Showing posts with label follow up. Show all posts
Saturday, April 14, 2012
High Court orders release of 15 rescued sex workers
They were unwilling to go to home state Andhra Pradesh
The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the release of 15 Andhra Pradesh women rescued from a red light area here who were opposing their transfer to their home state from a reform home in Delhi.
Setting aside the trial court's order granting their transit remand to Andhra Pradeh police, a bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and S P Garg directed the release these sex workers.
The bench passed the order after the National and Delhi Commissions for Women, which was asked by the court to assist it in rehabilitation of these women, informed the court that there was no such scheme and it would take some time to formulate the policy.
Disposing of a petition filed by these women, the court said these women could not be kept at the home till the formulation of any scheme for their rehabilitation and ordered their release forthwith.
The women in their plea sought the court's intervention as they were forcibly removed from here despite their unwillingness to go back to their home state.
The bench accepted their plea that they are not minors and they have been settled in the national capital for last more than five years and their children are also studying here.
These women were recently rescued during a joint operation of Andhra Pradesh and Delhi Police on the direction of a court at Hyderabad.
The Hyderabad court had issued a search warrant and directed the police to present these girls on the submission of a minor girl who had escaped from the red light area here.
The minor girl had said that others from Hyderabad were also kept in confinement in the red light area. About 72 sex workers including some minor girls were rescued and except these 15, others were allowed to go home.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Andhra girls rescued from Delhi brothels don't want to come back home
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the National Commission for Women and the Delhi Commission of Women to respond to pleas of some of the girls, rescued from a red light area, that they were not willing to go back to Andhra Pradesh.
A bench comprising of Justice S Ravinder Bhatt and Justice SP Garg directed the two associations to file their replies after talking to the girls and listed the matter for further hearing on Friday.
The 15 girls, currently lodged at a reform home, Nirmal Chhaya, after being rescued from the GB Road area, are seeking release saying they are "forcibly confined" and do not want to go back to their respective homes.
A bench comprising of Justice S Ravinder Bhatt and Justice SP Garg directed the two associations to file their replies after talking to the girls and listed the matter for further hearing on Friday.
The 15 girls, currently lodged at a reform home, Nirmal Chhaya, after being rescued from the GB Road area, are seeking release saying they are "forcibly confined" and do not want to go back to their respective homes.
These girls were recently rescued during a joint operation of Andhra Pradesh Police and Delhi Police on the direction of a Hyderabad court.
The Hyderabad court had issued a search warrant and directed the police to present these girls on the submission of a minor girl who had escaped from the red light area in Delhi.
The minor girl had said that others from Hyderabad were also being forcibly held at the red light area.
The joint operation had rescued around 72 girls and all others had been allowed to go home. The two minors were handed over to their relatives. NDTV
The Hyderabad court had issued a search warrant and directed the police to present these girls on the submission of a minor girl who had escaped from the red light area in Delhi.
The minor girl had said that others from Hyderabad were also being forcibly held at the red light area.
The joint operation had rescued around 72 girls and all others had been allowed to go home. The two minors were handed over to their relatives. NDTV
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Rescued children sent home
The group of children from Karnataka, who were rescued by the police and State Anti-Human Trafficking Cell two weeks ago while being taken for labour at a peeling unit in Kollam, were on handed over to their parents by the District Child Welfare (DCW) Committee here on Tuesday.
The reunion, comprising 18 girls and eight boys, with their parents took place at the DCW Committee’s office here, with the procedures beginning around noon and continuing till late into the night. The Committee has made every parent submit a written agreement that the children would not be forced to do child labour or forced into begging or made to do any jobs before they turned 18 years of age. Further, the District Probationary Officer of Karwar in Karnataka, from where the children hail, has been intimated to monitor the whereabouts of the children till they turned18. The DPO has also been asked to submit a report on the children every four months.
Meanwhile, two persons who were arrested on charges of transporting the children, Venkitesh and Mittal, were allowed bail by the Chief Judicial Magistrate here on Tuesday.
