Combating trafficking of women and children -"Project Aasara"

The Hindu : NATIONAL / ANDHRA PRADESH : Chief Justice for restructuring judiciary

2012-01-23T12:43:00.000+05:30

The Hindu : NATIONAL / ANDHRA PRADESH : Chief Justice for restructuring judiciary
Justice Lokur to take up the issue with the Chief Minister soon

Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court Madan B. Lokur on Sunday expressed his eagerness to restructure judiciary in the State with a view to speedup disposal of cases in courts and said he hoped to meet Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy shortly to discuss the matter.

Delivering the valedictory address for a two- day workshop on ‘speedy justice for victims of sex trafficking' at the Andhra Pradesh Judicial Academy, Justice Lokur said the High Court wanted to install video conferencing facility with the help of e-committee of Supreme Court in all courts by the end of the year. The objective was to enable magistrates record statements of victims of trafficking who resided outside the district.

The video conferencing was suggested by Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration) Mahesh M. Bhagwat in his speech earlier. He said the facility will enable victims overcome the stigma attached to appearing in courts and also eliminate the threat of intimidation by accused during journey.

Justice Lokur, however, said videoconferencing had its own disadvantage as people were shy of facing camera.

On fake sureties being furnished in courts, the Chief Justice said the problem was owing to professionals on the job who stood surety in multiple courts. A programme prepared by Ministry of Home Affairs recently enabled tracking down surety givers court wise. He said he had sought certain modifications to the programme.

Justice Lokur also said the interviews for selection of court managers would be held this or next week. The managers would help courts in organising work. For instance, they would guide outstation witnesses to other courts for recording statement if the designated judge was on leave.

He said sex traffickers were ruthless people who went to any extent to make a fast buck. He advised judicial officers to analyse evidence against such people carefully.

Mr. Mahesh Bhagwat insisted on speedy trial in cases of sex trafficking because the victims got married and refused to attend to court if the matter was delayed.

At a separate function, Justice Lokur awarded medals to top ranking students of post graduate diploma in alternative dispute resolution at the NALSAR university of law.

Addressing the gathering, the Chief Justice said mediation was gaining acceptance among the people and there was a need for those engaged in the profession to maintain highest standards.

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•High Court keen on installing video conferencing facility in all courts: Justice Lokur

•Interviews for selection of court managers to be be held this or next week

Police rescue 10 women from GB Road area

2012-01-13T12:37:00.002+05:30

TNN | Jan 13, 2012, 01.49AM IST
NEW DELHI:
Ten women have been rescued from the GB Road on Thursday. NGO Rescue Foundation had tipped-off the police regarding the racket.

The victims were allegedly confined in the basement of one of the houses in the area. According to police, the women had been trafficked for prostitution.

The women belong to different parts of the country. Eight came from Bengal, one from Bihar and another one from Andhra Pradesh. "A team, under the supervision of SHO Pramod Joshi, raided the area and rescued the girls. A case of illegal trafficking has been registered at the Kamla Market police station," said a senior cop

The Hindu : NATIONAL / ANDHRA PRADESH : Incidence of trafficking abounds in State

2011-09-16T15:14:00.000+05:30

The Hindu : NATIONAL / ANDHRA PRADESH : Incidence of trafficking abounds in State

Indian Malaysian gets 8 years in jail for human trafficking | Deccan Chronicle

2011-08-14T07:53:00.000+05:30

Indian Malaysian gets 8 years in jail for human trafficking | Deccan Chronicle

Preventing Child abuse

2011-08-10T18:43:00.000+05:30

शरीरविक्रय करणाऱ्या महिलांच्या पुनर्वसनासाठी ठोस मोहीम

2011-07-30T13:57:00.000+05:30

शरीरविक्रय करणाऱ्या महिलांच्या पुनर्वसनासाठी ठोस मोहीम

Sex racket busted in Ghaziabad, 20 arrested - Hindustan Times

2011-07-30T13:20:00.000+05:30

Sex racket busted in Ghaziabad, 20 arrested - Hindustan Times

Sex workers up by 50 per cent in Indian cities: Study : India: India Today

2011-07-28T13:24:00.000+05:30

Sex workers up by 50 per cent in Indian cities: Study : India: India Today

Shelters turn dump yards for minor girls

2011-06-27T18:33:00.000+05:30

June 26: State homes run by the Women and Child Welfare Department are meant to protect vulnerable women, impart some useful skill and rehabilitate women back into society. Thanks to the callousness of parents and society at large their mandate is being stretched to the limit and they are sheltering girls and women who have been thrown out like so much garbage by their cruel families. A large number of inmates of these homes are girls who married without their parents’ consent and before they reached the legal aid of consent and have been brought here after their parents filed complaints. Andhra Pradesh continues to top the list of states with large numbers of child marriages. An increasing number of parents are making use of the law to break up the ‘love’ marriages of their underage daughters and pack them off to the state homes by calling in the police. As a result, a number of child brides, some of whom have children, will stay here till they attain 18 years of age. Interestingly most of them are waiting till they can go back to their husbands. “My parents were unhappy with my marriage as I married a Muslim man. My parents are not willing to take me back, and though my husband wants me, I cannot go back to him. My parents will take some extreme step I fear,” says Shivangi (name changed), now 18 and living in one such state-run home in Hyderabad. Shivangi has a 10-month-old son and has been attending lace-making and tailoring classes at the centre. After finishing her course, she wants to move on and set up her own business somewhere here. Shivangi eloped with a neighbour after she passed class six two years ago. She has been through a lot; she was forcibly taken to a juvenile home from where she came to the state-run home, delivered a baby, and is now forced to remain in this state home in Yousufguda because of the case booked by her parents. “They had asked for their daughter to be given protection since she was a minor,” said the authorities at the state home. Vaishali (name changed) from Nalgonda district married a boy from a lower caste when she was 15 years old. After her parents lodged a complaint with the police that she is a minor, the police had taken her to the juvenile home. She now has a one-month-old son and has just turned 18. Threatened by her parents she, too, is in two minds about what she should do now. While state-run homes are traditionally meant for rescued women and abandoned children, there are more child brides here at any given point of time than there are other kinds of women. Also to be found in state run homes are victims of the prostitution mafia, orphans, beggars and mentally unstable women found wandering the roads. Ms Shivaparvathy, assistant director of the Women and Child Welfare Department, says 99 per cent of women rescued from the flesh trade are taken back by their families as most of them are pushed into the trade by their own family members. “We give them vocational training while they are at the state homes but, sadly, many of them keep coming back as their families force them into the flesh trade again. Of every 10 such rescued victims, seven return to the trade while two or three come back to state homes,”she says. According to the data available with the Department, around 50 per cent of women and child victims of trafficking belong to scheduled castes and 30 per cent belong to other backward castes. The districts where this shameful practice is rampant are Nalgonda, Chittoor, Guntur, Khammam and Anantpur. Those who land up in the government homes are given some sort of vocational training and sent back to their parental homes within six months to one year. But if they are not welcome there, they may continue to stay at the state home for three to four years. At any given point of time, there are between 500-600 women in Swadhar Centres, state homes and Ujjwala shelters across the state. About 150-200 abandoned children live in state homes and Sishu vihars across the state. The children are mostly abandoned by unwed mothers or by parents and relatives if they are HIV/AIDS positive, or mentally challenged. About 60 percent of abandoned children are females. The callousness of parents is such that often they refuse to take back their lost or abandoned children. S. Lakshmi (name changed) was brought up in a juvenile home in the city and after attaining 18 years of age, she was shifted to the state home. Her parents were traced when she was living in the juvenile home but they had refused to take her back because she was a girl. Juvenile homes may provide some shelter but they are no substitute for a caring family. Lakshmi has lost interest in learning anything, shows symptoms of mental retardation and does not want to go anywhere. She has been staying at the state home for the last five years, though the normal period an inmate is allowed to stay and train is two years. The appalling brutality towards women and children continues despite numerous laws introduced to stop it. Poor implementation of the law combined with the backwardness of our society and way of thinking causes millions of women and children to suffer a hopeless existence.

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The Hindu : States / Andhra Pradesh : AP to set up five Anti Human Trafficking Units

2011-06-26T12:41:00.000+05:30

The Hindu : States / Andhra Pradesh : AP to set up five Anti Human Trafficking Units

Sunrise, a Film About Child Trafficking in India SydneysBuzz

2011-06-24T07:35:00.000+05:30

Sunrise, a Film About Child Trafficking in India SydneysBuzz

Authorities dismissive of missing children | Deccan Chronicle

2011-05-27T13:09:00.000+05:30

Authorities dismissive of missing children | Deccan Chronicle

India ratifies UN protocol against human trafficking

2011-05-23T10:58:00.002+05:30

3 million females, 40% of them minors, trafficked in India every year
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 19
Close on the heels being placed on the US human trafficking Tier 2 watchlist that names countries not doing enough to curb human smuggling, India has ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three protocols, including one to combat trafficking in persons.

The Convention remains, by far, the most potent international instrument in the fight against transnational organised crime. Currently, human trafficking is the third largest organised crime in the world after the narcotics trade and illicit arms trading. Together, these crimes generate annual revenue of $ 9.5 billion, with the share of human trafficking gradually rising.

For India, the development is significant considering it took 12 years to ratify the Convention, which is supplemented by protocols to combat human trafficking; migrant smuggling and illicit trafficking in firearms. The fact that India has ratified the ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children’ means the country would now have to evolve a comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation that conforms to international standards and provisions. Right now, the laws are unclear.

It would also have to find ways to train law enforcers who continue to book trafficked women under the provisions of Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, rather than booking them under provisions of the law which would see them as “victims” and not “offenders”. The National Human Rights Commission says only 6.6 per cent of the country’s law enforcers have any kind of training in trafficking issues.

If that was less, the Ministry of Women and Child Development estimates that around 3 million women are annually trafficked in India for various purposes - domestic to sex work - and 40 per cent of these are minors.

