. ``Twelve years is anyway not a proper age for a sexual act,`` he told TOI.
Section 3 of the proposed Bill lists under exceptions of unlawful sexual act with a child:
(i) Any consensual non-penetrative sexual act penalised by this chapter is not an offence when engaged in between two children who are both over 12 years of age and are either of the same age or whose ages are within two years of each other.
(ii) when engaged in between two persons who are both over 14 years of age and are either of the same age or whose ages are within three years of each other
The Bill will soon be sent to the cabinet, after which a parliamentary standing committee will scrutinise it. Suggestions and objections from the states will be considered then, said a senior official at the ministry of women and child development.
The law ministry too has been working on a similar Bill with an identical name, in which the age of consent is mentioned as 16 years, with no gradation as suggested by the new Bill. The circulation of two Bills with the same title has created confusion in the government.
Opinion on the minimum age are divided. Aparna Bhat, a Supreme Court lawyer who was part of a National Commission for Protection of Child Rights group that drafted the latest Bill said the gradation of age down to 12 years was to decriminalise sexual exploration by two children.
Under the existing law, if two 12-year-olds get physical and if one childs parent complains, the other can be pulled up by the Juvenile Justice Board. The panel felt such minor things should be decriminalised, she said.
Raaj Mangal, chairperson of Delhi Child Welfare Committee said the Bill could prove ``disastrous`` if it comes into effect. ``Twelve, given the mind and maturity of a child, is not an age to give consent, be it penetrative or non-penetrative sex. In the name of decriminalising, you can`t keep sexual acts between children out of the notice of the authorities,`` said Mangal.
Former CBI director RK Raghavan felt the attempt to draw a distinction between an act involving penetration and one not involving penetration will create confusion in the minds of investigators. ``Disputes regarding the age of the offender or the victim, which will be many, will dilute the objective of protecting children,`` he said.
Some others like Nina Nayak, chairperson of Karnataka State Commission for the protection of child rights, called the Bill ``absolutely unacceptable``. ``The Juvenile Justice Board is anyway lenient to children in conflict with law. Even if a minor rapes a minor, the child in conflict with law is just admonished and sent. There is no need of a new law to make sexual acts between children permissible,`` she said.
The Times of India
Sewri teens rescued from flesh trade
Cops arrest 3 members of Bedia community woman and sons for abducting teenaged girls from Sewri; suspect gang of flesh trade in the Gulf
Beda Singh alias Monu and his brother Sagar Singh alias Sonu
were arrested by the Sewri police from Agra and Delhi
The city police narrowly salvaged two teenaged girls from being forced into the flesh trade by a Bedia community member, in an operation that spanned several states and the last four days.
The matter assumes significance in light of the fact that an increasing number of minors have been enticed into prostitution over the past two years.
Many are exported to Gulf countries, where human trafficking has become a sunrise industry for the Bedia tribe.
After Kushina Khatun Sheikh (13) and her elder sister, Pakhi (14) went missing from a neighbourhood in Sewri about four days ago, their father reported the matter to the Sewri police.
He suspected it could be the handiwork of Bano Singh (50), a neighbour who belonged to the Bedia tribe.
Indeed, Bano had escaped to Agra with the two girls, after promising them a luxurious life, as police would come to know in the course of their intricate investigations.
When Bano's family in Sewri did not divulge her whereabouts, said Senior Inspector Rajan Bhogale, the detection team managed to dig out the mobile number of Bano's elder son Monu, and put it under observation.
From recordings of the conversations tracked, officials learnt that the girl was held captive in a house in Agra.
A team of officers from Sewri police was dispatched to the city, where they launched a massive manhunt. They did make some headway when they traced Kushina and Bano, but Pakhi's whereabouts still eluded them.
Luckily for them, hours after the police arrested Bano and escorted Kushina back to Mumbai, Monu was also taken into custody.
But despite sustained interrogations, the mother-son duo did not reveal where Pakhi was.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Port Zone) Khalid Qaisar then decided to rely on technical intelligence. A detailed analysis of Monu's phone records indicated that several calls were made to him from a location in Old Delhi.
Monu finally broke down and told investigators it was the phone number of his younger brother, Sonu. He confessed that Pakhi was with Sonu but said he was not aware of the location.
A police team was flown to New Delhi with Monu in tow. Officers had already identified the mobile tower from where the calls were relayed to Mumbai, but didn't know how to zero in on Sonu.
Having no other choice, they paraded Monu in the neighbourhood in the hope that he would spot the brother.
And he did. Sonu was crossing the road, when Monu identified him. He was apprehended immediately. It did not take the police long to make Sonu lead them to where Pakhi had been caged.
The police returned to Mumbai yesterday with Sonu, Monu and Pakhi.
Gulf trade
Police sources informed that every year between 2,000 and 3,000 girls are made to migrate to Gulf countries, and specially Dubai, on a three-month contract with interested parties there. A majority of them are Bedia tribe girls, most of whom are minors.
They are lured from villages near Agra and Jaipur by offering them around Rs 1 lakh. They are trained for months before being forced into prostitution, officials disclosed.