The children were rescued at the Alappuzha Railway Station from the Netravati Express on October 18, while they were taken to the peeling unit in Kollam by the agents including Venkitesh. Seeing the weak conditions of the children, fellow passengers had alerted the police after which a rescue mission was launched. The mission, constantly monitored by the media and the public, ended in Alappuzha late that night when the children were taken off the train and later lodged with juvenile homes till Tuesday.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Group Works to End Child Marriage … Everywhere But Here
Yesterday, a group of prominent world leaders launched a worldwide campaign to end child marriage in one generation. The focus of the initiative, Girls Not Brides, is to help activists in the developing world who are already working toward that goal through education and support.Child marriage is huge worldwide. Some 10 million girls under 18 are married each year, often to much older men. A recent “National Geographic” piece featured Yemeni girls, some of whom were turned over by their families for marriage when they were only 6. A particularly powerful picture was of a 14-year-old mother washing her newborn, as the girl’s 2-year-old played in the backgroThe Yemeni girl was married off by her parents when she was 12. What I think is interesting is that in some states in the U.S., parents could try to marry off their 12-year-old as well. Legally.Katherine Gustafson writes for Slate’s Double X blog about the consequence of marriage for child brides and their communities. The initiative appears to define a child bride as any girl under 18 years of age. There’s no doubt that the Girls Not Brides’ goal is huge, important and an act of humanity. But I think its influence should be aimed right here in the U.S., where in most every state it is legal for girls under 18 to get married — a fact that I find utterly surprising every time I am reminded of it.To be sure, in most states a person must be 18 years old to legally get married. Though, Nebraska sets the marriageable age at 19. However, Mississippi lets a guy get married at 17-years-old and a girl at 15-years-old.15!Here’s the bigger problem: all states have another minimum age, usually 16-years-old, when they can get married with parental consent. In Nebraska, Oregon, Washington and Indiana, the parental consent age is 17. But in Massachusetts, boys can get married as young as 14 with parental and judicial consent; girls can get married in that state, again with consent of parents and the court, as young as 12.Gulp.Other states also let the age drop even further as long as a judge approves it. I have no idea how often 12-year-old girls are getting married in Massachusetts, but I’m sure it’s rare and if we’re really talking about protecting girls, should probably be never.I can imagine scenarios where child marriage would be the one way for a girl to be rescued from a dire familial situation, but one has to ask: how does that situation differ from a Yemeni girl’s, whose family no longer wants to feed or educate her? It’s not that different.Some U.S. states have marriageable age exceptions for pregnant girls, but that, again, is hardly a solution for that girl. If she marries, she’ll have health insurance? Well then that’s a problem with how we deliver health care in the U.S. She’s have stability? She’s 12, how will a child husband bring her stability? His family? Why must a young girl go through the motions of playing house in order to receive support from the adults in her life?I think efforts like Girls Not Brides are great and necessary, but I’m also wary of double standards. Granted, it’s a global initiative, not one being pushed by the U.S. administration, but it’s hard not to get behind when you see the damage giving birth in adolescence can have on a girl, not to mention the educational (and, therefore, economic) battle starting a family so young can be. But if we can see the injustice parents who think they know best pushing their girl to marry in Yemen or Ethiopia or Saudi Arabia, can’t we see the injustice of the same thing happening in our own back yard? Should that be OK? U.S. girls should not be brides, either.
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Saturday, April 16, 2011
Nine more girls rescued in Mandsaur district of MP
Bhopal, Apr 16 (PTI) Police today rescued nine more girls from the captivity of a gang that allegedly kidnaps young girls and sells them to members of Banchda tribe, engaged in flesh trade, in Mandsaur district. Eight persons were arrested, police said. Mandsaur Superintendent of Police, G K Pathak, has launched a campaign against this flesh trade racket. A total of 40 girls have been rescued so far in this case, and 48 persons have been arrested. Of the 40 girls, 14 were handed back to the parents. The nine girls were rescued on a tip-off following which police arrested one Sikander. His arrest led police to others. PTI MAS
Bengal girl caught after fleeing shelter
New Delhi, April 13: Bengal teenager Yasmin Khatun, rescued in December from a child trafficking gang in Delhi, fled last night from a state-run welfare home near Calcutta where she had been kept on court orders.
However, the 16-year-old Yasmin (name changed) was found six hours later, along with a roommate with whom she had escaped, by villagers who grew suspicious about their movements and informed the cops, said P. Nirajnayan, inspector-general of the CID.
Yasmin claimed before CID officers today that she was being “tortured” in the Narendrapur shelter. “She said she was being tortured by some employees (of the home). An investigation is on to check the veracity of the claim,” an officer said.
Yasmin and her roommate — a teenager who was saved by the police after she was brought from Bangladesh by a trafficking gang — were asking villagers about the way to Howrah station, the CID officer said.
“They were running and gasping. The villagers grew suspicious when they did not disclose their names and address. After 15 minutes, the residents informed the local police station and the girls were brought to the home around 12.45am (on Wednesday),” said the officer. The girls had escaped around 7.30pm on Tuesday.
Before they were found around 10km from the home, a CID team had rushed to the local Sonarpur police station to lodge a missing complaint. But the cops there allegedly refused to co-operate.
“The officers in the police station misbehaved with our officers, led by a woman inspector, and refused to lodge the complaint. They did not even bother to alert the patrol van in the area,” the CID officer said.
This prompted the CID team to suspect that the Sonarpur officers were trying to shield the staff of the welfare home, which is guarded by a private security agency.
Calcutta High Court had ordered that Yasmin be kept at a welfare home at the government’s expense after she refused to return to her family in South 24-Parganas’ Kakdwip.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Key accused in human trafficking case arrested
SURAT: Imtiyaz alias Babu Bavla, the key accused in the human trafficking scam, has been arrested by the police from Karjan in Vadodara district on Monday. Imtiyaz and his accomplice Rizvan Gulam Patel, who was also arrested along with the former, were then produced before a court here, which remanded them in police custody for four days. The scam came to light during the ongoing investigation into the hawala network.
Imtiyaz, Rizvan and Bilal Saleh have so far sent around 300 youths from south Gujarat to African countries using fake documents, police claimed. TOI
Friday, March 11, 2011
Court rap for police on missing girls
Police are sitting “idle”, the high court said on Thursday while referring to the failure of the force to trace the girls who go missing from across the state.
