Loot and scoot bride racket continues to flourish

BHIWANI: As vulnerable Haryana youths continue to be taken in by 'loot-and-scoot' brides, the government authorities are considering keeping a record of brides being brought to the state from other states. This would help the police to keep a tab on unscrupulous brides as well as to track gangs involved in human trafficking to protect innocent women and girls hailing from other states.

According to reports, gangs involved in forcibly bringing girls as well as bands of cheat brides have been flourishing in Haryana, which has a wide gap between men in the marriageable age vis-a-vis women due to low sex ratio.

In a recent incident, a 35-year-old man Kailash Kumar of Kungar village in Bhiwani district was lured by a woman who married him and then decamped with cash and jewellery from his home soon after marriage. Kailash, a daily wager, has lodged a complaint with the police in this regard. His wife Meena Devi, from Katkarkila village in Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh is untraceable. Kailash told the TOI on Wednesday that after failing to find a bride for himself in Haryana, he started looking for a match in other states by asking people known to him to find a bride for him. A person from Bhiwani approached him with an offer of marriage and the wedding was solemnized on January 30.

"All was going smoothly till I found my wife missing from our room on Monday night at about 3am. I looked for her in our house and later, I launched a hunt to trace her in the village along with my family members. We inquired about the middleman involved in the marriage too but he too couldn't be traced. We later found that Meena had taken Rs 45,000 and some jewellery with her before fleeing", Kailash said. The Bawani Khera SHO Dharamchand Yadav said they had no clues about the whereabouts of the bride so far.

According to police sources around 15 such incidents were reported from across the state last year and these brides have not been traced so far. "These women in fact seem to be part of a racket wherein gangs lured gullible males from the state who have crossed the marriageable age but still wanted to settle down in life," said a police source.

Additional director general of police (ADGP) B S Sandhu told TOI that in view of repeated reports of human trafficking, besides cases of loot-and-scoot brides coming to light, the police was considering taking some measures. "We have a proposal to keep a record of brides hailing from other states at the local police stations concerned across the state. It will help the police to deal with complaints related to them," he said, while adding that a decision is likely to be taken in a couple of days.

Jaswanti, a woman activist who runs a shelter home for destitute women and children in Rohtak maintained that apart from loot-and-scoot brides, the incidents of trafficking of girlsincluding minors were quite glaring. "If the police and the district authorities with the help of local panchayat keep track of brides coming from outside the state, it will also help in checking incidence of trafficking," she said. TOI

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801 kids rescued from railway stations

HYDERABAD: Government Railway Police(GRP) have rescued 576 boys and 225 girls from various railway stations in the state in 2011. 

Additional director general (Railways) V S K Kaumudi, in an official release issued here on Tuesday, said besides the children, five women and 16 beggars were also rescued. Of the total people rescued, 750 were from various railway stations in Hyderabad. 

"In one case, a two-year-old girl was found abandoned in the washroom of Tungabhadra Express in Secunderabad on September 22, 2011. The girl was later shifted to Shishu Vihar. Her mother identified the child's photo flashed by the media and went to Shishu Vihar to take the baby," Kaumudi said. TOI

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Falak tragedy: A tale of Bride trafficking

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Odisha tribal girls rescued from Bengaluru

Malkangiri (Odisha): Ten tribal girls of Odisha's Malkangiri district, who had been taken to Bengaluru and Chennai by a middleman on the pretext of lucrative jobs, have been rescued and brought back here, police said today. 

The tribal girls, aged between 13 and 16 years, were rescued from Bengaluru railway station by a special police team of Malkangiri and brought back here yesterday, inspector in charge of Malkangiri police station Ramakrushna Pati said.

The girls, who hailed from Nalagunti, Sudhakonda and Telrai areas of Malkangiri district, had been taken by the middleman on January 19, he said adding the police team was sent to rescue them following an information by Bangalore police who spotted the girls at the station. 

The girls were produced before District Children Welfare Committee after their return and sent for medical examination. The parents of the girls have been informed about the development, Pati said. 

Narrating their experience, the girls told the police that they had been kept in a room and not given proper food. 

They were being shifted to some other place from Bengaluru when the local police spotted them at the railway station and then informed Malkangiri police. 

Bengaluru police arrested one middleman, Balleya of Bhadrachalam in Andhra pradesh, while efforts were on to nab another person, he said. 

District Children welfare committee president has been informed about the incident. 

PTI

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Human (bride) trafficking a thriving business in Rajasthan

JAIPUR/ALWAR: Munni Devi, the woman who was picked up by the Delhi police from Rajasthan for abandoning a two-year-old battered baby, who is admitted to AIIMS Trauma Centre, was staying in a village in Jhunjhunu district for nearly three months. She was sold off to a man here for Rs 2.5 lakh by a human trafficking gang.