Most rescued victims currently have little access to rehabilitation and care, which means even after being freed, they run the risk of getting back to brothels. A woman caught under the ITPA for example is required to pay a fine to walk free. Because she has no money, her brothel owner walks in again promising to rescue her from jail provided she agrees to return to sex work.

CRPF Additional Director General Police (Operations) PM Nair, who has worked on trafficking issues, said the training of law enforcers was a must. Also, the government is now legally bound by the Convention to look at both prevention and protection issues.

IGNOU empowers nodal officers for anti human trafficking

2011-05-19T11:30:00.000+05:30

IGNOU empowers nodal officers for anti human trafficking

वेश्यांच्या पुनर्वसनासाठी आंध्रप्रदेशचे अनुकरण महाराष्ट्राने करावे - भागवत

2011-04-13T19:50:00.000+05:30

वेश्यांच्या पुनर्वसनासाठी आंध्रप्रदेशचे अनुकरण महाराष्ट्राने करावे - भागवत
नगर, २७ मार्च/प्रतिनिधी
मागील ५ वर्षांत आंध्रप्रदेशने महिला व बालकांच्या अनैतिक वाहतुकीस प्रभावी प्रतिबंध केला आहे. वेश्या व त्यांच्या मुलांच्या पुनर्वसनासाठी राज्य सरकारने इच्छाशक्ती दाखवून विविध सरकारी विभागांमध्ये समन्वय निर्माण केला. याबाबतीत आंध्रप्रदेशचे अनुकरण महाराष्ट्राने करायला हवे, असे मत आंध्रप्रदेशातील पोलीस उपमहानिरीक्षक व नगरचे सुपुत्र महेश भागवत यांनी केले.
स्नेहालय परिवारातर्फे श्री. भागवत यांचा नागरी सत्कार करण्यात आला. त्यावेळी ते बोलत होते. नगर जिल्ह्य़ातील ३ हजार शोषित महिलांचा प्रश्न सध्या ऐरणीवर आला आहे. या पाश्र्वभूमीवर श्री. भागवत यांनी या शोषित महिलांशी संवाद साधला. स्नेहालयच्या विश्वस्त मीनाताई शिंदे, संगीता शेलार, हसीना शेख यांनी महिलांच्या व्यथा मांडल्या. पोलिसांकडून जिल्ह्य़ातील २४०० महिलांवर वारंवार गुन्हे दाखल केले गेल्याने त्यांची ससेहोलपट होत आहे. पर्यायी रोजगार नाही, हक्काची जागा नाही यामुळे अनेक महिलांनी पुणे, नाशिक, औरंगाबाद, बीड व मुंबईकडे पलायन केले आहे. त्यामुळे या महिलांच्या आरोग्याचा प्रश्न बिकट बनला आहे. त्यांच्या मुलांचे शिक्षण, बचतगट चळवळ अडचणीत आली आहे.
श्री. भागवत यांनी आंध्रप्रदेशमध्ये वेश्यांच्या पुनर्वसनासाठी राबवलेल्या ‘आसरा’ प्रकल्पाची माहिती दिली. आंध्रमध्ये कायद्याचा दंडुका वेश्यांवर नव्हे तर कुंटणखाना चालक, मालक, दलाल, ग्राहक यांच्यावर उगारला जातो, असे सांगून ते म्हणाले की, अनैतिक मानवी वाहतूक प्रतिबंधक कायद्यातील कलम ७ व ८ देहव्यापारातील बळी महिलांना अकारण गुन्हेगार ठरवतात. या कलमानुसार सार्वजनिक ठिकाणी देहव्यापार करणे प्रतिबंधित आहे. परंतु या दोन कलमांमुळे शोषित महिला पुन्हा दलालांच्या गुलामीत पडतात. त्यामुळे आंध्रप्रदेशने या कलमांचा वापर बंद करून वेश्यांना दिलासा दिला आहे. महाराष्ट्रात मात्र या दोन कलमांचा वापर होत असल्याने महिलांचे जीवन असुरक्षित झाले आहे. या संदर्भात धोरण बदलवण्यासाठी राज्य सरकारशी संवाद साधावा लागेल.
आंध्रप्रदेशमध्ये सुटका केलेल्या मुली व महिलांना वेलकम कीट व रोख ५ हजार रूपये त्वरित दिले जातात. त्यामुळे पोलीस कारवाईनंतरची लाचारी व भीती टळते. अनेक महिलांच्या पुनर्वसनाचे अनुभव त्यांनी सांगितले. स्नेहालयाच्या अनेक प्रकल्पांना श्री. भागवत यांनी भेट दिली

Circus owner held for trafficking part of bigger network: Cops

2011-04-11T21:26:00.000+05:30

Circus owner held for trafficking part of bigger network: Cops

Police told to crack down on human trafficking

2011-04-05T17:57:00.002+05:30

By Express News Service
03 Apr 2011 03:51:45 AM IST
HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh tops in human trafficking which in turn is spreading the deadly HIV and the police have to play an active role in checking the trafficking, additional commissioner of police (Traffic) CV Anand has said. He was speaking at the police sensitisation programme on HIV/Aids jointly organised by the state police and the AP State Aids Control Society here yesterday.
He exhorted police officials to curb trafficking in woman with an iron hand and spread awareness among the police personnel as well as the people.
“The Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act (1956) helps us to raid and arrest women, who are involved in running and luring the minors into the flesh trade.
After paying a fine, these women are released and go back to the same trade. We have to coordinate with the media and the health department to provide proper medical assistance to them,’’ Anand said. He called upon the police officials to strictly enforce the Act.
Police personnel and the people should not look down upon or discriminate against persons with HIV-AIDS. He directed the police personnel to take stern action against persons resorting to trafficking in women and organisers of brothel houses. Joint commissioner of police (administration) Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagawat said they have trained as many as 4,800 policemen in the state to prevent human trafficking. He said they would develop core trainers to work on the issue.
Kailashditya, joint director, AP State Aids Control Society, speaking on the occasion said the state also tops in HIV positive cases in the country.

16 abducted baby girls rescued from brothels in MP

2011-03-18T10:49:00.000+05:30

16 abducted baby girls rescued from brothels in MP

Suchandana Gupta, TNN | Mar 18, 2011, 12.44am IST
BHOPAL: Sixteen innocent girls, who should have been in nursery school learning their first alphabets, were rescued by the police from brothels lining the highways in Mandsaur.

Over the past five days, the police in Mandsaur district rescued the girls aged between two and seven years who were abducted from their homes and sold at prices ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 60,000 to flesh traders of the 'Bachhra' tribe. The little girls were being held in captivity so they could join the traditional occupation of the Bachhras as soon as they entered puberty.

Bachhras are one of the most backward tribes of the country residing in the districts adjoining Rajasthan on the western areas of the state. While their men don't work, the women are made to earn for the community through prostitution. Bachhras are known specially for child prostitution, with families making their first daughters into prostitutes.

The state government has spent hundreds of crores for the rehabilitation of the tribe but with little effect. Recently, the Mandsaur district police set up an Anti Human Trafficking Cell to curb crime and prostitution on the national highways.

It was in one of these anti-immoral traffic raids earlier this week that the police chanced upon some little girls who did not look like they were part of the Bachhra families. Thereafter, the police heard the horrific stories of abduction and imprisonment from the children. "It was generally known to us that women of the Bachhra tribe involved themselves in prostitution for a living. But what is alarming is that female infants from adjoining districts are being kidnapped so they may join the flesh trade and earn for the tribe," additional SP Pankaj Shrivastava said

The hero of heroes

2011-03-16T15:21:00.000+05:30

Anuradha Koiralas heart beats for the Nepalese girls and women who are forced into the flesh trade. Her sole aim in life is to put an end to this abusive practice and empower the victims. Chethana Dinesh catches up with the feisty lady who was named 2010 CNN Hero of the Year for her efforts in re..

Andhra registered maximum cases of women trafficking in 2010 | Siasat

2011-03-11T12:40:00.000+05:30

Andhra registered maximum cases of women trafficking in 2010 | Siasat

355 anti-trafficking units to be set up across India: P Chidambaram - World News, 163426

2011-03-09T11:18:00.000+05:30

355 anti-trafficking units to be set up across India: P Chidambaram - World News, 163426

Indian cities need special courts to fight sex trafficking

2011-03-09T11:15:00.002+05:30

Indian cities need special courts to fight sex trafficking
Reuters | 02:43 PM,Mar 08,2011
By Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) - India's cities and major tourist destinations need specialised courts to deal with the growing numbers of women and girls who are being trafficked as prostitutes in the region, according to a senior judge. South Asia is the second largest venue for human trafficking in the world, after East Asia, according to the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Swati Chauhan, the Mumbai-based magistrate of India's only court dealing with cases under the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act (ITPA), said more such courts are essential as they focused more on the victim than on the perpetrator. "The ITPA is a benevolent and victim-friendly legislation and its purpose is not only to punish the accused, but to prevent re-trafficking of women through a special court which oversees the rehabilitation of victims," Chauhan told TrustLaw. "I am the judge in only court in India which hears all the cases of trafficking under the ITPA in Mumbai. I feel that such courts are needed in Delhi, Goa, Pune and Kolkata," she said. Over 150,000 people are known to be trafficked within the region every year - mostly for sex work, but also for labour, forced marriages and as part of the organ trade, according to UNODC officials. Actual numbers are likely to be higher as much of the trade is underground, they said. SOURCE, TRANSIT AND DESTINATION According to activists, human trafficking is one of the fastest growing transnational organised crimes in South Asia. Traffickers often take advantage of impoverished communities, luring girls and young women and girls with promises of jobs as maids or nannies in wealthy households in the cities. But, activists say, the reality is very different. Girls sent to India's towns and cities often end up as involuntary sex workers, sometimes detained in a room by their employers and forced into unprotected sex with multiple partners. India's bustling business capital Mumbai is a popular source, transit and destination station for traffic in women and girls, according to Chauhan. "We find a lot of girls from Bangladesh and Nepal. They end up in Mumbai and they are in the brothels -- detained sometimes -- forced into prostitution work," she said. "Girls who are lucky to be rescued by police and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in Mumbai are brought before me and it is my job to understand their situation and work out the best form of rehabilitation for them to ensure that they do not go back into sex work." REHABILITATION Chauhan's court was established in 2008 after the city's high court found there was a backlog of 1,500 trafficking cases and ordered that a special place be established to hear such cases. All girls rescued from brothels in Mumbai are now brought before Chauhan, who works with a group of experts, including representatives from NGOs, on how best to ensure the victim is not re-trafficked. Sometimes the girls are taken out of parental custody, if the parents are deemed unsuitable, and placed in shelters run by NGOs. They are offered various forms of vocational training, such as catering or beauty therapy, for one year, and then given employment with the court monitoring the entire rehabilitation program from start to finish. However, Chauhan said, in many cases the girls already have become "hardcore" sex workers, accepted it as their fate and it is often difficult to persuade them that there are other choices. "Sometimes the girls say that they are doing the prostitution work voluntarily, that they do it will their will. But the real story is not so. They have accepted it as their destiny because of no option," she said. "The court tries to show these girls that there are other options that are far less harmful." (TrustLaw is a global centre for free legal assistance and anti-corruption news run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. For more TrustLaw stories, visit www.trust.org/trustlaw

Landlords escape Sex racket busts

2011-01-14T12:52:00.001+05:30

Landlords escape Sex racket busts
Deccan Chronicle, 13th Jan 2011.