In a report earlier submitted to the court, the police had said more than 2,500 girls had disappeared from the state in 2009 and 2010.
Only two have yet been traced. One of them, rescued from a red-light area in Pune, was present in the court.
“Do the state police know that the number of girls disappearing from the state is the highest in the country and that these girls are smuggled to other states? Why are the police still sitting idle? Why can’t they trace the girls?” the division bench of Chief Justice J.N. Patel and Justice A.K. Roy asked.
Appearing for the state, additional advocate-general N.N. Adhikary blamed other states for the failure to track down the missing girls. “It’s difficult to find them unless the states where the girls are taken to cooperate (with the state police). States like Maharashtra give shelter to trafficked girls.”
Following a high court order in September, the CID had rescued Yasmin Khatun (name changed), a girl from South 24-Parganas, from a lane in Delhi. A habeas corpus petition by Yasmin’s stepmother had led to the court’s intervention.
On Thursday, the court was hearing five similar petitions by parents from South and North 24-Parganas. Of the five the police have been able to crack only one, rescuing Usthi girl Meena Khatun (name changed) from Pune.
Meena had gone missing on October 27, 2009, after leaving home for a neighbourhood grocery. Her father, a carpenter, lodged a missing diary two days later.
With the local police allegedly showing little interest in the case, her mother moved the habeas corpus petition in November 2010.
On November 21, the bench of Justice A.K. Talukdar and Justice M.K. Chowdhury ordered the director-general of police to find Meena and produce her in the court.
The court issued similar orders on the four other petitions, which came up for hearing on Thursday, but the police failed to report the whereabouts of the girls. Additional advocate-general Adhikary prayed for more time.
The court granted a fortnight to the police.
Around 100 similar cases are pending in the high court.
Meena was produced before the Diamond Harbour additional chief judicial magistrate on Wednesday but he asked the police to present her before the high court as the habeas corpus petition was filed there. The bench of Chief Justice J.N. Patel and Justice A.K. Roy sent Meena to a Liluah home, where she will stay till the court decides on Thursday whether she should go back to her parents.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Lost, not found
Three years ago, Sajda Khatoon, 15, was gradually replacing the contents of her battered tin trunk. Over the course of several months, the teenager discarded her dolls and toys to make room for nail polish and lipstick. "Our little girl was growing up," said her father Salil Ahmed Khatoon, 60, who
lives in a two-room house in a slum in Varanasi, where he also owns a darning shop. "She was becoming a woman."
Then one summer day Sajda vanished.
She was home alone; her mother was away visiting her parents, while her father and her brother were at the shop. They returned in the evening to an empty house.
All night, the family knocked on doors of neighbours in the slum and called relatives. But nobody had heard from Sajda.
"I almost couldn't breathe that night," said Momina Khatoon, 55, her mother.
Sajda is among thousands of Indian children who go missing every year. In Varanasi alone, 27 children went missing in 2010, according to Guriya, a local non-profit group that is a partner of Child Rights and You, a national NGO.
More than 60,000 children were reported missing in India in 2009, a 35% increase from 44,000 in 2004, according to Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a Delhi-based non-profit group. (See 'How many missing?' on the right.) Also, only 40 per cent of these children are eventually traced.
Part of the problem is the police's handling of cases of missing children. When Sajda's mother, Momina went to the police to report her daughter missing, for instance, the police refused to file a first information report, or FIR. Instead, they merely made a station diary entry. The police are duty-bound to investigate an FIR but not a station diary entry. (See 'What do the police do?' on the right.)
Another problem is that the vast majority of missing children come from working-class families, who lack the networks and resources to help in an investigation. (They also lack the resources to closely supervise their children, which explains why more of them go missing in the first place.)
Sajda's parents, for instance, had just one photograph of their daughter, a passport-sized one on her Class 8 report card showing a plump teenager with her hair neatly tied back in a ponytail. Momina was upset when the constables at a police station in Jaitapura, a district in Varanasi, refused to investigate her complaint.
"They said, 'She must be around. Don't worry'," Momina claimed. "My daughter could have been taken anywhere. How could I sit quiet?"
Momina has every reason to worry. North-eastern Uttar Pradesh, with its porous 800-kilometre border with Nepal, is one of India's child-trafficking hot spots, according to a report on missing children published last month by Child Rights and You.
The big trafficking routes begin in Nepal and Bangladesh, go through India, and culminate in the Gulf states and European countries. For instance, girls from Nepal end up as sex workers, boys from India end up in the Gulf states as riders in illegal camel races. About five lakh children under 18 are part of India's sex trade, according to the Child Rights and You report. (See 'What happens to them?' on the right.)
Despite the police's indifference, Momina returned to the station every three days, forcing them to at least appear to do something.
A constable slyly remarked to her that instead of looking for Sajda she should look for a young boy who had also disappeared around the same time, implying that Sajda had run away with him, Momina said.
But nothing concrete happened, so Momina decided to do something herself. "I met every young boy's mother in the area. I interrogated all her friends," she said. "I wanted to leave no lead unexplored."
Three months later, with the help of Child Rights and You, the police rescued a thirteen-year-old girl, a native of a neighbouring district in Varanasi, from a brothel in Mumbai and brought her back home. This girl said she had seen Sajda lying drugged on a couch in the same brothel. "I thought I'd found her," said Momina.