Munni Devi is not an isolated case of girls being sold in the area. The two key suspects in the battered baby case- Rajkumar and Kanta Bai - have a case registered against them with the MIA police station in Alwar district.

"The case was registered in August 2010 in which both had been accused of selling a girl to someone," said a senior police officer. source

"On August 16, one Ali Akbar from West Bengal had approached the then Alwar SP Alok Vashishta claiming that he had married off his daughter Shayara to one Anees, a resident of Mia police station area in Alwar. Over a period of three years, the girl was sold to four different people. Anees first sold her to one Vikki who further sold her to Kanta Bai. The woman then sold her to Rajkumar and finally Shayara was bought by one Jagmohan. The police recovered the girl from Jagmohan," the officer said. Shayara was later produced in a court and then handed over to her father.

Rajkumar and Kanta Bai are registered as husband and wife in the complaint. While Rajkumar was arrested by the police and later released on bail, Kanta Bai had got an anticipatory bail.

Such gangs are active in Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi. Most of these girls belong to Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam from where these gangs abduct or buy them from their parents. They are either forced into prostitution or made to marry an older man.

Several first information reports (FIR) have been registered with the police across the state which point at the thriving business of selling girls for money.

In Alwar district alone, at least six cases of girls being sold had come up in 2010. Add to that, several cases that go unreported everyday.

"The masterminds behind these gangs are mostly residents of Mewat region in Rajasthan which includes Alwar district. In some recent cases, those involved in the racket have turned out to be drivers. Parents sell their girls in Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam for Rs 20,000 to Rs 50000. Then, they are brought to Rajasthan and other states including Haryana and Delhi," a senior police officer said.

The gang members marry the girls, rape them and then after some time sell them off to a buyer at a higher price.

"In some cases, it has been found that the owners of dhabas and hotel owners situated on the Jaipur-Delhi national highway play the role of mediators in selling the girls to the third party," the officer added.

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Bride-buying an old practice in north India

Bride-buying is an old practice in this region. It declined after the Green Revolution owing to the spread of literacy in this part of the country. Moreover, the male-female ratio has improved in the past 80 years. The ratio was highly skewed in 1911.

Before Partition there used to be Jind House at some distance from the railway station at Ambala. Adjacent to it was an “adda” where women were offered for sale after sunset. People from various parts of this region, especially the Malwa belt, used to flock to the “adda” to buy women or say “brides”.

Dehra Dun was another centre where poor women were offered for sale. Besides, there was sale of women in certain parts of Orissa from where people of this region used to buy brides.

Contrary to general impression and reports of female foeticide etc, the male-female ratio has been constantly improving in Punjab since 1911 when there were only 780 women against 1,000 men. From 799 in 1921, the number of women against 1,000 men jumped to 882 in 1991. However, it declined to 874 in 2001.

Bride-buying has been confined to either poor farmers or the Scheduled Castes and tribes.

Mr Sarwan Singh Bir, a historian from the Malwa region, says he visited the Ambala “adda” a few months before Partition along with a friend, Mr Kunda Singh from Katarsingh Wala village, to have first-hand information. A woman then was available for Rs 600 to Rs 1200 at the Ambala “adda”. Some agents, in fact, used to cheat poor farmers as they would replace younger girls with older women after striking deals.

However, Mr Kirpal Kazak, a Punjabi writer, says the practice of sale of women started in this region after the arrival of Mughals. Mr Mir Dad, an Arab writer, has stated about the sale of women in his book “Niami”.

Mr Kazak says during the Mughal period only women offered for sale, used to don ornaments. Ornaments were used to decorate women before sale. The wearing of ornaments became a fashion in due course of time.

Punjabi literature is replete with references of sale of women. There is a full-fledged Punjabi book “Mul di Tiveen” (A purchased woman). Then, there is Punjabi mini novel “Kudesan” (a woman from other land) dealing with this subject. Dalip Kaur Tiwana, a celebrated Punjabi Writer, devotes a chapter to the sale of “Bhano” to Sarwan in her Sahit Akademi award-winning Punjabi novel “Eh Hamara Jeewna”. Bhano revolts against polygamy, which was prevalent at that time in certain parts of the Malwa region. Money was contributed by Sarwan and his brothers to buy Bhano. However, Bhano refused to be the wife to all brothers, saying that she had been married to Sarwan and would stay only with him. Ultimately, Sarwan was killed by his brothers.

Dalip Kaur Tiwana says the ritual of bride-buying was limited to the poor sections of society.