AMY ROSE THOMAS
DECCAN CHRONICLE

When a sex racket is busted by the police, it is only the prostitutes, pimps and customers who are booked, while the owners of the premises are usually let off. This is regardless of the fact that Section 18 Clause 1 of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act states that landlords too should be punished.As many as 160 cases have been registered under the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act over the last four years and in most cases, house owners have claimed that they had no clue what was going on in their premises and have escaped punishment.A few months back the police raided different parts of the city including flats in S.R. Nagar, Panjagutta, Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills. About 20 apartments were found to be functioning as brothels.
However, only in three cases were the house owners convicted and notices of seizure issued.
The owners were let off in all the other cases. "In these cases, it was proved that the owners were explicitly involved in the crime," says IPS Umapathy.
Recently the police had raided the Delhi Lodge at Patny Centre and caught the proprietor, six auto drivers and had rescued 16 sex workers. B.Srinivasa Yadav (46), had been running the lodge on lease. Since the lodge's income was meagre, he had devised a plan to earn money. He used to allow sex workers along with their customers to use his premises and would charge hefty amounts on an hourly basis, said the police. On Thursday, the Central Zone Task Force police arrested Atluri Ramesh and Atluri Prasad, along with two sex workers. The accused had rented a flat at Saifabad for Rs 17,000 per month. The duo started earning Rs 5,000 to 10,000 per day. In none of the above cases were the house owners punished.
The apartments are, however, rented out for prostitution at double the price "The prices vary.
For instance, house owners in Ameerpet charge up to Rs 20,000 from brothel organisers and only around Rs 7,000 from normal tenants. In most cases, police officials fail to mention the owners in the FIR. Thus, they are not brought under the law. If the police officials pay heed to the Act, landlords, if at all they are unaware, would be more careful and make sure that such activities do not occur under the roof of their apartments," said Rammohan, in-charge of HELP NGO.
Mahesh Bhagwat, DIG of Eluru Range, who has been instrumental in nailing many landlords who were hand-in-glove with brothel organisers, says the main problem lies in the lack of awareness of rules. "Sometimes, the police officials themselves do not know about the existence of such a clause in the Act. This is the reason why landlords are not mentioned in the report," he adds.

Hertfordshire man jailed for raping girl in Goa

2010-12-12T21:02:00.000+05:30

Hertfordshire man jailed for raping girl in Goa
Barry McCloud Barry McCloud plied the girl with spiked drinks to carry out the attacks

A Hertfordshire man who travelled to India to film himself raping a 10-year-old girl has been sentenced to life in prison.

Barry McCloud, 54, of Tudor Walk, Watford, groomed his victim after befriending her "slum-dwelling" family, St Albans Crown Court heard.

He admitted three rapes and 18 related charges in Goa between 2005 and 2007.

Judge Marie Catterson said McCloud's crimes were "abhorrent". She said he must serve at least seven years.

The court heard the girl had felt unable to report what was happening because McCloud paid for her brother's education.

McCloud and his wife had met the victim's brother while he was selling peanuts at a beach resort in the 1990s.

The child's father was dead and the mother had raised nine children by selling pots and pans.
Drugged mango juice

McCloud's activities came to light in 2007 when police in the UK suspected him of downloading images of child abuse and seized his computer.

Officers found images of the rapes as well as video clips McCloud had taken on a camcorder as he raped and abused the girl, described in court as a "slum dweller".

McCloud continued to visit Goa after splitting up with his wife in 2005, and would tell the girl's brother to bring his sister to his accommodation.

The court heard McCloud gave her mango juiced laced with temazepam, which would leave her unconscious.

Judge Catterson said: "It's clear the victim felt unable to complain about you because of the financial support you were giving her brother."
'Extremely rare'

McCloud also admitted four counts of assault, three of administering a noxious substance so he could engage in sexual activity, and one of sexual assault of a child.

He pleaded guilty to eight charges of taking indecent photographs of the child and two charges relating to the making and possessing of indecent photographs of children.

Christine Beddoe, director of ECPAT UK, a child rights charity which supported the police investigation, said: "Unfortunately the UK has an appalling record in prosecuting British citizens for child sexual abuse overseas and successful cases like this are extremely rare.

"ECPAT UK is calling on the government to introduce a cross-government strategy to deal effectively with sex offenders who abuse children overseas to better protect children in the UK and abroad."

Tamsyn Wilcox, CPS district crown prosecutor, said: "Barry McCloud abused the trust of a family living in extreme poverty in Goa and used his position of trust to gain access to the victim in this case.

"This outcome sends a strong message to those people who think they can sexually abuse children whilst travelling abroad, without facing prosecution."

Trafficking by cheating victims in the name of marriage

2010-11-27T21:41:00.000+05:30

विवाहानंतर त्याने विकले ६० पत्नींना..!

सिलिगुडी - पश्चिम बंगालमधील दार्जिलिंग जिल्ह्यात, एका व्यक्तीने चक्क ६० विवाह केले आणि विवाहानंतर थोड्याच काळात तो पत्नीला कुंटणखान्यात विकून टाकत होता. लष्करातील जवान असल्याची बतावणी करून त्याने हे विवाह केले होते. पोलिसांनी त्याला अटक केली आहे.
दार्जिलिंग जिल्ह्याचे पोलिस अधिक्षक देवेंद्रप्रताप सिंह म्हणाले, की विकी ऊर्फ विश्वकर्मा असे या तरुणाचे नाव असून, त्याने विवाहानंतर मुंबई आणि पुण्यातील कुंटणखान्यांमध्ये स्वतःच्या पत्नीची विक्री करत असे. विश्वकर्मा याच्यासह त्याची साथीदार महिलेलाही अटक करण्यात आली आहे.
एका स्वयंसेवी संस्थेतील व्यक्तीने पोलिसांना विश्वकर्मा याची माहिती दिल्यानंतर, पोलिसांनी ही कारवाई केली. सिंह म्हणाले, की त्याची साथीदार महिला, गरीब आणि गरजू महिलेस हेरून तिच्या घरी जात असे आणि विश्वकर्मा हा चांगल्या घराण्यातील तरुण आहे. त्याची सांपत्तिक स्थितीही चांगली आहे. त्याच्याशी विवाह केल्यास कल्याण होईल, अशी बतावणी करत असे. विवाहानंतर तो मुंबई-पुण्याला जाऊन पत्नीला विकून येत असे.

‘लैंगिक व्यापाराला प्रतिबंधासाठी सकारात्मकता दाखवा’