She was wrong.
Three months after this incident, the police finally filed an FIR about Sajda's disappearance.
A year later, another relative claimed that he had spotted Sajda dancing with eunuchs at a fair in Delhi. The next day, Momina travelled to Delhi and visited the fair. She also scoured the city's red light districts, showing everyone she could the lone photo of her daughter.
For Momina, going to Delhi has now become an annual ritual. "I go back every year to the same fair to look for Sajda," she said. "I've made at least a hundred copies of her photograph."
At home, Sajda's trunk lies just the way she left it three years ago; only, her nail paints have dried up, the bottles now sharing space with copies of letters that her parents have written to various authorities, including to Uttar Pradesh's chief minister Mayawati.
Momina fears that the only photograph she has of Sajda will soon be of little help.
"She must have grown up now," he father said. "She must look like her mother."
On certain days, he is convinced that Sajda is dead. "I see her mangled body in my dreams," he said. "But on others, she comes and sings to me."
Her mother nods her head. "She is alive. She is alive."
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Rescued girl still yearns for Delhi life
KOLKATA: It has been almost six weeks since Tahira Khatun was rescued from Delhi and brought to Kolkata. But the trafficked girl who had raised eyebrows by refusing to return home to her parents in Balikhal village in South 24-Parganas has not mellowed down a bit. She is desperate to go back to her "Mummy and Papa" in Delhi — the couple who are allegedly part of the gang involved in the trafficking of girls for a sleaze racket.
The 15-year-old girl is lodged at Sneha, a shelter for destitute girls run by NGO Sanlaap in the southern fringes of Kolkata. But Tahira yearns for the fast life back in Delhi and still hopes that her "Mummy and Papa" would come to "rescue" her one day. "Initially she refused to interact with other inmates. But now she talks to them sometimes. She is still in trauma with conflicting ideas disturbing her," said Sanlaap senior programme coordinator Tapati Bhowmick.
Tahira was rescued from Delhi on December 16 by a joint team of West Bengal CID, Delhi Police and Shakti Vahini, a Delhi-based NGO. She had gone missing from her Kakdwip home in April 2009. Tahira's stepmother Johura Biwi had moved high court in July 2009 after police failed to trace her. The court had then directed the state police DG to trace the girl and produce her in court.
Tahira had allegedly been lured out of home by Kalam, a resident of Kolkata, with the promise that he would get her out of poverty. He took her to Delhi and sold her off to another trafficker, Azhar. The latter, in turn, sold Tahira to Kadir. Kadir is the one Tahira refers to as 'Papa'. It was his residence in Begumpara from where the girl was rescued, though Kadir managed to give police the slip.
In Kadir's house, Tahira was pampered with all the materialistic pleasures that were only a distant dream for the girl who lived in abject poverty back home. All it took for the girl to accept her 'new life' was good food, expensive cellphones, branded clothes and accessories, ATM cards, movies at plexes and lavish birthday parties.
"Earlier the 'madams' would torture trafficked girls to tame them. But now they win the girls' confidence by fulfilling their materialistic demands. This works great on these girls who come from extremely needy families," explained Bhowmick.
Tahira has been on counselling since she was brought to Sneha. She constantly demands that she be allowed to speak to her "Mummy and Papa". She was allowed to do that through CID officials on a few occasions. During such conversations, she was apparently promised that she would soon be taken back to Delhi. But recently, the traffickers changed their SIM card, possibly on getting a hint that they were under CID's watch.
"Tahira is probably realising that her Mummy-Papa had made false promises of taking her back to Delhi. At the same time, she lives in the dream of going back to her life in Delhi. This conflict seems to be disturbing her," said Bhowmick.
A good development is for Sanlaap to have found that the girl has an aptitude for dance. She was sent to the American Centre recently for a dance workshop. She came back much happier. The home is thinking of engaging her in dance classes.
Even as Tahira's family is looking forward to taking her home, she is adamant about not going back. Johura went to Sneha recently with Tahira's mother Samiran Biwi. But they were not allowed to meet her. "Since the girl is unwilling to meet them, we cannot force her. We have told them to obtain a court order for meeting her," said Sanlaap executive director and also state child welfare committee member, Indrani Sinha.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Yasmin to shun mom
Narendrapur (South 24-Parganas), Dec. 22:Rescued Bengal girl Yasmin Khatun today requested the CID to ensure she did not come face to face with her stepmother when the teenager is produced in Kakdwip court tomorrowYasmin (name changed), who was abducted from a village in South 24-Parganas in March 2009 and rescued by police from Delhi last week, has reportedly told CID officials and the authorities of the children’s home in Narendrapur where she has been kept for the past two days that her stepmother, Johora Biwi, was “showing fake concern” for her.
Yasmin would make a confessional statement in the court tomorrow. Johora, who played a key role in bringing the girl back, is expected to be present tomorrow as the court would decide where Yasmin will be taken next.
A senior CID official said today: “Yasmin has asked us to ensure that she doesn’t have to come face to face with Johora Biwi because she feels that her stepmother has done nothing for her. She has told us that Johora has been showing fake concern for her.” The official said Yasmin had told the CID that Johora was “least bothered” about her.