Mr Bhupinder Singh, Head of the Sociology Department at Punjabi University, says that in poor families, only one son used to be married. Besides poverty, the other reason to get only one son married was to avoid the division of landed property. Mr Ajmer Aulakh, a playwright, has extensively dealt with this issue in his play — “Ik Hor Ramayan.”

One can find even now in almost every Punjab village women from Burma or China. Certain Punjabi soldiers, who fought World War I and World War II in Burma brought women of Burmese or Chinese origin when they came back to their villages. As they had to stay for long in Burma, Singapore and Malaya etc, they married these women. Punjabis marry off their daughters to boys, who either have landed property or other sources of income. They rarely give their daughters to “loafers” who, as a result, resort to bride-buying.

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Two actors rescued from brothel

CHENNAI: Two supporting actresses wererescued from a brothel during a raid by anti-vice squad (AVS) sleuths in Vadapalani on Wednesday. A woman was arrested for running the racket. 

An AVS policeman posing as a customer first called up the pimp. After a deal was struck, the decoy was asked to come to a shopping complex in Vadapalani. He was then directed to a nearby house where Lakshmi (33) showed him two girls from Andhra Pradesh. Immediately, AVS sleuths in plainclothes caught hold of the woman and rescued the girls. 

The pimp and the two women had worked as junior artists in several movies, police said. Of late, they added, pimps were accommodating girls in ladies' hostels fearing raids in hotels and lodges. The arrested woman was remanded in judicial custody. Source

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Woman who forced daughter into sex trade held in raids

CHENNAI: A woman who forced her daughter into the sex trade and a social worker were among three women arrested on Friday during raids conducted by the Anti-Vice Squad at two brothels in north Chennai. Five women rescued from the two brothels were later sent to the Government Home in Mylapore. All of them told police they had been forced into the trade. 

Police said that acting on specific information that Usha Jain (47) and Jagadeeswari (48) were running a prostitution racket at Vinyagapuram in the Kolathur area, a special team from the Anti-Vice Squad went to the spot posing as customers and arrested the duo. 

A police officer first approached one of the women who demanded Rs 5,000 for "services" at the house. After confirming that prostitution was being carried out there, the officer alerted other members of the team who were waiting outside. They barged in and arrested the two women pimps and rescued four girls. One of the rescued girls was identified as the daughter of Usha Jain. Both mother and daughter had been abandoned by their husbands, police said. 

In another operation at Kolathur, police arrested 37-year-old Vela alias Velankanni, who claimed to be a social worker in Korukkupet, and rescued a girl from her house. 

Usha Jain, Jagadeeswari and Velankanni were produced before a metropolitan magistrate's court in Saidapet before being remanded in judicial custody at the Puzhal prison. TOI

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Prosecutor: Ramapo bride from India suffered sex abuse, beatings, servitude

NEW CITY — An unwilling bride in an arranged marriage was brought to Rockland from India, and then overworked, beaten and sexually abused by her in-laws until she unsuccessfully tried to take her life.

That’s the picture prosecutors painted of the woman, whose name has been withheld by The Journal News because is the alleged victim of a sex crime, when they made opening statements in the non-jury trial of a Ramapo family accused of forcing the 22-year-old woman into a life of servitude and sexual abuse.

“You will learn that (she) had no control of her own life,” Amanda Doty told Judge William Nelson as the four defendants sat with their attorneys. She “will tell you that these four defendants put her through hell on a daily basis.”

But defense attorneys representing the Jagota family of 28 Butternut Drive in Ramapo — Aman, 62, Parveen, 57, Vishal, 34, and Rajani, 31 — said the charges were unsubstantiated allegations made by one person and would not stand the scrutiny of a trial.

David Narain, who represents Vishal Jagota, the husband, said the case was not one of servitude and abuse, but rather the effort of an unhappy woman forced into a marriage by her family, who was trying to get out of the relationship.

“The sole basis of the arrest of my client is the testimony of one witness,” said Narain. “There is no way the prosecution can meet the burden” of proof.

Each of the four Jagotas is charged with three felony counts of second-degree labor trafficking and one misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child. The top charge of labor trafficking carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years upon conviction.

In addition, Aman Jagota is also charged with 51 misdemeanor counts of forcible touching. Vishal Jagota is charged with misdemeanor third-degree assault, and Parveen and Rajani Jagota are charged with felony second-degree assault.

In her opening statements, Doty told the story of the woman, whose uncle, a Rockland resident, met with Aman and Parveen Jagota and arranged a marriage between their son and his niece who lived in India. Though the young couple barely knew each other, Doty said, the Jagotas promised a good life in the United States where she could continue her studies and work outside the home.