2010-11-23T08:01:00.001+05:30

आंध्रचे उपमहानिरीक्षक भागवत यांचे नगरच्या पोलिसांना आवाहन
नगर, २१ नोव्हेंबर/प्रतिनिधी
लैंगिक व्यापारासाठी अल्पवयीन मुलींचा वापर ही मानवी जीवनाला काळे फासणारी घटना आहे. अशा कृत्यांना कधीही पाठिशी घालू नये. थोडी सकारात्मकता दाखवली, तर अशा गुन्ह्य़ांचा शोध घेणे व गुन्हेगारांना शिक्षा होणे हे पोलिसांसाठी सहज शक्य आहे, असे प्रतिपादन मूळचे पाथर्डीचे रहिवासी व सध्या आंध्र प्रदेशात पोलीस उपमहानिरीक्षक म्हणून कार्यरत असलेले आयपीएस अधिकारी महेश भागवत यांनी केले.नक्षलवादी कारवायांमध्ये असामान्य शौर्य दाखवलेले, तसेच लैंगिक व्यापारात गुंतलेल्या आंध्र प्रदेशातील टोळ्यांना जेरबंद करणारे भागवत खासगी कामासाठी पाथर्डीला आले होते. जिल्हाधिकारी डॉ. पी. अन्बलगन यांनी जिल्ह्य़ातील पोलीस अधिकाऱ्यांसाठी नियोजन भवन सभागृहात त्यांचे व्याख्यान आयोजित केले होते. जिल्हा पोलीस अधीक्षक कृष्णप्रकाश, अतिरिक्त जिल्हाधिकारी नानासाहेब बोठे, जिल्हा नियोजन अधिकारी प्रदीप पोतदार, उपजिल्हाधिकारी सुहास मापारी या वेळी व्यासपीठावर उपस्थित होते. भागवत यांनी आंध्र प्रदेशात केलेल्या विविध कारवायांची विस्ताराने माहिती देत पोलिसांना अन्यायग्रस्तांसाठी नेहमीच धावून जाण्याचे आवाहन केले. कायदे सगळे चांगलेच आहेत, मात्र त्याचा व्यवस्थित वापर करून घेण्यात आपणच कमी पडतो, असे आपले निरीक्षण असल्याचे ते म्हणाले. काही कारवायांमध्ये, विशेषत: अंमली पदार्थ किंवा लैंगिक शोषणाच्या गुन्ह्य़ांमध्ये तपास सुरू असतानाच प्रेशर ग्रुप म्हणजे दबाव गट तयार होतात हे खरे आहे. मात्र, त्याला बळी पडण्याचे कारण नाही. थेट वरिष्ठ अधिकाऱ्यांशी बोलून या दबाव गटांचा सामना करता येतो, असे ते म्हणाले.कायद्याने पोलीस, तसेच महसूल अधिकाऱ्यांना अनेक अधिकार दिले आहेत. कला केंद्र, तसेच लॉजवर अल्पवयीन मुलींकडून जबरदस्तीने वेश्याव्यवसाय करून घेतला जात आहे, असे आढळल्यास संबंधित लॉज, कला केद्रांचा परवाना कायमस्वरूपी रद्द करण्याचे अधिकार प्रांत स्तरावर आहेत. मात्र, पोलिसांनी तसा प्रस्ताव तयार करून प्रांत कार्यालयाकडे पाठवला पाहिजे. नेमक्या याच गोष्टी होत नाहीत व एकाच लॉजवर वारंवार छापा टाकल्याच्या बातम्या येत राहतात. पोलीस व प्रशासनाने काही गोष्टी हातात हात घालून समन्वयाने केल्या तर गुन्हेगारीला आळा घालणे मुळीच अवघड नाही, असे भागवत यांनी सांगितले.लैंगिक व्यापारात गुंतलेल्या गुन्हेगारांवर कारवाई झाली, तरी त्यातील अत्याचारित मुलींच्या पुनर्वसनाचा मोठा प्रश्न निर्माण होतो. ते काही आमचे काम नाही, असे न म्हणता पोलीसही त्यात सहभागी झाले तर फार मोठा परिणाम होतो, अत्याचारग्रस्तांना मानसिक उभारी मिळते, असे स्पष्ट करून भागवत यांनी त्यांना आंध्र प्रदेशात केलेल्या कामांची माहिती दिली. परदेशातील, तसेच परराज्यांतील मुलींना यशस्वीपणे त्यांच्या मूळच्या घरी पाठवून त्यांचे पुनर्वसन केलेली अनेक उदाहरणे त्यांनी दिली. या कामासाठी भागवत यांना राष्ट्रीय, तसेच आंतरराष्ट्रीय पुरस्कारही मिळाले आहेत.लैंगिक अत्याचार विरोधी कायद्यातील अनेक कलमांची भागवत यांनी माहिती दिली व त्याचा प्रभावीपणे कसा वापर करता येतो तेही स्पष्ट केले. आपल्या विविध कामांच्या चित्रपारदर्शिकाही त्यांनी दाखवल्या. गुन्हेगाराला कडक शिक्षा होईल याच आत्मविश्वासाने पोलिसांनी काम करावे. तसे होत नाही व त्यामुळेच आमचे काही बिघडत नाही असा उद्दामपणा गुन्हेगारांमध्ये येतो. शिक्षेची जरब बसली, तर मात्र गुन्हा करताना त्यांना शंभरवेळा विचार करावा लागेल, असे भागवत म्हणाले. काही पोलीस अधिकाऱ्यांच्या शंकांनाही त्यांनी उत्तरे दिली.कृष्णप्रकाश यांनी भागवत यांच्या कामाची मुक्तकंठाने स्तुती करीत जिल्ह्यातील अधिकाऱ्यांनी त्यातून प्रेरणा घ्यावी, असे आवाहन केले. जिल्ह्य़ात गेल्या काही महिन्यांत कारवाई केलेल्या अशा प्रकारच्या गुन्ह्य़ांची त्यांनी माहिती दिली. कायद्याचा व्यवस्थित वापर हेच पोलिसांच्या कामाचे मुख्य सूत्र आहे, असे ते म्हणाले. डॉ. अन्बलगन म्हणाले, जिल्ह्य़ातून अनेक राज्यांच्या मालमोटारींची ये-जा सातत्याने सुरू असते. १० ते १२ माणसे बसू शकतील अशा ढाब्यांवर रोज ५०पेक्षा अधिक मालमोटारी लागलेल्या असतात. लहानसेच गाव असते, मात्र तिथे एकापेक्षा अधिक लॉज असतात. ही गुन्हेगारीची केंद्र असताना त्याकडे पोलिसांचे हवे तसे लक्ष नसते. अतिरिक्त जिल्हाधिकारी बोठे यांनी आभार मानले.
अत्याचारग्रस्तांसाठी विशेष कक्ष - डॉ. अन्बलगनआपण आल्यापासून एकाही कलाकेंद्राला परवानगी दिली नसल्याचे डॉ. अन्बलगन यांनी सांगितले. एका प्रकरणात आपल्याला संबंधितांनी समुद्रगुप्तापासूनच्या इतिहासाचा हवाला देत परवानगी द्या म्हणून दबाव आणला होता, अशी माहिती देत आपण परवानगी तर नाकारलीच, पण त्याला चंद्रगुप्त मौर्यापासूनच्या इतिहासाचीही माहिती दिली, असे ते म्हणाले. जिल्ह्य़ात लवकरच अशा प्रकारच्या अत्याचारात सापडलेल्यांसाठी एक विशेष स्वरूपाचा कक्ष सुरू करीत आहोत. त्यासाठी स्नेहालयसारख्या प्रकल्पांची मदत घेतली जाईल, असे त्यांनी जाहीर केले.

Closure of brothel at Bhusaval in Maharashtra

2010-10-29T21:44:00.000+05:30


वैतागवाडीत होणार पिटाअंतर्गत कारवाई सकाळ वृत्तसेवा Friday, October 29, 2010 AT 04:58 PM (IST) भुसावळ - येथील वैतगवाडीत अनैतिक व्यापार प्रतिबंधात्मक कायद्यानुसार उद्या (ता.30) कारवाईची शक्‍यता आहे. यासंदर्भात जिल्हाधिकारी कार्यालयामार्फत पोलिस प्रशासनाला सूचना देण्यात आल्या आहेत. त्यानुसार अनैतिक देहव्यापार चालणाऱ्या घरांना थेट सील ठोकण्यात येईल. पिटा अर्थात अनैतिक व्यापार प्रतिबंधात्मक कायद्यानुसार भुसावळात होणारी ही पहिलीच कारवाई आहे. आज जिल्हा प्रशासनाकडून बाजारपेठ पोलिसांना यासंदर्भात लेखी सूचना करण्यात आल्या. त्यानुसार पोलिसांनी वैतागवाडीतील पाच घरमालकांना नोटीस बजावली आहे

Proper Implementation of Women's Law sought

2010-10-03T17:10:00.001+05:30

‘पुनर्वसन झाल्यास देहव्यापारातील महिलांचे भविष्य सुरक्षित बनेल’

2010-09-30T09:53:00.000+05:30

नगर, २९ सप्टेंबर/प्रतिनिधीपुनर्वसन झाल्यास देहव्यापारातील शोषित महिलांचे भविष्य सुरक्षित बनू शके ल, असे मत जिल्हा पोलीस अधीक्षक कृष्णप्रकाश यांनी व्यक्त केले. स्नेहालयने आयोजित केलेल्या जिल्ह्य़ातील शरीरविक्रय करणाऱ्या महिलांच्या मेळाव्यात ते बोलत होते.
गेल्या काही महिन्यांत जिल्ह्य़ातील अनेक कुंटणखान्यांवर पोलिसांनी घातलेल्या छाप्यांमुळे अनैतिक मानवी व्यापाराला मोठा आळा बसला आहे. मात्र, त्यामुळे देहव्यापारातील महिलांच्या चरितार्थाचा मोठा प्रश्न उभा राहिला आहे. या संदर्भात हा मेळावा घेण्यात आला. त्याचा समारोप कृष्णप्रकाश यांच्या उपस्थितीत झाला. स्नेहालयचे विश्वस्त श्याम असावा, मिलिंद कुलकर्णी, मीनाताई िशदे या वेळी व्यासपीठावर उपस्थित होते. महिलांनी आपल्या समस्या मांडल्या. पुनर्वसनासाठी आंध्रप्रदेशात हक्काची जागा आणि रोजगार प्रशासनाकडून दिला जातो. महाराष्ट्रात मात्र सरकारने एक चौरस फूट जागा किंवा एक रुपयाचे अनुदानही दिलेले नाही, असे शेवगावच्या स्नेहज्योत प्रकल्पाच्या संघटक जया जोगदंड म्हणाल्या. श्रीरामपूर येथील सुनीता उनवणे म्हणाल्या, पुनर्वसनाचा कोणताही पर्याय समोर नसल्याने पोलीस कारवाई होताच महिलांना घरे-दारे सोडून परजिल्ह्य़ात पळून जावे लागते. आम्ही गाव सोडावे की धंदा, हे पोलीस अधीक्षकांनी सांगावे. बहुतांशी महिला कर्जबाजारी झाल्या असून अनेकजणींना उपचार अर्धवट सोडावे लागले आहेत, असे नगरच्या सुमन त्रिभुवन यांनी सांगितले.
कृष्णप्रकाश म्हणाले, उपजिविकेसाठी स्वत:चे शरीर विकणे हा गुन्हा नसला, तरी कुंटणखाने चालवणे, तसेच दुसऱ्या महिलांची कमाई खाणे हे अनैतिक मानवी वाहतूक कायद्यानुसार गंभीर गुन्हे आहेत. विविध ‘अर्थ’पूर्ण कारणांमुळे आजवर या धंद्यातील खऱ्या गुन्हेगारांवर कारवाई होत नव्हती. ही कारवाई सुरूच राहिल. त्यामुळे या धंद्यातील महिलांनी धाडस करून पुनर्वसनाचा पर्याय स्वीकारावा. या संदर्भात स्नेहालयचा पुढाकार ऐतिहासिक महत्त्वाचा आहे. पुनर्वसनासाठी शेती, दुग्ध व्यवसाय, हस्तकला या रोजगारक्षम उद्योगांसाठी सरकारने किमान ६७ हेक्टर पडीक जमीन संस्थेला द्यावी, असा ठराव महिलांनी केला. जागा मिळाल्यास पुनर्वसनाचा पथदर्शी प्रकल्प स्नेहालय उभारेल, असे स्नेहज्योतचे समन्वयक प्रवीण मुत्याल यांनी सांगितले.