During her confessional statement before a child welfare committee (CWC) at Narendrapur yesterday, Yasmin claimed Johora’s attempts to trace her was a “pretence to express concern for her”. The girl laid bare everything she had gone through: beginning with her abduction and how she was sold off in April 2009 to how she found a “home” in New Delhi.
The three-member committee was reportedly shocked at the fact that a teenager harboured such “intense disgust” for her parents. Bijaylaxmi Kol, the chairperson of the CWC, South 24-Parganas, said: “This is a very rare case. The girl’s is a sad tale of exploitation, beginning with her family. Matters have come to such a pass that she would much rather believe the traffickers than her parents.”
Sources said Yasmin broke down while narrating her story to the CWC. After returning to the home from the hearing, a weeping Yasmin, dressed in a yellow salwar suit, told The Telegraph: “I have told them (the CWC) everything that I had gone through when I used to live with my parents (in Namkhana). Now I want to return to my mummy and papa in Delhi.”
Yasmin said she had complained about her father’s “foul behaviour” to her family members but to no avail.
THE TELEGRAPH
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Back in ‘lousy’ city, girl yearns for Delhi
Calcutta, Dec. 20: Yasmin Khatun, the teenager who was abducted from a village in South 24-Parganas and rescued by police from Delhi last week, was today brought to Calcutta by the CID.
But Yasmin (name changed) made it clear almost at once that she did not like being brought to Calcutta and wanted to return to her life in Delhi.
 |
| Yasmin with CID officers at Sealdah station on Monday morning. Picture by Anindya Shankar Ray |
As the Tata Sumo in which she was being taken to the CID headquarters in Bhawani Bhawan left Sealdah station this morning, Yasmin complained about how dirty the city was. She had earlier said she did not want to return to her parents in Balikhali in Kakdwip subdivision.
“Dirty city,” Yasmin said in Hindi. “I don’t like it here. This city is lousy.”
As though trying to disown the life she led before being kidnapped and trafficked to Delhi, Yasmin said: “I have forgotten Bangla and I don’t want to speak that language. Why do I have to? I have no one in Bengal.”
Neither does she want to meet her parents, including her stepmother Johora Biwi who ran from pillar to post to get her back.
In fact, it was the petition that she had filed in Calcutta High Court that eventually led the court to direct the police to produce her by October 1.
The police then swung into action and managed to rescued her from the hideout of a trafficker in Delhi’s Begumpur area.
Today Yasmin said: “If Johora Biwi loved me so much then where was she when I was all alone, crying in Delhi. I have no one here. I don’t have any father.”
Tomorrow, Yasmin would be produced before a court of child welfare committee at Narendrapur where she would make a confessional statement laying bare everything she has gone through: beginning with her abduction and how she was sold off in April 2009 to how she found a “home” in New Delhi.
She will also narrate how, for her, life changed from the drudgery of living in a remote village to the comforts of having an air-conditioner in her room in a Begumpur house.
“I will speak in Hindi and tell them to help me return to Delhi. I have no feelings for my parents here. My papa and mama in Delhi have given me a new life and I just want to rush back to them,” Yasmin said.
No one knows what awaits Yasmin when a CWC court hears her out tomorrow. CID officers, however, have told her that she was likely to spend some time in the Narendrapur home run by an NGO. Yasmin said she does not mind if it is a short stay.
But she laid a condition: “My parents must not come to meet me. Only Tajmera (her younger sister) can come and I will meet her briefly,” she said. “But I want to return to Delhi soon.”
But what’s so special about Delhi, this reporter asked.
“You won’t understand,” she retorts. “The biryani from Karim’s is so good. And so are the people.”