Arranged marriages are common in India where open mingling of the sexes is frowned upon, especially in rural areas. They can range from scenarios where parents suggest spouses for their children but leave them to make a decision, to cases where marriages are formally arranged and the bride and groom meet just a couple of times before they get married. In the latter cases, couples have little say in choosing their partner.

According to Doty, this woman fell into the second category. When she arrived in Rockland, her passport was taken from her, her phone calls and movements were monitored, and she had no access to money. She was forced to do all household chores, including cooking, cleaning, laundry and ironing for all members of the extended family that lived together. When Rajani, her sister-in-law, had a baby in early 2008, the accuser, who was pregnant, had to take care of the newborn in addition to her own chores.

The case, the first of its kind in Rockland prosecuted under a new statute of the law, offers a glimpse into a patriarchal culture that dominates parts of India. It is not unusual for a non-working wife in India to do all the household chores with no expectation of help from her husband or in-laws.

But some parts of the allegations cannot be explained by cultural differences. Once, when the woman was unable to finish her chores in time, the prosecution alleged her mother and sister-in-law burned her hand with a hot iron and then refused to take her to a doctor.

Her father-in-law allegedly began to touch her sexually when the family was asleep, kissing her and touching her breasts and legs. When she complained to her husband, he sided with his family and often beat her in front of their daughter. In one instance he allegedly bit her on the cheek.

Pictures purporting to show the burn and bite mark were introduced as evidence Friday. The situation so distressed the woman, the prosecution said, that she tried to kill herself by swallowing pills.

Harassment and abuse of young married women by their in-laws, especially for bringing an inadequate dowry, are social ills that plague India. Since the 1960s, stringent laws have been enacted to protect women, but the problem remains, especially in rural areas.

There was no suggestion Friday that dowry was the reason behind the alleged abuse.

The Jagotas have denied all the allegations. They sat silently through the opening statements Friday as interpreters translated the proceedings to them in their native Punjabi, a language spoken in northwestern India.

Attorneys for the defendants said their clients came legally to the United States, worked hard to buy their own home, and were law-abiding residents who had had no brush with the law in their 13 years in the country. The woman, they said, had come to the United States expecting to see streets paved in gold. When that was not the case, she wanted out.

“She is lying. She has motives to lie,” said Daniel Bertolini who is representing Pareveen Jagota. “This case stands or falls on whether or not you believe what she is saying.”

The woman is expected to testify Monday. Source

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Kachin women sold as Chinese bride

By Phil Thornton in Laiza

Nan Bun is the daughter of a poor farmer in Kachin state in Burma, just over the border from China.  Because she had to help in the fields since her childhood, she was already 21 when she passed her ninth grade exams. 

She wanted to finish tenth grade - her final year at high school, but was worried about finding the money to pay for next year's classes.  So she was persuaded by an older cousin to leave the farm and look for work.

"My cousin told me that she would take me across the border to Yingjiang, in China's Yunnan province, and because she knew many people there, finding a well-paid job would be easy."

Sold by her cousin

However in actual fact, Nan Bun's cousin had actually sold her to a Chinese farming family as a bride for their 38-year-old son.

My cousin said she was paid 5,000 yuan (600 euros) for me, but I now know she got four times that much. I got nothing, my family got nothing."

Nan Bun, now 25, says she is not angry with her 50-year-old cousin for selling her, but the sudden hardening of the muscles around her mouth betrays her.

"When I was first sold, I couldn't sleep. I cried all the time. I couldn't speak Chinese. I missed my family, my school. I missed everything I had lost. What my cousin did to me made me lose trust. She stole my education, my life with my family, my life as it was."

And Nan Bun says she was not her cousin's only victim.  Her younger sister Roi Sam was also sold to a Chinese family.  Roi ran away and is now back home with her father.

Nan Bun was lucky that she was sold into a good family.   "They were kind to me, there were no beatings. I helped them in the wheat fields, it wasn't so hard."

Married to the 'bare branches' 

Nan Bun is just one of thousands of women who are trafficked from Burma and other South East Asian countries to China where they are sold as brides to men known as guang gun – bare branches.  They are usually rural bachelors who can’t find brides because of the decrease in girls in China’s one-child families.  The latest figures show that there are around 120 boys for every 100 girls in China.  That means that by 2020, there will be 24 million men unable to find wives. 

Nan Bun was one of the lucky ones – she wasn’t mistreated or shared around with several brothers or friends, but despite the kindness of the Chinese family she was married into, she is now in a difficult position.  Her husband is 17 years her senior and she has a small son, Lawt Awng.