स्नेहालय पुनर्वसन प्रकल्पात मोफत जागा
पुनर्वसनासाठी स्नेहालयने ठोस पुढाकार घेतला आहे. ज्या महिला लालबत्ती भागातून स्नेहालय प्रकल्पात राहण्यासाठी येतील, त्यांना प्रत्येकी १ हजार चौरस फूट जागा संस्था पुनर्वसन संकुलात देईल. वीज, पाणी व रोजगाराचे साधन संस्था पुरवेल. भोजन, औषधोपचाराचा खर्चही केला जाईल. सलग ३ महिने राहणाऱ्या महिलांना ही जागा करार करून मोफत दिली जाईल, असे मिलिंद कुलकर्णी यांनी जाहीर केले. पहिल्या टप्प्यात ४० महिलांना त्यांच्या मुलाबाळांसह पुनर्वसित करण्याचा मानस आहे, असे संस्थेचे उपसंचालक अंबादास चव्हाण यांनी सांगितले. कृष्णप्रकाश यांच्या हस्ते मालन गोरे व मीना पाठक यांना २ भूखंड प्रदान करून प्रकल्पाला सुरुवातही करण्यात आली.

Woman from Nuzvid rescued in New Delhi Brothel on GB Road

2010-09-26T10:12:00.001+05:30

Child trafficking still continues

2010-09-25T20:27:00.002+05:30

THE HINDU
Date:25/09/2010

Child trafficking still continues

Staff Reporter
BERHAMPUR: Trafficking of children, including girls, to the states outside Orissa from its Kandhamal district is continuing.
Timely intervention of police and social activists could save 41 of them from getting transported to states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala. On Monday night 13 minor girls, 14 boys and two girls were rescued by a police patrol team in Gajalbadi area of Sorada block in Ganajm district. An agent was taking them to Berhampur railway station so that they could be transported to Tamil Nadu. All of them were from remote villages in Tumudibadh and Kotgarh areas of Kandhmal district.
The Childline in Berhampur received the information from sources that these children were to be transported via Berhampur railway station. So, with help of police plans were made to trace the children on their way to Berhampur.
According to project director of ‘Childline' in Berhampur, Sudhir Sabat, on Wednesday the police in Baliguda in Kandhamal district on a tip off prevented 12 girls from getting transported to Kerala.
It may be noted five girls from Daringbadi in Kandhamal district were rescued from Berhampur railway station in April by railway police while they were being transported outside Orissa. In January 12 minor girls from the same area in Kandhamal district were rescued in Andhra Pradesh while they were being transported to Tamil Nadu.
Transit point
Mr. Sabat said Berhampur was fast turning out to be a major transit point of child trafficking. Children from poor families in remote areas of Ganjam, Gajapati and Kandhamal districts are being brought to the city to be sent outside the State. He demanded better coordination between police, social activists and railway authorities to check this trafficking.

Closure of srinivasa Lodge Ravulapalam under Immoral traffic Prevention act 1956

2010-09-16T19:26:00.000+05:30

On the orders issued by Revenue Divisional Officer Smt. B. Lavanya Veni of Amlapuram sub division, on 14/09/2010, Sub Divisional Police officer Amlapuram Mr. gangadhar, CI Ravulapalam Mr. Muralikrishna & others has closed Srinivasa Lodge using provision of Section 18 (1) of Immoral traffic Prevention act, 1956 for carrying out organized prostitution.

7 women rescued from prostitution racket; 3 pimps held

2010-09-06T14:22:00.000+05:30

Sun, Sep 5 11:05 PM

Chennai, Sep 5 (PTI) Seven women hailing from Andhra Pradesh and Mumbai, forced into prostitution after being promised a career in films, were rescued by police and three alleged pimps arrested here today. The women were allegedly cheated by three pimps saying they would be given an opportunity to act in movies. But they were forced into prostitution, police said. Acting on a tip-off, police rescued the women from lodges in Periamet area during a surprise raid, an official statement here said. Three alleged pimps -- Philip Thomas (50) and Joshi Joseph (36) of Mumbai and 35-year-old Sreenivasa Rao from Andhra Pradesh, who allegedly forced these women into prostitution were arrested and remanded to judicial custody. Further investigation was on, the statement said adding that the women were sent to a government home.

Kingpin in trafficking case sent to custody

2010-08-21T22:18:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU
Date:21/08/2010

Andhra Pradesh - Rajahmundry
RAJAHMUNDRY: Abdul Hamid Omar Abba (50), the kingpin in girl trafficking to Dubai and who was deported to India on August 3 was sent to three days police custody by a Kakinada court. With his arrest the Eluru police hopes to crack down on agents involved in trafficking in the district and other southern States. The issue came to light when two sisters lodged a complaint with the Mandapeta police station of East Godavari about girl trafficking by two locals and others from Chennai, Vellore, according to the DIG, Eluru Range, Mahesh M. Bhagawat.

Cases booked against children's home organisers

2010-08-19T21:02:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU
Date:19/08/2010
Andhra Pradesh

TIRUVURU: The police registered cases against two organisers of ‘Nee Rakshana', a private children's home, on Wednesday, following the intervention of local people who brought to light that the home was being run without authorisation.
The police booked cases under Sections 343 (wrongful confinement of children), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 363 (kidnapping) against L. Venkateswara Rao and R. Swaroopa Rani on the basis of a complaint lodged by a supervisor of ICDS. The three children, who were left in the home by the organisers who shifted other children to Hyderabad, were handed over to the Child Welfare Committee. The police said efforts were on to find out the remaining children and special teams were formed to trace the absconding organisers of the home.

2010-08-17T08:21:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU
Date:17/08/2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andhra Pradesh - Eluru
Piquant situation for victims of women trafficking

G. Nagaraja

ELURU: For more than half-a-dozen victims of women trafficking from East and West Godavari districts, reaching back home appears not as easy as their release from flesh trade, thanks to fake claims over their parenthood.

The victims are languishing in a rescue home in Chennai, eagerly waiting for a reunion with their families for over six months ever since their rescue from a brothel by the Chennai police. The fake claims allegedly raised by some traffickers over their parenthood, in a bid to get them back into flesh trade, reportedly makes it difficult for the court in Chennai trying their cases to find their biological parents and send them back home. The court had entrusted the responsibility to a Chennai-based NGO, Just Trust. The NGO, in turn, contacted M.M. Bhagawat, DIG of Police, Eluru range, for help in cross-checking the claims. Mr. Bhagawat said all seven victims were trafficked to Malaysia and Singapore for flesh trade from the twin Godavari districts.

One such victim was a woman from Annadevarapet under the Tallapudi police station. Her links with her parents were established by the district police basing on a complaint of ‘woman missing' reported in the Tallapudi police station on December 24, 2009. Expressing serious concern over the increasing incidence of women trafficking cases in the two districts, the DIG said a request was placed before the Collector for timely relief and early rehabilitation of the victims as such measures would wean them away from flesh trade

Sordid tale of slavery victim - National News

2010-08-12T16:31:00.000+05:30

Sordid tBeaten, whipped and deprived of contact with the outside world, an Indian teenager has painfully recalled how she endured a year and a half of hell being forced to work as a prostitute in Dubai brothels.
The 18-year-old, who asked to remain anonymous, came to the UAE believing she was to be employed as a maid to support her family after her father died, told 7DAYS she thought she would die in one of the seedy sex dens.
“I was beaten regularly with a mobile chord and locked up inside flats. I was never allowed to speak to my family or go out. I was abused all the time. It was hell,” she said.
The teen had paid dhs5,000 to an agent in India who promised her a reputable job in the UAE.
“The agent looked like a good man. I trusted him blindly and gave him the money hoping that he would get me the job. Instead he handed over me to the agents who ran a sex racket. I was devastated.”
The young victim said she was met by two men and a woman at Dubai International Airport upon her arrival in the country and taken to a flat in Bur Dubai where around ten other young girls were also being held captive along with her cousin.
“I was put up at a place in Bur Dubai to start with but was later shifted to a flat near fish roundabout in Deira. It was a dingy flat with no ventilation. I was locked up there along with other prisoners,” she said.
“We were never allowed to go outside alone. Someone always used to accompany us and he would keep a close watch on what we were doing. “If we resisted their instructions they would abuse and beat us.
“It was so terribly harrowing.”
She was not allowed any contact with her family back in India during the 18 months she was trapped in the brothels and was deprived of food by her captors.
“Whenever I tried to contact my family they used to snatch away the phone. They would abuse and beat me up. None of my family knew what was happening. I felt like I was dying every day,” the girl added.
The teen was only freed from the hell-hole after a raid on one of the brothels by Dubai Police back in March. Her mother had been worried sick after having no contact with her daughter for a year and a half but the pair were finally reunited after she landed at Hyderabad airport earlier this year.
“I was so shocked to hear of what happened to her. We are really struggling to return to a normal way of life after this,” her mother said.
The young victim spoke of her trauma after Indian police arrested the alleged kingpin of the traffickers at Mumbai airport last Wednesday.
Mahesh Bhagawat, deputy inspector general of police for the Eluru range in Andhra Pradesh, said that the women being held by the traffickers were forced to entertain between ten and 15 customers a day. “They were harassed physically and forced into prostitution. The women were all aged 17 to 20 years old,” he said.
The young girl who hails from a remote village in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh is now trying to start her life afresh.
She has got a job at a shop in Hyderabad and is hoping she can forget what has happened and take care of her family.
“My only concern at the moment is to get my two younger sisters married and see them live happily,” she said.
“What happened to me should not happen to anyone else.”
RINGLEADER SNAREDThe alleged kingpin of the human trafficking ring has been arrested on suspicion of rape.
Abdul Hamid Omar Abba, 50, was detained by cops at Mumbai airport last week for allegedly assaulting the 18-year-old woman who he forced to work as a prostitute in Dubai.
Two other men involved in the sick trade have also been arrested in India.
Five further people are still being hunted by officers, including one woman, who was among those who met the teen at Dubai International Airport and transported her to the brothels.
Indian police said Abba used to live in Bur Dubai and worked as a taxi driver. He is thought to have worked with various agents to bring the women to Dubai to work in the sex trade.
“We are coordinating with the Indian embassy in the UAE to arrest the remaining culprits with the help of Dubai Police and bring them to India. This is a huge and serious racket which has been going on for years,” said Mahesh Bhagawat, deputy inspector general of police for the Eluru range in Andhra Pradesh.
Police say Abba would take dhs5,000 from women who believed they were paying a recruitment company to get a reputable job in the UAE.
He then produced fake birth certificates for the girls to show that they were 30 years old so that they could get visas to work as domestic help.STRIDES TAKEN TO TACKLE THE SORDID GANGSThe UAE has been working to bag traffickers who blight the streets of the Emirates.
The number of human trafficking cases taken to court in 2009 more than doubled from the previous year, according to the annual report from the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking in the UAE, which was released in May.
The report showed that 43 cases went before the courts in 2009, which involved 86 trafficking victims.
In those cases a total of 125 defendants were prosecuted, and 35 of the 43 cases ended in conviction.
Of those, 21 occurred in Dubai. Fifteen cases were recorded in Sharjah and the Northern Emirates, and seven took place in Abu Dhabi.
In one of the most severe incidents, the Criminal Court in Abu Dhabi sentenced seven men to life in prison - the harshest penalty possible - for running the emirate’s largest known human-trafficking ring.
“For the majority of trafficked persons, it is only when they arrive in the UAE that they realise that the work they are promised does not exist and they are forced instead to get employment in jobs or conditions to which they did not give their consent,” the report said.
fareed.rahman@7days.ae ale of slavery victim - National News

