NEW DELHI: Two minor girls - brought to the capital to be sold off as brides in Haryana - have been rescued by the police in the past two weeks. Haryana has been in the news for the rampanttrafficking of girl children, all thanks to its skewedsex ratio.

In the first incident, a 16-year-old girl, a native of Betul district of Madhya Pradesh, was rescued from the Jind railway station. She was found in a traumatised condition by the GRP. Her uncle, Ramesh, had sold her to Ved Prakash, a truck driver, against a payment of Rs 90,000. However, she fled from his house on October 22. She told the cops that she was married against her wishes and wanted to return to her native village. After her medical examination, the girl was given shelter at Karnal Nariniketan.

Though the Madhya Pradesh police has arrested Ramesh, Ved Prakash is still at large. Fresh raids are being conducted in Madhya Pradesh to nab the local traffickers.

In the second incident, a 13-year-old girl from Santhal in West Bengal was forcefully brought to Delhi and employed as a domestic help in Janakpuri, at the house of Nirja Bhaskar. The girl's family had urged Nirja to let the girl return home but Nirja refused to comply. Instead, she demanded that the family cough up a sum of Rs 16,000 which she had paid to the placement agency. However, Nirja was tracked down by the NGO Shakti Vahini and the girl was rescued.

The girl was brought to the capital by Pina Roy and Rina Hemram - both in the police net - three months back. After reaching Delhi she stayed in Sangam Vihar with Rina where she was often beaten up by Rina's husband. She made umpteen requests to go back home but the couple employed her as a domestic help. Later, she worked somewhere else. After suffering untold misery at the hands of her new employer, she ran away to Sangam Vihar. There she came in contact with another person from Bengal who used her as a bonded labourer and was planning to sell her as a child bride.

"Recent raids have thrown light on the trafficking of girl children to Haryana - with Delhi as the transit point. Girls from Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Chattisgarh and Chandigarh are brought here with almost no scope of returning. We are planning a nationwide drive to address the problem,'' said Rishikant, coordinator, Shakti Vahini.