"When I had my baby my pain eased, I love my son so much. He is now nearly three and I want him to know my culture and family."  Her husband’s family agreed to let her go home to visit, but her mother-in-law came with her to make sure both mother and baby returned to China.  Nan Bun understands that the family paid a lot to get her for their son, and they’re afraid that she may decide to stay with her own family.

Conflict stops reunion

Nan Bun recently returned to Kachin State for the first time in four years and was looking forward to seeing her father but they got caught in the conflict between the KIA (Kachin Independence Army) and the Burmese.  For the last month, they’ve been forced to stay in one of the makeshift camps that sprang up in the town of Laiza to house Kachin villagers fleeing the fighting.

In June 2011, a 17 year ceasefire between the Burmese army and the KIA disintegrated into a full-scale conflict that has forced more than 45,000 people into makeshift camps.

Nan Bun says she is reluctant to go back to China, but having her mother-in-law with her makes it difficult to stay.

"My husband phones and tells me he wants me and my son to come back quickly. I don't miss him - I don't miss anything about China. I'm not sure about my future. If my father asks me to stay, I'll stay. But with the conflict, I don't know if I will return to China and then come back here when it's over."

Nan Bun’s story is not a unique one.  China’s growing shortage of women is seen as the leading cause of the growth of women trafficked to China from neighboring countries.

The camps provide easy prey

Nhkum Hkawn Ra, a spokesperson for the Kachin Women's Association's Trafficking Committee in Laiza, says since the conflict started, the number of brokers trawling the IDP camps for young women to sell as brides to Chinese men has increased.

"They are easy prey for brokers. They think they are going to get work in restaurants or as domestic help in China. They don't realize they are being sold on as wives."  Nhkum Hkawn Ra says that the ‘sold women’ face severe culture shock.

"We see women who have been beaten for not working hard enough and some are beaten for no reason at all. Those who do run away don't have money. They sell themselves to get money to get home."

Meanwhile, back in Laiza, Nan Bun says she is lucky she has a father who loves her and who fought for her and her sister Roi. "My father had my cousin put in jail. She was given five years. I'm happy my father stood up for me - it shows he loves me."  But Nan Bun faces a tough struggle of love ahead of her.  She may not love her husband or the home he gave her in China but he is her son’s father. 

So somewhere in her future she will be confronted with a kind of Sophie’s choice:  her father or her son.

Source

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Two Giridih tribal girls rescued from Gujarat

GIRIDIH: Two young girls, who were reportedly sold for Rs 60,000 each by two traffickers of Asansol, were rescued from Gujarat and brought back to Giridih Muffassil police station on Tuesday.

The Muffassil police station here has lodged anFIR against six persons, including four in Patan, Bansaknatha and Kutch districts of Gujarat. The girls, residents of Leda Bargadda village, have complained to police about physical exploitation.

According to officer in-charge of Muffassil police station Abid Khan, both the girls were lured by a woman Basanti for getting them jobs in New Delhi.

"They were then taken to Asansol and from there to Ahmedabad on November 22. The girls were later shifted to different places in Gujarat, one at Bhachau in Kutch district and another at Patan and Banaskantha district. They were reportedly sold for Rs 60,000 each," he said.

The elderly people, who had kept the girls as captive, were using the duo in their farms as labourers and also exploited them physically. One of the girls managed to sneak to Bhachau police station and narrated her woes to police. But police did not take her complaint seriously.

The girl then called her father at Giridih and sought his help in getting rescued. The father of the girl, Basu Tuddu, then met the officer in-charge of the Muffassil police station. The girl then called up on the mobile number of the officer in-charge seeking his help.

The officer told her to meet Bhachau police station officers for the second time. The police station was eight km from the house where she was kept in captivity. "On the pretext of going to work in the farm, I went to the police station and made a call to the Giridih police from there," she said.

The Giridih police advised their Bhachau counterparts to help the tribal girl. From her, the address of her friend was also located.

Meanwhile, two police officers were sent by Giridih SP A V Honker to Gujarat last week and were brought back here on Tuesday morning.

Police said an FIR had been lodged under different sections of IPC, Prevention of Immoral Traffic Act against six people of Asansol and Gujarat.

Police had all praises for social activist Basantbhai Shah of Madhuban, the pilgrimage of Jains at Parasnath, who arranged the addresses of the two girls. Basantbhai is from Vadodara in Gujarat.

SP Honker said police teams were being sent to Gujarat to arrest Bharatbhai Prajapathi in Bhachau and Leeladhar Rawal in Patan. Efforts are on to arrest Ashma and Netaji, who had taken the girls from Asansol to Gujarat. He, however, did not divulge any detail about Ashma or Netaji. TOI

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Delhi cops rescue four Bangalore girls

Four Bangalore girls, including two minors, were rescued on Sunday from the clutches of flesh traders after a joint team of Delhi and Karnataka police conducted a raid in the red light area of G B Road. Three pimps were arrested.