In Dubai, they cater to up-market clientele. Insiders informed that the tribe spends around Rs 4 lakh and makes profits up to Rs 15 lakh, for every girl sent there.
The money finds its way to Mumbai using the hawala network. A large amount is siphoned off to pay corrupt officials and run underworld operations.
Pretty girls are also chosen from bars across Mumbai, and those who have been in the dance bars for a while are offered Rs 3 lakh for the trip abroad.
A senior officer attached to Sewri police station said that they are interrogating the three suspects to find out how many girls they kidnapped, and if the victims had been marked for the sex-trade in the Gulf.
Ek Cutting!
Number chadhana
In police parlance, this Hinglish phrase means keeping a mobile phone under observation, and tracking all conversations for clues to solving a case.
140
The number of cases registered with Mumbai police in connection with rape of minors in 2010, up from 128 in 2009.
MIDday
Half a life: Abandoned, adopted, abandoned
Manisha (name changed) is 15 and brighteyed . She might be the regular teenager . The adults in contact with her say she is polite and disciplined and is always ready to help anyone in trouble. But Manisha is not a regular teenager and hers is no ordinary story. She lives in a home run by an NGO in Gurgaon for abandoned or abused children or those with special needs. She is the helpless victim of inter-country adoption gone terribly wrong.
Six years ago, Manisha was adopted by an American family from a centre in Mumbai. But soon enough, they were unwilling to keep her, blaming Manisha's newly apparent hyperactivity, mood disorders and depression. Rejected and abandoned all over again, Manisha was sent across the seas and has been in the children's shelter from early 2010.
Should it be this way? Almost all her young life, Manisha has been a victim of the system — and all its faults. In 2003, she and her sister were found abandoned at Mumbai railway station. Both children were placed with an NGO, the Family Welfare Centre (FWC), by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC). In 2005, the CWC declared that the children could be adopted because no one had come forward to claim them.
Soon enough, an American couple expressed interest in taking both sisters. The FWC, coordinating with an adoption agency in US, completed the formalities. The girls were cleared for adoption in April 2006 by the Central Adoption and Resources Agency (CARA), the nodal body for adoption under the Union ministry of women and child development .
But within months, the American foster parents were complaining that Manisha had behavioural problems and insisting they would keep her young sister, but not her. Manisha's case wound up in the Indian courts. The Bombay High Court, which has been hearing the case, was informed that the link adoption agency (in the US) had placed Manisha with another family, but things didn't work out and she was repatriated to India in June 2008. She was admitted to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, her adoption revoked and her guardian now is Nigama Mascarenhas, director of the FWC. The high court said the American couple who adopted Manisha cannot be absolved of responsibility and they are still liable for financial support for the child's treatment and needs. The court has sought sixmonthly updates on Manisha's progress.
So how has all of this left an innocent child, flown across continents and rejected twice-over - once by her birth parents and then by her adoptive father and mother? Her guardian, Mascarenhas says Manisha seemed to be settling down when she visited the home in December 2010 , she is now trying to find a foothold in life. Staff at the home say the child is endearing and participates in every activity . Apart from attending a special school that is helping overcome her learning disability, she is undergoing therapy with a psychologist and a psychiatrist . Counsellors say Manisha has potential to do well in say, the hospitality sector.
If Manisha is indeed fine, she is one of the luckier ones. There are no statistics of the number of Manishas all over India — abandoned children, who were adopted overseas and then turned out like a troublesome puppy. Significantly, the Bombay High Court has used Manisha's case to ask CARA, India's nodal adoption agency, to plug gaps in the system.
The court asked CARA to create stringent inter-country adoption guidelines, as well as a system that makes foster parents financially liable if they seek to revoke an adoption.
Activists like Anjali Pawar, of the NGO Sakhee, say this is badly needed. Pawar, who works on issues related to inter-country adoption in Maharashtra , says, "The existing norms call for monitoring of children adopted by families abroad for five years after the adoption. But what happens to the child after that, no one knows. The monitoring should go on till the child attains 18 years."
All of this is urgent. The latest data on CARA's website shows that in 2009, 666 Indian children were placed with families abroad. When contacted , a top CARA official said that an expert committee had been constituted to frame stringent guidelines for inter-country adoption. He claimed that the committee's report has been sent to the law ministry, denied there had been delay and insisted the revised guidelines would come into effect soon.
But Bharti Ali of the National Coordination for the Campaign Against Child Trafficking, who has been part of the stakeholders meetings on the drafting process, contradicts the CARA official's claim. She says it's been three months since the stakeholders heard about the status of the guidelines and the draft is anyway "not as tough about protecting the rights of the child if one reads between the lines."
Manisha's case has exposed another grey area. Is India careless about the psychological health of the children it puts up for overseas adoption? The Bombay High Court has expressed concern about information presented to it, which seemed to suggest that many Indian children adopted abroad have a disturbed childhood. But what if everything fails and an adopted child is sent back to its home country from overseas? Ali says it is imperative the Indian government "take responsibility for a child in case of a failed inter-country adoption."
Is anyone listening?
The Times of India