THE TELEGRAPH
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Girl shudders at poverty - ‘I will starve there, better to die here than go back home’
New Delhi, Dec. 18: Yasmin, the Bengal girl rescued here on Thursday, today said she preferred her “new life” to the poverty and hunger that awaited her back home, shining a light on causes that underpin trafficking and the challenges ahead of rehabilitation agencies. Yasmin (name changed), 16, also confirmed that her relative Kashmira Bibi had handed her over to traffickers. “Ghar jaane se achchha hai yahan pe mar jana (better to die here than return home),” the girl, kidnapped from Kakdwip in April last year, told The Telegraph in fluent Hindi.  Yasmin said she had grown used to the comforts of her life in Delhi’s “party circuit”, learnt Hindi and forgotten to speak Bengali in these 20 months, and now called the couple who had bought her “Papa” and “Mummy”. In her village of Balikhali in South 24-Parganas, “hunger stares one in the face”, she said. “I will die of starvation there. I’ve got used to a life of comfort after sacrificing a lot; there’s no point going back.” She is also afraid of stigma: “People will laugh at me and make up stories about me…. Now I hate my village and its people.” Yasmin will, however, have to board the Rajdhani Express tomorrow with Bengal CID officers and will be reaching Calcutta on Monday morning to be presented before the high court. She spoke to this newspaper at Banga Bhavan shortly after counselling by the Delhi government’s child welfare committee (CWC), which cleared her journey to Bengal. CWC chairperson Neera Mallick said a traumatised Yasmin needed counselling and “a lot of care and affection” for six months before she could be rehabilitated. “It now depends on the Bengal government how they provide counselling and other facilities to help her return to normal life. If they fail to do so, the girl could return to the world her tormentors had thrown her into.” Yasmin said her sister-in-law’s sibling Kashmira had handed her over to a man called Kalam, who brought her to Delhi, sexually abused her in a hotel and sold her to Azhar. She was finally sold to a couple whom she addressed as “Papa” and “Mummy”. The husband, Pappu, groomed her in manners and etiquette, showered her with gifts and gave her a new name: Julie. “There were five other girls. A woman gave us Hindi lessons. We were given expensive clothes and good food. I loved my air-conditioned room; I drank only mineral water. I would go to a lot of parties and have been to big hotels too. After a few months, I accepted the new life like the other girls,” she said. “They (Pappu and his wife) have given me a lot and I want to go back to them.” Pappu went into hiding after Thursday’s police raid netted Azhar and rescued Yasmin. Yasmin said she had recently met a man from Moradabad, who had promised to marry her after two years. “He owns a mutton shop. I want a happy life, not a life like the girls at my village have.” She said her father Khater Bhisti, a 61-year-old fish seller, was a harsh man and had pulled her out of school after Class III, fearing she might run away with somebody. “I wanted to continue studying....” Did she miss her village? “I have a very close friend, Mohitan, there... but she would have been married off by now.” One day last year, after her father had behaved particularly badly with her, Kashmira had promised to find her a job outside Bengal. “She told me my father and stepmother hated me,” said Yasmin, who has been rescued thanks to her illiterate stepmother’s unyielding crusade against police apathy. On April 15, 2009, Yasmin was returning home after watching a circus when Kashmira introduced her to Kalam, who was waiting on a motorcycle, and asked her to go with him, Yasmin said. “I didn’t know he would sell me off.” Kalam, a 32-year-old Calcuttan, rode straight to Howrah station and boarded a train with her, saying he would find her a job. In Delhi, he took her to a hotel, spiked her soft drinks and assaulted her, Yasmin said. “I wept a lot that day.” The next day, she was sold off to Azhar. “They (Azhar and his associates) tortured me. When I wanted to go back to my village, they threatened to kill me.” Kalam, arrested in November on trafficking charges, had helped the police arrest Azhar here on Thursday. Both reached Calcutta today with a CID team. Azhar will be produced in Kakdwip court tomorrow. Azhar, who wore Versace woollens and Nike sneakers, has allegedly told the police he had contacts across Bengal who would traffic girls to him. |
Friday, December 17, 2010
Girl recoils at fear of ostracism in Bengal - ‘Tortured, humiliated and brainwashed’
New Delhi, Dec. 17: Kidnapped and sold last year and rescued from Delhi yesterday, 16-year-old Bengal girl Yasmin Khatun says she doesn’t want to return home for fear of ostracism.
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| Yasmin (name changed) covers her face as her statement is recorded on video. The photograph is being published since it does not reveal her identity. Azhar (below), the alleged Delhi trafficker who held Yasmin captive, outside the New Delhi Railway Station. Picture by Prem Singh |
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Consumed with shame and misplaced guilt at the “different” life she has led for the past year and a half, Yasmin (name changed) has told police and social workers she has “grave doubts” about ever being accepted by the people of her South 24-Parganas village, Balikhali.
“She is both traumatised and humiliated,” said Bengal CID inspector Sarbari Bhattacharya, the leader of the police team that came to Delhi to rescue the Kakdwip girl who was abducted in April last year.
“She told me she doesn’t want to go back to Bengal because she is unsure how she would be received. She wants to remain in Delhi. The traffickers who brought her to Delhi have brainwashed her into thinking that she would be humiliated and taunted by her own people if she ever returns home.”
Tomorrow, the Delhi government’s child welfare committee (CWC) will counsel Yasmin and try to dispel her fears. At some point of time, Yasmin may have to travel at least to Calcutta, whose high court has asked the police to produce her.
CWC chairperson Neera Mallick, however, said: “The girl needs counselling at least for the next six months before she is exposed to the world.”
Inspector Bhattacharya said the traffickers would torture Yasmin every time she said she wanted to return home, and had brainwashed her into thinking that after her life in Delhi, she would be an “untouchable” back in Bengal.
“She is confused,” Bhattacharya said. “Sometimes she smiles and sometimes she suddenly starts crying.”
Over a period of time, the officer said, Yasmin began believing she would never be able to leave and began accepting her life in Delhi. Her tormentors then started tutoring her in etiquette and the social graces, and bought her expensive dresses, to transform the rustic girl into a “lady of society”.
“I was surprised last night when, while having dinner, she suddenly asked for a napkin,” Bhattacharya said. “I never expected that from a village girl. But I quickly realised that the traffickers had been grooming her. The room we rescued her from had an air-conditioner.”
Rashi Aditi Ghosh, of the NGO Shakti Vahini, who had accompanied the police on the raid to rescue the girl, too said that Yasmin had told her she didn’t want to “go back to her baba and maa”.
“She said she was disgusted with her father’s foul behaviour. She seemed confused and may not be telling the whole truth.”