The Karnataka Police received a tip-off that a 17-year-old girl was lured by a human trafficker and being taken to Delhi for flesh trade by the Sampark Kranti Express.

Working on the input and with the help of technical surveillance, a police team nabbed Venkatesh (26), on the train in Karnataka and rescued the girl.

During interrogation, Venkatesh told police that he had lured the minor on the pretext of marrying her in Delhi. “He, however, had planned to sell the minor at G B Road,” said police officer Pramod Joshi.

The Karnataka police then came to the national capital and approached local cops. A joint team of Karnataka and Delhi police laid a trap and arrested Allauddin, a 27-year-old resident of Shakarpur in east Delhi, at Shastri Park in north east Delhi.

“Venkatesh had planned to sell the minor to Allauddin,” said Joshi, who was also investigating into the matter.

During interrogation, the duo told police that they had further planned to sell the minor to a 45-year-old woman pimp – Jyoti, in charge of Kotha number 68 of G B Road. Police then arrested Jyoti, who trafficked girls especially from South India.

Working on another missing girl case, the joint team raided Kotha number 68. During the raid, a 15-year-old girl, who was missing from Bangalore since September 2011, was rescued.  “Seeing the police, two more girls, who were forced into flesh trade a few years ago, approached for help. They too were rescued along with the minor,” said Joshi.

During interrogation, the minor told police that Venkatesh had brought her to Delhi on the pretext of providing a good job and had sold her at G B Road, where she was forced into the flesh trade after physical torture. Another of the rescued girls told the police that she was brought to Delhi by one of her acquaintances on the pretext of a holiday trip.

Source

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4 girls rescued from brothel

SILCHAR: Four girls, including a minor, were rescued from a brothel in a joint operation by both Meghalaya and Assam Police in Silchartown of Assam's Cachar district, police said.

The four girls from Meghalaya were brought here by a trafficker, whose name the police refused to divulge, and sold to Gita Sinha and Suku Debnath, who run a brothel near Fatak Bazar, the largest wholesale and retail market in the southern part of the state.

The Meghalaya Police, acting on a tip-off, informed their Assam counterparts and rescued the four.
The trafficker was absconding but the police arrested Sinha and Debnath.

TOI

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Northeast girls being trafficked to Haryana for marriage

NEW DELHI: A large number of girls from the northeast are being regularly trafficked and forced to enter into wedlock in Haryana, the home ministry has found. Law enforcement agencies have found many such instances, specifically in Hissar district of the state.

A definite trend was noted by the home ministry which on Wednesday reviewed measures being taken by different states to combat human trafficking which takes the dimension of organized crime in the country.

It was also noted during the day-long meeting that girls from Nepal, Bangladesh and different parts of the country were often trafficked to metropolitan cities. While most of them ended up in brothels, the remaining were used by traffickers as child labourers, organ transplant donors and camel jockeys.

"We have recovered many girls from Hissar in Haryana. All of them were forcibly married after being trafficked," Assam superintendent of police Violet Baruah said after a meeting of state anti-trafficking cell officers here.

Baruah said the issue has been a major concern for Assam and such crimes have been taking place very often and happening due to the dismal sex ratio in Haryana.

Additional secretary in the home ministry B Bhamathi, who chaired the review meeting, said, "It is a major concern for us. With a view to tackling the menace of human trafficking, the ministry has undertaken a number of measures that include setting up of an anti-trafficking nodal cell to act as a focal point for communicating various decisions and follow up on action taken by the state governments."

Bhamathi said the home ministry had sanctioned a comprehensive scheme against trafficking in human beings through training and capacity building.

"It is proposed to establish 330 anti-human trafficking units (AHTUs) throughout the country and impart training to 10,000 police officers through training of trainers component," she said.

The ministry has already released Rs 8.72 crore to all states as first installment for 2010-11 for setting up 115 AHTUs. All states have received funds and 101 AHTUs are functional. Funds for 2011-12 have also been released to the state governments for establishment of 110 AHTUs.

A project on strengthening law enforcement response in India against trafficking in human beings was taken up in the home ministry as a joint initiative of the government of India and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in select states.

"The joint project has contributed towards developing of 12 very important resource books about protocols and standard operating procedures and in setting up of AHTUs," Bhamathi said.

TOI

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Girls forced into flesh trade rescued

Two girls, including a minor, who were kidnapped from West Bengal to be forced into flesh trade, have been rescued from national capital's red light area, police said today.

Both girls are friends and belong to a poor family in West Bengal's 24 Paragana (South) district.

