The Hindu : New Delhi News : Kidnapped girls ending up in flesh trade?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Kidnapped girls ending up in flesh trade?

By Devesh K. Pandey

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 14. The rescue of a minor girl, abducted from Jehangirpuri in North-West Delhi five years ago, from the clutches of traffickers in Agra this past week-end has raised questions over the fate of many such girls who have gone missing from Delhi and its neighbouring cities in recent years. It is now being suspected that organised gangs may have pushed many of them into the flesh trade.

The 12-year-old victim rescued from Agra had gone missing along with her cousin, then six-year- old, in October 1999. The parents of both the girls live in a Jehangirpuri jhuggi.

One of the rescued girls disclosed that after being abducted, apparently by members of the Beriya community, she was kept in confinement in Sayeed Nagar in Agra.

According to a senior police officer, this case has raised doubts over the fate of girls and women who go missing from different parts of Delhi every day. A report on Trafficking in Women and Children in India (2002-2003) conducted for the National Human Rights Commission observed that many missing women and children become victims of traffickers and are pushed into prostitution. Several of them have been traced to brothels, the report added.

During investigations, the surveyors found that within a span of six years, between 1996 and 2001, 12,255 female adults and 37,359 children had gone missing from Delhi alone. In this period, 8,822 women and 23,708 children continued to remain missing. The report observed that in this duration, the number of untraced children had increased at an alarming rate. It also stated that in Delhi, 58 to 84 per cent of missing women were never found and that in the case of children, the situation was quite disturbing as 65 per cent of the reported missing remain untraced.

In this regard, Rishikant of the non-government organisation, Shakti Vahini, said: "No one to this date has an answer to where these missing women and children are. We have agencies which are supposed to trace missing persons, but they don't seem to be taking the issue very seriously. We suspect that most minor girls who go missing from the jhuggis across Delhi and Ghaziabad are being prepared for the flesh trade in Mumbai."

The Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-West Delhi), Sanjay Singh, said a team had been sent to Agra to take custody of the girl from Jehangirpuri. "We are yet to find her cousin," he added. Meanwhile, the Agra police are trying to trace the parents of another victim rescued during the operation in which eight persons were arrested.

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