It’s not clear what Yasmin has against her 61-year-old father Khater Bhisti, a fish seller, but she owes her freedom to her unlettered stepmother Johora Bibi who, faced with initial police apathy, fought a lone crusade to take the battle to the high court.
Ghosh said her NGO had helped rescue many trafficked girls and that she did not find Yasmin’s behaviour unusual. Having accepted their new life, especially the “material comforts” that come with it, many of the girls are reluctant to return home.
“Yasmin is ashamed of the life she has been forced to lead but, at the same time, she has grown used to the comforts. In this confused state she may be trying to find excuses not to return home,” Ghosh said.
“Many girls we have rescued have behaved in this way, but she needs counselling and someone she can open her heart to.”
For now, Yasmin is staying at Nirmal Chhaya, a home for girls run by the Delhi government’s social welfare department.
The police have been asked to provide all the files about Yasmin, including her medical examination report, for tomorrow’s CWC hearing that will help decide if she would be returning home.
In Calcutta, the CID said it would approach the high court on Monday and seek permission to produce Yasmin. It was the court order to produce Yasmin, on a petition from Johora, that had kicked off the hunt for her. THE TELEGRAPH
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Ossification test ordered on trafficked victims
PANAJI: The Panaji sub-divisional magistrate has passed an order asking Goa medical college (GMC) doctors to conduct an ossification test on the three trafficked victims who were rescued by the Panaji police last Saturday night, to determine their age.
The girls had refused to undergo the age verification test, thereby raising the suspicion that they could be minors. After the order was passed by the SDM, the girls were taken for the ossification test.
If the girls are found to be minors, then the traffickers will also be booked under the Goa Children's Act and the punishment for offences under GCA for traffickers is more stringent than that under Immoral Traffic Prevention Act.
So far three persons have been arrested by the police. On last Saturday night, Amjad Khan, 25, and Manoj Kumar came in a Hyundai Ascent car with the three trafficked victims near Junta House at Panaji. When they reached Junta House, a police team intercepted them and arrested the two traffickers. While Amjad is from Bhopal, Manoj is from Delhi. Both are residing at Benaulim. They have been booked under Immoral Traffic Prevention Act.
Police said that the duo were in Goa for quite some time and their job was to supply girls to tourists in the state. "They have been here in Goa for sometime. They are not involved in any other work. They have been assigned by one Javed to supply girls to customers," said police sources. Later, Sawan Patil, who had trafficked one to the victim girls to Goa and supplied her to a customer in a starred hotel, was also arrested.
The Times of India
The girls had refused to undergo the age verification test, thereby raising the suspicion that they could be minors. After the order was passed by the SDM, the girls were taken for the ossification test.
If the girls are found to be minors, then the traffickers will also be booked under the Goa Children's Act and the punishment for offences under GCA for traffickers is more stringent than that under Immoral Traffic Prevention Act.
So far three persons have been arrested by the police. On last Saturday night, Amjad Khan, 25, and Manoj Kumar came in a Hyundai Ascent car with the three trafficked victims near Junta House at Panaji. When they reached Junta House, a police team intercepted them and arrested the two traffickers. While Amjad is from Bhopal, Manoj is from Delhi. Both are residing at Benaulim. They have been booked under Immoral Traffic Prevention Act.
Police said that the duo were in Goa for quite some time and their job was to supply girls to tourists in the state. "They have been here in Goa for sometime. They are not involved in any other work. They have been assigned by one Javed to supply girls to customers," said police sources. Later, Sawan Patil, who had trafficked one to the victim girls to Goa and supplied her to a customer in a starred hotel, was also arrested.
The Times of India
Monday, November 8, 2010
PI shunted for failing to follow rules
Panaji: Calangute PI Nolasco Raposo, who was under fire for picking up 29 girls from their homes on the basis of suspicion of their involvement in prostitution in July, was transferred with immediate effect after an internal inquiry conducted by the police revealed that he had not followed proper procedures.
Sources in the police department revealed that an inquiry conducted by DySP Bousset D'Silva specifically stated that PI Raposo had not followed proper procedure under Section 15 of Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) in "rescuing trafficked victims" and therefore violated human rights.
Sources further said that the inquiry officer's report refers to the medical report submitted by a doctor, who examined the girls and found that of the 29, three girls never had any sexual encounters. Some of the women who were medically proved to have sexual encounters, were married.
The inquiry officer, referring to the medical examination report, noted that it wouldn't be proper to term the girls as "rescued trafficked victims," sources added. Incidentally, while the Calangute police had claimed that they had "rescued trafficked victims", they were unable to substantiate this with any proof other than "reliable information".
Based on DySP D'Silva's report, the police on Monday issued an order transferring PI Raposo from Calangute to Goa Reserve Police. Anjuna PI Manjunath Dessai will now hold additional charge of Calangute police station.
DIG Ravindra Yadav said, "An inquiry was conducted into the incident and the inquiry officer has concluded that proper procedure was not followed and therefore the PI has been shifted to Goa Reserve Police."
Incidentally, the girls, workers at beauty parlours and night clubs, were picked up from their residence after duty hours and sent to a protective home.