"They were brought to Delhi by their boyfriends, who hail from same village, on the pretext of marrying them but they sold them to a brothel in G B Road," said Devesh Chandra Srivastva, ACP Central District.

The girls were freed from the brothel yesterday evening, after Delhi Police received information from the West Bengal police about two girls being kidnapped and confined in the brothel, he said, adding police has obtained the photographs of the girls through email.

The raid was conducted along with the volunteers of a Shakti Vahini and the girls were freed and sent to Bapuna shelter home.

Also, on January 12 police had rescued 10 girls brought from Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

Some of the girls were either minor or forced into the flesh trade against their wishes. The raid was conducted in collaboration with an NGO 'Rescue Foundation'.

The managers of the brothels have been arrested, the official said. SOURCE 

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Bride trafficking in Kashmir

Srinagar, Jan 17 (ANI): Watching the marriage preparations of her elder sister in a surreal daze, Mansoora Bano couldn't believe the sight of her beautifully decorated house which, till two days ago, was a mute spectator to the family's battle of existence in a small village of Hugli, West Bengal.

Her father, with his meager earnings, was surrounded by worries of feeding his two daughters and a son with faint hopes of getting them married. Just when they were beginning to lose hope, a middle-aged man had walked into their house accompanied by a local man and offered a proposal of marriage to the stranger.

The stranger hailed from Sholra Village of Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district. He not only offered to bear the entire expenses of the marriage but also offered a sum of Rs 20,000. Her father had agreed promptly, with a sigh of relief.

Four years later, the stranger was back before the impoverished family, this time offering to marry Mansoora herself.

In the Kashmir Valley, there are several cases where poor, physically disabled and unemployed men, facing rejection within their own community for marriage, purchase women from different parts of India - particularly from Bihar and West Bengal, through established brokers. This dreadful business is booming in the state of J and K, despite the existence of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.

In October 2011, a case of one Rehana (name changed), who had been trafficked from her home in Bihar to Kashmir, was reported in the Court of Chadoora in Budgam District in central Kashmir.

Rehana was a divorcee who lived in Bihar with her young son. Salman Rashid (name changed) had come to their village along with a broker who ran a thriving business of 'arranging' women for Kashmiri men. He baited Rehana's family, offering to marry her to Salman (who was 10 years older to her), promising that Salman not only will marry her but would adopt her child as well. What argument could Rehana give herself for not marrying Salman?

Salman paid a 'mehar' of Rs 800 to Rehana and brought her to his village in the Kashmir Valley. A year later, despite his earlier commitment, he started pressurizing her to send the child back to Bihar. However, Rehana put her foot down and refused to obey him.

Furious Salman started beating her and deprived her off almost everything including food and clothing. The matter reached the court and after several rounds of allegations, the couple agreed to be separated. It is believed that Rehana was bought by some other local broker Javed (name changed) against a sum of Rs 25,000 and it was Javed who convinced Salman to divorce her by bribing him with Rs. 800. Rashid was only too happy to earn some fast cash.

According to a renowned Lawyer and Social Activist, Abdul Rashid Hanjoora, "In the past decade, there has been an upsurge in the cases of human trafficking that has grown to an extent that it is now the third largest form of transnational organised crime following firearms and drugs. The scale of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking is steadily rising despite the existence of the required act - Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956. Victims of trafficking are exploited and tortured for the financial gains of the exploiters."

The victims fight not a person but a society. Most of these women are grappling with adjustment issues and have to deal with differences in language, climate, food, living habits, culture and societal norms. Although the decision of buying a woman from a different state is taken in accord with the entire family, the in-laws often do not accept her as a part of the family and discriminate her for being a Non-Kashmiri.

Being poor is not the only hurdle. Many cases go unreported, as these illiterate women are unaware of their rights. This inhibits them from taking a step forward and getting the matter registered.

"During my visit to Iskandarpora of Beerwah, in District Budgam, I was surprised to spot several women from Bengal who were married to Kashmiri men. These women complained of domestic and sexual violence," said Hanjoora.

When asked what made them willingly fall into the trap, their answer was "Money". One can find many women living with these Kashmiri men without even being married. The law becomes helpless when these couples say that they have performed Nikah - they use Nikah as their shield.

In order to stop further exploitation, some extra efforts are required to be invested by the government and non-government organisations. Women Right Commission, NGOs and Police need to come forward. Besides keeping an eye on these couples, they should monitor their activities. Members of Panchayat can become a powerful resource to check women trafficking as most of the cases take place in rural areas - Beerwah, Kupwara, Chaoora are worst affected.