Woman trafficker arrested at Mumbai, brought to Kakinada [14827]

2010-08-07T15:51:00.000+05:30

Woman trafficker arrested at Mumbai, brought to Kakinada [14827]
Kakinada, Aug 5 : A special team of East Godavari police deputed by the SP Ghattamaneni Srinivas, has arrested the kingpin of woman trafficking racket Abdul Hamid Omar Abba (50), at Mumbai, and brought him to Kakinada, by flight today.
The team was sent following a communication received from the Mumbai airport immigration authorities on detaining the woman trafficker. He will be produced before the court at Mandapet tomorrow. He is wanted by the police in woman trafficking cases but escaping the police dragnet for the past few months. Two of his local sub agents were already arrested. The Bangalore, based Abba, has lured several young girls of lucrative employment at Dubai, but in reality sold them to gulf agents for landing them into flesh trade. The whole racket came to light only after a woman from Mandapet lodged a complaint after escaping from a brothel house in Dubai, during March this year.' police said.
--UNI

Five held on charge of trafficking in women

2010-08-05T15:43:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU
5/08/2010

Staff Reporter

ELURU: A special team led by Kovvuru DSP G. Janaki Sharmila busted a five-member gang allegedly thriving on women trafficking and rescued four persons, including a minor girl. The victims hailed from Rajahmundry, Kovvuru, Tanuku and Vijayawada.
According to M.M. Bhagawath, DIG of Police, Eluru Range, a couple of financiers – Yesu and Muttaiah – based in Tanuku were also arrested on the charge of financing the illegal activity.
They allegedly lent money on interest to Grandhi Naresh, also from Tanuku, for carrying on the activity.
The DIG said that three cases of a similar nature were registered against Naresh in the past.
The police arrested the accused at Nidadavole railway station while they were allegedly transporting the victims to Bangalore and Rayachore.

At large
Another main accused Ravi of Bangalore was at large, the DIG said.

Kingpin in woman trafficking nabbed

2010-08-05T15:40:00.000+05:30

Kingpin in woman trafficking nabbed

Kakinada
Wednesday, Aug 4 2010 IST
A special team of East Godavari Police left for Mumbai today following the receipt of communication from the airport authorities there on the detaining the prime accused in the women trafficking case pertaining to Mandapet registered during March this year. Police sources said the accused Bangalore-based Abdul Hamid Omar Abba, was running a racket luring young girls on the promise of providing employment in Gulf countries but actually engaged them in flesh trade there. ''He was operating the clandestine business through two of his agents at Mandapet for quite some time. ''The entire episode came to light when one of the girls, who languished in brothel houses in Dubai for two years, lodged a complaint with Mandapet Police on her return home after undergoing an ordeal.'' Based on her complaint, the police arrested two local agents on March 7 and also sent special team to Bangalore to arrest Abba. However Abba gave a slip to the Andhra Police and had been at large since then. The East Godavari Police declared him as a 'wanted' and communicated to the Immigration Authorities with a request to detain him, the sources added

10 more brothels being closed

2010-07-25T12:24:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU
Date:25/07/2010
Andhra Pradesh - Eluru
Drive against trafficking of women

2 RDOs order closure of brothel houses

ELURU: Kovvuru and Eluru Revenue Divisional Officers—D.V. Ramana Reddy and V.R.K. Prabhakara Rao—on Saturday issued orders under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act (PITA) for closure of 10 brothel houses in their revenue divisions in their capacity as the Divisional Executive Magistrates. The dens were reportedly included a lodge and a beauty parlour in Tanuku.
The police approached the RDOs with a request to exercise their powers under the PITA as part of the on-going drive against the trafficking of women.
The RDOs directed the operators of the brothel houses to vacate the dens and free them of sex trade within a week.
The PITA was invoked by the RDOs after a series of raids on these dens by the police hardly had any impact on the sex trade. Kovvuru DSP G. Janaki Sharmila said the police had foisted 26 cases against traffickers, arrested 103 persons accused of indulging in sex trade and rescued 126 victims in her police sub division in the last one year

India is a World Hub in Human Trafficking - International - Catholic Online

2010-07-17T11:52:00.000+05:30

India is a World Hub in Human Trafficking - International - Catholic Online

3 women rescued from flesh trade by CB-CID - Hindustan Times

2010-07-09T22:01:00.000+05:30

3 women rescued from flesh trade by CB-CID - Hindustan Times

Flesh trade racket busted

2010-06-25T22:35:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU
Flesh trade racket busted
Friday, Jun 25, 2010

Staff Reporter 17 sex workers, including 2 foreigners, rescued
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raided places include Fortune Katriya and Kens hotels at Punjagutta and Srinagar Colony
Rescued sex workers hail from Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and rural Andhra Pradesh
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HYDERABAD: The city police on Thursday cracked the whip on flesh trade being organised by procuring sex workers from different parts of the country and abroad and raided different places in the city.
While 16 alleged pimps were arrested, 17 sex workers - including two foreigners - were rescued during the raids conducted by the Commissioner's Task Force officials. The raids revealed that flesh trade was being organised in rented flats, independent houses and even reputed hotels. Among the raided places were Fortune Katriya and Kens hotels at Punjagutta and Srinagar Colony, respectively, the police said. One of the pimps brought a sex worker from Morocco and was allegedly arranging meetings at Fortune Katriya hotel. Another brothel operator brought a noted model from Kolkata to city and provided accommodation to her in Kens hotel.
In other cases, it was found that brothel operators hired flats or independent houses in posh localities of west, north and central zones in the city offering high rents to the house owners through rental agencies.
The rescued hailed from Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, and Bheemavaram, Vizianagaram, Anantapur, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh.

TV9 video on closure of brothels in Peddapuram of east Godavari district

2010-06-23T20:55:00.000+05:30

18 RCC buildings used for Commercial and sexual exploitation are closed by Sub Divisional Magistrates in East, West Godavari & Krishna District based on Police report for 1 year along with eviction of offenders.

How an Andhra cop became a global anti-trafficking hero

2010-06-18T18:02:00.000+05:30

How an Andhra cop became a global anti-trafficking hero

Bombay News.Net

Friday 18th June, 2010 (IANS)

An Andhra Pradesh policeman, who has just been named by the US among nine anti-trafficking heroes worldwide, says a victim-centric approach, roping in NGOs and strict implementation of laws, are behind his success.
'We adopted a victim-centric approach which helped us secure the convictions of 85 traffickers during the last one and a half years. They were sentenced to four to 14 years in jail. This is a benchmark set by Andhra Pradesh. Nowhere in India was such a high conviction rate achieved,' Inspector General of Police Sattaru Umapathi, 57, told IANS in an exclusive interview.
The Hyderabad-based anti-human trafficking nodal officer of the state who led numerous operations across India to rescue victims of human trafficking was named in the Trafficking in Persons Report 2010 released in Washington Monday.
Umapathi is the first Indian government official to get this honour for going beyond the state's borders to rescue victims as per the anti-trafficking protocols of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
He was the first to take the initiative in 2005 when he was in the Andhra Pradesh Police Academy. He held a workshop to create awareness and train 5,000 officers in anti-trafficking.
'Treating a victim as a victim and not as an accused was the biggest attitudinal change brought about during the training. Earlier, we were filing chargesheets against the victims, making them accused,' he said.
'Judicial colloquium, public interactions were held and public prosecutors were also trained. We achieved a synergy. Everybody understood his role. Police, prosecution, judiciary, women and child welfare department and NGOs worked together,' he said.
'Implementation of stringent laws was another key measure. Since a minor can't give her consent, we booked the accused for gang rape in addition to various sections of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act,' he said.
He said they took their exercise to other parts of the country, something which had never happened earlier.