Even Mapusa sub divisional magistrate D M Redkar in his report had stated, "…the panel of members (of protective home where the girls were lodged) who are of the opinion that the action of the Calangute police is unjustifiable as it failed to follow the procedure enlisted under the Act at the time of conducting the raid and victims rescued…." In his report, he further described the raid as illegal, unwarranted and unjustified.
Read more: PI shunted for failing to follow rules - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/PI-shunted-for-failing-to-follow-rules/articleshow/6891289.cms#ixzz14jpv4O9i
Sources in the police department revealed that an inquiry conducted by DySP Bousset D'Silva specifically stated that PI Raposo had not followed proper procedure under Section 15 of Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) in "rescuing trafficked victims" and therefore violated human rights.
Sources further said that the inquiry officer's report refers to the medical report submitted by a doctor, who examined the girls and found that of the 29, three girls never had any sexual encounters. Some of the women who were medically proved to have sexual encounters, were married.
The inquiry officer, referring to the medical examination report, noted that it wouldn't be proper to term the girls as "rescued trafficked victims," sources added. Incidentally, while the Calangute police had claimed that they had "rescued trafficked victims", they were unable to substantiate this with any proof other than "reliable information".
Based on DySP D'Silva's report, the police on Monday issued an order transferring PI Raposo from Calangute to Goa Reserve Police. Anjuna PI Manjunath Dessai will now hold additional charge of Calangute police station.
DIG Ravindra Yadav said, "An inquiry was conducted into the incident and the inquiry officer has concluded that proper procedure was not followed and therefore the PI has been shifted to Goa Reserve Police."
Incidentally, the girls, workers at beauty parlours and night clubs, were picked up from their residence after duty hours and sent to a protective home.
Even Mapusa sub divisional magistrate D M Redkar in his report had stated, "…the panel of members (of protective home where the girls were lodged) who are of the opinion that the action of the Calangute police is unjustifiable as it failed to follow the procedure enlisted under the Act at the time of conducting the raid and victims rescued…." In his report, he further described the raid as illegal, unwarranted and unjustified.
Read more: PI shunted for failing to follow rules - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/PI-shunted-for-failing-to-follow-rules/articleshow/6891289.cms#ixzz14jpv4O9i
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Sex traffickers brought to book
Year after five minors were rescued in police raid on Budhwar Peth brothel, court convicts two women involved in prostitution racket
A sessions court convicted two human traffickers yesterday for forcing five minor Bangladeshi girls into the flesh trade in the city. Farida Altaf Shaikh, who had kidnapped two girls staying in her neighbourhood and sold them in Budhwar Peth, will face seven years of rigorous imprisonment, while Rikta Bishwas, who helped her keep one of the minors in custody, will have to spend five years behind bars and cough up Rs 5,000 as fine.
MiD DAY had approached the city police on July 8, 2009 after it received a tip-off from activist Shyam Kamble that two minors were being kept unlawfully in a brothel in Budhwar Peth.
The traffickers had hidden the minors in a dilapidated old vada. However, the Faraskhana police team, led by then Senior Police Inspector Bharatbhushan Sharma, found them and managed to rescue five minors. A 12-year-old girl, had been kept in Bishwas' custody in a chawl in Tingrenagar as Shaikh had not been able to find any buyer for her. The team arrested Bishwas after Farida spilled the beans on her. Another trafficker Mumtaj, present during the raid, escaped.
MiD DAY lensman was able to capture her picture before she escaped.
APP Asif Basid said, "Farida, a resident of Jessore, had kidnapped the two girls and sold them in Budhwar Peth."
Monday, October 25, 2010
Naga girls feared caught in trafficking racket
Church leaders in Nagaland fear an organized racket is operating in northeastern India to lure young women into prostitution in other parts of the country.
Police in Goa, western India, recently rescued six Nagaland women and four from Mizoram from a local beauty parlor. They also arrested three persons for their alleged involvement in human trafficking.
The Church people in Nagaland are “ashamed, shocked and concerned” because the rescued women were all Christians, Reverend Khari Longchar, who coordinates the Nagaland Baptist Church’s Peace Council, told ucanews.com on Oct. 22.
“Whether the allegations are true or not, there cannot be smoke without fire,” he said. The Goa incident is “only the tip of the iceberg as many more girls could be entrapped.”
Reverend Longchar criticized Church people, educators and parents for contributing to the problem. The Church, he said, has failed to reach out to many young people, especially in towns, and educators and parents have not taught children “good” moral values.
“Our moral values are degrading as we tend to consider money as everything,” he said and urged leaders from all Churches in the region to work together to urgently “seek the lost sheep.”
Reverend Pongsing Konyak, former general secretary of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council, says the problem emerged as the girls want to be economically independent.
Most girls seek jobs after school to help their parents, but jobs are hard to find locally, he said. When outsiders come for recruitment they appear for interviews and get selected unaware of the agents’ real motive, he explained.
“Our people should be cautious when people come to recruit especially for beauty and massage parlors as they could be just a front for other nefarious activities,” he added.
Father Abraham Lotha, a Catholic educationist and anthropologist, regrets that some “puritanical minds” consider massage and beauty parlor jobs as bad. They are specialized jobs and there is nothing wrong as long one does not break the rules, he added.
Young women from northeast are in “great demand” outside because they are smart, friendly and fluent in English, he said. Source
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