Hanjoora suggests that the best method of curbing this social evil is to combine such ideas with prosecution and protection. Prosecution includes several tasks like the identification of the traffickers, bringing them to book; and confiscating their illegal assets. Protection of the trafficked victim includes all steps towards the redressal of their grievances thus helping the victim survive, rehabilitate and live a life of dignity. Thus prosecution and protection contribute to prevention.

Needless to say, political will is an essential requirement to combat trafficking. Legal awareness plays a crucial role in any social action programme. In its absence any real social activism cannot be promoted as it empowers people by making them aware of their rights, and motivates them to develop zero tolerance towards abuse and exploitation.

The history of the state of J and K is so complex that no issues other than those related to the political situation register their presence in the media and consciousness of the people, both within Kashmir and outside. Issues like trafficking; domestic violence and sexual exploitation are low visibility, low priority matters.

We respect unity in diversity but what is the point when we force the diversity to unite - if a Kashmiri man would have married a woman from Bihar or Bengal in the backdrop of love, it would have been an inspiring example to the world.

The Charkha Development Communication network feels that today it is simply a national shame. (with inputs from Basheer Ahmed Peer) y Zeenat Zeeshan Fazil (ANI)

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Maid racket busted in Yamunanagar

YAMUNANAGAR : The district police on Sunday arrested two persons working in a Delhi-based company involved in providing the domestic help, on the charges of human trafficking after a 15-year-old girl from Assam was rescued by district women and a child supporting unit.

With this, a racket of trafficking girls from other states on the pretext of getting them employed in the households has been unearthed in the district, claimed police officials.

Inquiries revealed that all this came to light on Saturday evening when the victim was brought there to Bal Bhawan after she managed to give a family of Sector 17 here a slip. Family had allegedly bought the girl from a Delhi-based agency.

Identified as Sanjay and Karan claiming to be working with Ganesh and Maid and Servant Services Agency Delhi, were rounded up when they had come to take away the girl from Bal Bhawan. The agency, has however denied any link with the accused as well as the girl.

Inspector Ram Kumar, SHO, city police station said, "We have taken the youths in police custody after district child welfare officer Manisha Khana reported the matter to us. Both of them confessed to have brought the victim from Assam and sold her to Sector 17 resident family. Further investigations are in progress and we are trying to ascertain other places from where the two have provided girls. Prime facie it appears to be a racket of selling girls as house maids. Interrogation is going on and we hope we will soon reach to the roots of the racket.''

Meanwhile, when contacted Manisha Khanna confirmed that the victim was a bonded labourer with Sector 17 family and had managed to escape from their custody on Saturday night. A social worker noticed her and brought her to the Bal Bhawan, she said. source TOI

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Field interviews on bride trafficking (audio) hindi

Hosted by EMPOWER PEOPLE.
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A Deserted Bride Trafficking Victim 1

Hosted by EMPOWER PEOPLE.
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Sex Ratio and Bride Trafficking in India : an audio

Sex Ratio an Bride Trafficking in India by Dragonroot Radio

Interview with Dr. saraswati raju Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

since we are not agree with her some contents because she is agnoring the human rights violation and crime against women who were trafficked in the name of marriage but its a balanced analysis.

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Bar of Sena leader Kadam’s wife raided, 9 girls rescued

Officers of the Social Service Branch (SSB) of the city police raided a bar in Samta Nagar, Kandivli (E), on Tuesday night and rescued nine girls allegedly involved in prostitution. The raid team also arrested the bar “conductor” and cashier.

According to Vasant Dhoble, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Special Squad, the raided bar belongs to the wife of Shiv Sena leader Ramdas Kadam.

Dhoble said specific information was received that prostitution is being carried out in Sawli Bar, opposite the Samta Nagar police station. The police then raided the bar at 9pm on Tuesday and rescued the nine girls involved in flesh trade.

“We have arrested the bar conductor and cashier under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act and have also seized cash worth lakhs from the bar. The bar had an orchestra licence, but the waitresses were indulging in prostitution and obscenity. Cavities were also found inside the bar,” said Dhoble.

“Sawli Bar licence is in the name of Jyoti Kadam, wife of Ramdas Kadam. The bar operation is given to two persons, including one Sharad Shetty,” said Ramrao Pawar, Additional Commissioner of Police, North Region.

When contacted, Sena leader Kadam washed his hands of the day-to-day operations of the bar, saying: “The bar was given to Shetty five years ago and ever since we have had no role in its functioning. The women working there are servants. How can there be a prostitution racket, since there is not a single room inside the bar? Plus the police station is hardly 50 metres away from the bar. Cops, especially Dhobale, are purposely trying to defame me.”

Kadam has also called Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik and complained against Dhobale for purposely targeting him. Source

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