'We started inter-state rescues under the UNODC protocols. The whole exercise was victim-centric and aimed at seeing that the trafficker was punished,' he said.
'We also developed nodal NGO concept. In cities like Pune, Mumbai, Delhi and other places, we took the help of local NGOs in raids and in conducting trials. The NGOs also helped us in segregation of victims from the accused, counselling the victims and in their rehabilitation,' he said.
'We conduct raids after talking to the victims. The victim is supported from raid to the trial and at the post-trial stage. The NGOs take care of the victim's needs and court processes. Then there is government support. The women and child welfare department is paying Rs.10,000 towards interim relief for each victim after rescue,' explained the officer.
Since 2007, about 2,000 victims, including 200 minors, were rescued during raids in Andhra Pradesh and other parts in India. About 4,000 traffickers and other exploiters were arrested.
'I have been the nodal officer for anti-trafficking since May 2006. A long tenure is also important because if you start something and go back, others may not take it up that vigorously. But now the whole process is institutionalised. We officially have anti-human trafficking units. Whoever comes and sits here has to do it,' he said.
Umapathi is a professional trainer for Indian Police Service officers in India, having been trained in the leadership module by the Department for International Development in Britain in 2003. He also won the Indian police medal in 1996 and the president's police medal for distinguished services in 2008.
As the annual report of the US state department placed India on its tier-2 watch list for the seventh consecutive year, the officer feels 'for a big country like ours, more measures are required'.
'We have to perform a little better. It is a big nation and we are not able to come up to international standards,' he said.

Brothel owner held at Samalkot

2010-06-15T12:51:00.000+05:30

Kakinada, Feb 12th: Two minor girls of the city escaped from a brothel at Samalkot on Friday. With the help of an auto-rickshaw driver, the girls reached Samalkot police station. The police took the brothel’s organiser into custody. According to the girls aged around 14 years, a few days ago, a woman Devi from Kattipudi in East Godavari approached the girls’ parents, residents of Kakinada II Town. Devi asked the parents to send the girls along with her and promised them that she would show some work to the girls somewhere in the district. The parents agreed and sent the girls with Devi who sold the girls to the brothel organiser, Vemagiri Missamma, who is living in a Rajiv Gruhakalpa house at Samalkot.

For the last six days, Missamma started pestering the girls to join her work with a person in Hyderabad. The girls refused to do so. On Friday morning, the girls escaped from the house and met an auto-rickshaw driver, G Veeranna. With his help, the girls met the district Congress secretary, Mr U. John Moses, who took them to the police station. Police immediately raided the house and took two women, P. Lakshmi and Devi into custody initially and launched an investigation. Speaking to reporters, the girls said that Missamma was planning to send them to Chennai and Hyderabad for sex work.

Fund for victims of trafficking urged

2010-06-12T08:00:00.001+05:30

THE HINDU
Date:12/06/2010
Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: We need a ‘victim support fund' to protect victims of trafficking and encourage them to testify against traffickers, S. Umapathy, the State's Additional Anti-Trafficking Nodal Officer said on Friday. "The police have begun to heed victims of trafficking as victims rather than perpetrators,” he said.

“Those in law enforcement have realised that this is the last resort for the poor and helpless.” Mr. Umapathy was speaking at a national workshop on ‘Public Private Partnerships to combat Human Trafficking' by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). “There all kinds of trafficking, from bonded labour to sex trade to using people as guinea pigs for medical experiments too,” he said. “Rescuing people, particularly young girls, is only part of the problem.

Rehabilitating them is the real challenge.” Given the acute shortage of counsellors, he said the victim's trauma often goes unaddressed.
Alternate job opportunities formed an integral part of the discussions. “Every single person is employable and capable of learning a set of skills,” S.J. Amalan, Regional Director for Apprenticeship Training said.
“Only 7 per cent of our work force is well educated.

9 Brothels closed and offenders evicted in Eluru range

2010-06-11T18:11:00.001+05:30

Using the provision of Section 18 (1) of Immoral Traffic Prevention Act 1986 & based on the representation by Sub Divisional Police Officer Peddapuram Sri Ch. Harshvardhan Rao, Revenue Divisional Officer of Peddapuram Divison Mr. K. Nataraju has issued orders for closure of 6 brothels for 1 year and eviction of organizers on the ground that prostitution is carried on. Peddapuram Town of East Godavari District is ill famous for the age old brothel based prostitution and for the first time we have used the provision of Immoral Traffic act, 1986 for eviction and closing down the brothels. On 22/5/2010 RDO Peddapuram issued show cause notices for closing down the premises used for running the brothel and evicting the offenders adjourning the matter to 5th June, 2010. Finally on 5th June, 2010 vide M.C. No.3/2010,5/2010, 11/2010, 16/2010, 18/2010, 19/2010 RDO Mr. Natraju issued the final orders. Organizers are also warned that they should not organize the prostitution or carry on the prostitution here after anywhere in and around the area where they are going to reside.
Organizers were carrying out prostitution by luring innocent women for years together and faced raids by Police on these brothels but were reluctant to give up the profession. District administration and Women & Child development Department are taking care for rehabilitation of victims rescued from these brothels.

I appreciate Sub Divisional Magistrate / RDO Peddapuram Mr. K. Natarju, District Collector of East Godavari Mr. Ravi Chandra Muddada IAS, Sub Divisional Police Officer/DSP Peddapuram Mr.Ch. Harshvardhan Rao, Superintendent of Police of east Godavari Mr. G. Srinivas IPS for their sincere efforts.

This is 3rd initiative in last 2 months by Eluru Range Police. In the last Month RDO Kakinada closed down 2 Lodges for 1 year used for organized prostitution at Pithapuram of East Godavari District. On 27/4/2010 based on report of DSP Narsapur Mr.Ravi Varma, RDO Narsapur Sri. S. Venkata Subbaiah vide M.C. No.6/2010/A issued closure order for 6 months of a Brothel House located in heart of Bhimavaram Town of West Godavari District. Police & revenue Department together in synergy with other stake holders can definitely stop the human trafficking by working on the principle of 3R’s Rescue, Rehabilitation, Reintegration & 3P’s Prevention, Protection, Prosecution.

According to Provision of Section 18 (3) of ITP, Act 1986 orders issued by Executive Magistrate according to Section 18 (1) for closure of brothels & eviction of offenders from Premises shall not be subject to appeal and shall not be stayed or set aside by the order of any court, civil or criminal.

Towards empowerment of women and children

2010-05-30T12:29:00.000+05:30

Date:29/05/2010
Andhra Pradesh - Eluru

Towards empowerment of women and children
Staff Reporter
SPEWC, a district-level statutory body, launched
Integrated Child Protection Scheme also launched
Collector highlights need to focus on trafficking
ELURU: The Society for Protection and Empowerment of Women and Children (SPEWC) was launched here on Friday as a district-level statutory body to address issues concerning women and children and to strive for their empowerment. It would function as an arm of the State-level body – Andhra Pradesh Society for Protection and Empowerment of Women.

Objective

An Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), another forum to focus on the plight of children, was also launched on the same platform.
K. Raghava Rao, Project Director, Women and Child Welfare Department, who is member-convener of the district-level body, said the society would strive to promote gender equity, provide vulnerable women and children access to quality services and opportunities for building an equitable society through convergence and partnership.
Domestic violence
Collector A. Vani Prasad would act as Chairperson and Superintendent of Police C. Ravi Varma as vice-chairperson of the society.Speaking at a function in this connection, the Collector said the emergence of the SPEWC and the ICPS had become necessitated in the wake of increasing incidence of domestic violence.Some 10,000 cases of dowry harassment are reported in the State every year. The incidence of infanticide and foeticide is on the higher side. The female dropout rate is on the rise and the number of cases of women and girls subjected to trafficking is growing. The Collector highlighted the need for society to focus on trafficking in women and children and usurious activities of micro finance activities, subjecting SHG women to exploitation and harassment in the district.
M.M. Bhagawath, DIG of Police, Eluru range, called for an integrated approach with all stakeholders to handle the complex problems of trafficking and child abuse, and said it could be possible only through bodies like the SPEWC.
Citing an instance wherein Narsapur Revenue Divisional Officer S. Venkatamaiah had closed down a brothel in Bhimavaram for six months by exercising his powers under the Immoral Trafficking Act, the DIG called upon the revenue officers to act in a similar manner in their capacity as executive magistrates and cooperate with the police in combating the proliferating incidence of women trafficking in the district. SP C. Ravi Varma also spoke

Singapore based sex trade busted

2010-05-28T09:51:00.000+05:30

Singapore based sex trade busted

May 25 2010

Hyderabad, May 24: The state police have busted human trafficking and sex racket gang that would operate from Tamil Nadu and Singapore and arrested six persons.

A case against three Singapore-based racketeers has been registered and the police have decided to seek a red corner notice from Interpol.

The gang members who were arrested from Chennai, Hyderabad, Khammam and West and East Godavari were sending girls to Singapore on two-month tourist visas where they would be forced into prostitution.

The cops also rescued a 15-year-old girl of Tanuku in West Godavari district in an operation and registered a case against one of the gang members.

The accused has confessed that they have sent five girls to Singapore on the pretext of providing them with jobs. They were sent as relatives of the three accused gang members in Singapore.

During investigations, the Kovvur police identified 12 persons, P. Aruna Kumari (19) of Khammam, R. Santhi Kumari of East Godavari, A. Jagadish (31) of Vijayawada, Govinda Swamy Murugandanadam (28) of Chettiyar and Satyaveni, the wife of Murugan of Tamil Nadu, G. Krishna of Hyderabad and B. Purushottam Kumar of East Godavari, Rambabu of West Godavari and K. Satyanarayana of Rajahmundry.

A case has been booked against Maran, Kumar and Kannan of Singapore.

The Eluru Range DIG, Mr Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagawat, said, “Aruna Kumari used to send girls to Chennai with the help of the other accused. They promised the girls decent jobs in Singapore as maids.”

One of the accused, R. Santha Kumari, had gone to Singapore in 2008 on a tourist visa and returned to India and started sending women and girls to Chennai. Purushottam and Rambabu used to help organising passports and tourist visas for the girls. The Police caught the accused while they were trying to shift one of the victims to Singapore in a decoy operation. They said red corner notices & extradition proposals will be sent to ministry of external affairs and Embassy of India in Singapore.
Published on Deccan Chronicle
A team of West Godavari District Police led by DSP Kovvur Janaki Sharmila and others with the all support from Jebaraj of NGO Just Trust Chennai has been succesful in nabbing the Pondichery based Murugan who is on of the main trafficker. SP West Godavari Ravi Verma & DIG Eluru range has supervised this operation

Pune-Andhra police raid Pune brothels, rescue 60 women

2010-05-12T23:35:00.000+05:30

Andhra police raid Pune brothels, rescue 60 women

Reporter

Wednesday, May 12, 2010 AT 12:00 AM (IST)

Tags: Pune, human trafficking, prostitution, CID, raid

PUNE: The anti-human trafficking cell of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Andhra Pradesh conducted a raid on brothels in Budhwar Peth and rescued more than 60 girls including 20 minors on Monday. Police have arrested seven women on charges of forcing the rescued girls into prostitution.

The seven accused have been identified as Santhabai alias Sunitha Naik (55), Geetha alias Saraswathi alias Latha Venkataraman (40), Rekha Mentu Das (35), all hailing from Anantapur district of AP, Sheela Thapa (50), Laxmi Myla (35), Rita Naik (45) and Bharathi Rahul (37) all from Karnataka. Judicial Magistrate (First Class) B.B. Pantavne remanded the accused in transit custody of the AP police, to be produced before the CWC, Anantapur on or before May 14.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Shivaji T, of Andhra Pradesh CID said that a case was registered at the Kadiri town police station in 2008. Seven traffickers were arrested then and two girls rescued. During investigations, the rescued girls informed the police about more such victims being confined in brothels at Budhwar Peth in Pune. Accordingly, a search warrant was issued dated May 6 and with help of Faraskhana police, a raid was conducted on Monday in Sagar building, said DySP Shivaji.

High drama took place in the court when the rescued minor girls claimed to be major and residents of different states, in front of the court. DySP Shivaji T. had requested the court to grant their transit custody, but the defence counsel argued that these rescued and minor girls cannot be sent in transit remand with the police.

The court ordered the rescued girls to be sent in rescue homes at Nana Peth and Mundhva.
POSTPONED
The anti-human trafficking cell of the CID, Andhra Pradesh has conducted couple of successful raids in past few years. According to sources, the Monday raid, actually planned months before, had to be postponed after information was leaked at the local police station level.

Child traffickers held, kingpin still at large

2010-05-10T10:04:00.000+05:30

New Delhi, May 10, 2010

Child traffickers held, kingpin still at large

A human trafficking network active throughout north India since last year was neutralised by the Delhi Police after four people – including a woman, were arrested from West Delhi on Sunday.
According to police, the gang would kidnap girls in the age group of five to eight years from Delhi and sell them in Rajasthan.
“These buyers would rear the children till they attained sexual maturity, before pushing them into prostitution and other illegal activities,” said Sharad Aggarwal DCP (west).
Police identified the accused as Bina, Mangal, Ashok and Shyam Lal – hailing from Alwar district of Rajasthan but are yet to apprehend Radha (name changed), the gang’s leader.
“Radha used to work as an assistant with contractors supplying food to various primary schools in the capital,” said a senior police officer.
Police said Radha would come in contact with families of the gang’s prospective victims and then use her acquaintance with them to get access to their children.
“She would then kidnap them and traffic them to Rajasthan,” said the officer.
Police said the gang’s modus operandi and its links to Radha were discovered while interrogating the four accused persons following raids at Alwar’s Sodavas and Girvas villages.
“During interrogation, Bina disclosed that she had purchased a five-year-old girl from Radha through Shyam Lal for Rs 45,000,” the officer said.
Another girl, around eight years, was recovered from Mangal who confessed purchasing her from the same woman for Rs 40,000, police said.
“In addition to these two, another girl child has been rescued. However, she is so young that she is yet to make any intelligible reference to her home address or to the identity of her parents,” said Aggarwal.
“We have sent the children to Nirmal Chhaya and registered a case,” Aggarwal added.

9 rapists sentenced to life

2010-04-29T13:37:00.000+05:30

Deccan Chronicle
(http://www.deccanchronicle.com)

9 rapists sentenced to life

Apr 29 ,2010

April 28: A fast track court at Kothagudem has convicted 14 accused in a gang rape case where they shot the video on mobile phone and telecast it on the local cable TV network.

Nine of the accused have been sentenced for life imprisonment, one for 10 years, and four for five-year rigorous imprisonment. The Kothagudem Fast-Track Court Additional Sessions Judge, Ms Vijaya Lakshmi, passed the verdict on Monday.

In 2007, a minor girl was raped and blackmailed by circulating the obscene photographs of rape. The victim was threatened not to reveal though she had been sexually assaulted since February 17, 2007. However, she disclosed the crime only on January 5, 2009.

A case was registered with Kottagudem two-town police station of Khammam district against the 14 accused. The case was booked under the Information Technology Act apart from rape and other IPC sections. The accused are in the jail on remand since then.

The then Khammam superintendent of police and now Eluru DIG, Mr Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagawat, said, “the accused made a power point presentation of the rape photos and telecast them on the TV.”

The nine accused convicted for life have been identified as Amar, 24 , Raju, 28, Vamsi, 24, Raj Kamal, 19, Sudhakar, 26, Mahamood, 24, Muktyal, 46, Sultan, 23, and Baba, 21. The accused were convicted for gang-rape and under Section 66 of the IT Act. Another accused Md Ramjan, 22, was sentenced for 10 years for helping the rapists. Four other accused identified as P. Phani Kumar, 26, Nagaraju, 29, G. Madhu and K. Little Babu were sentenced for five years

Traffickers find loopholes to boost sex trade

2010-03-28T12:11:00.000+05:30

Deccan Chronicle
Traffickers find loopholes to boost sex trade

28/03/2010
U.SUDHAKAR REDDY

DC HYDERABAD

With the cases of human trafficking increasing there is a need for greater Vigilance by the passport, emigration authorities, and by the police to nab traffickers and unscrupulous agents. With the cases of human trafficking increasing there is a need for greater vigilance by the passport, emigration authorities, and by the police to nab traffickers and unscrupulous agents. Thousands of girls and women who faked their age and were sent to work as house maids, beau ticians, hairdressers and baby sitters are now languishing in the sex trade in UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Singapore and Malayasia. There is little point in making rules and regulations to safeguard women from sexual exploitation when the rules are so easily and blatantly flouted. To check the racket in sex trafficking of women who seek to work overseas, the emigration rules say that no ‘Emigration Certificate Not Required’ stamp will be issued to unskilled or semiskilled women seeking to work abroad who are below 30 years of age. This rule was introduced because many girls and young women were being recruited for what they thought were genuine jobs overseas, and then pushed into the sex trade. However, unscrupulous recruiting agents have found a way around this age provision thanks to the laxity of the passport office and the emigration authorities and a flourishing trade in bogus age certificates. Two sisters from Mandapeta, one aged 18 and the other 21, were recently rescued from their employer in Dubai who was sexually exploiting them. Says the 18-year-old, who is now in the city: “Three of us from Mandapeta went to Deira in Dubai because we were promised a salary of Rs. 13,000 a month for domestic work. Each of us paid Rs. 60,000 to get a work permit. I was only 16 at the time, but in the affidavit the agent put my age as 30. From the very second day they began torturing us and exploited us sexually. We got in touch with one Raju, a native of Valigonda in Nalgonda district, a trader. He informed the Dubai police who rescued us and we landed in Hyderabad on March 2.”

         The Mandapeta police have registered a case and arrested two persons including the local agent, Suleman. A police team that went to Chennai arrested others in the racket from Chennai and Vellore. Thousands of girls and women who faked their age and were sent to work as house maids, beauticians, hairdressers and baby sitters are now languishing either in the sex trade hubs in the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Singapore and Malayasia, or are exploited by their employers who pay them paltry sums as salary. It is the responsibility of the Regional Passport Office, which issues the passports, to check that the age is correct. Applicants whose educational qualification is below SSC (Class X) must get notarised affidavits as age proof. Here, another scam comes into play. While probing the recent case of a threat letter sent to the Chief Justice of the AP High Court, the Hyderabad police came across large numbers of blank notarised affidavits which were being used for illegal purposes, include providing proof of age for passport purposes. The Protector of Emigrants can issue an Emigration Check Not Required certificate if the woman’s age on her passport is above 30. But crooked job recruitment agents, some of whom are not even licensed, manage to get fraudulent affidavits certifying that the women are over 30 and no authority further down the line bothers to check whether the affidavit is genuine. These illegal agents work mostly in East Godavari, West Godavari, Kadapa, Anantapur, Nizamabad and Hyderabad districts.
                  The Eluru range deputy inspector-general of police, Mr. Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagawat, says, “The local agents have a network of agents in Bengaluru and Chennai who in turn have connections with agents in Dubai. Minor and unmarried women who trust them land up in brothels. Most of them are run by people from India, particularly Chennai, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh." Mr. Bhagawat said that the kingpin of the racket that involved the two sisters is Abdul Hameed of Kulai in Mangalore, Karnataka, who lives in Dubai. “He is assisted by people from Chennai, Bengaluru and one Bhanu from AP. At least seven of them are yet to be arrested in this case. The victims say there are 15 to 20 other girls from the state in Dubai being forced into the sex trade.” The state police have approached the joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs, Mr. Ravi Shankar Aisola, who in turn has contacted the consul general of India in the UAE to seek the arrest of the seven accused as well as to rescue the other girls. According to officials in the office of the Protector General of Emigrants, there are 87 registered and licensed recruiting agents in the state, most of them in Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Rayachoti, Kadapa, Nizamabad and Adilabad. At least one lakh people, including semi-skilled and unskilled men and women, were issued a work visa in 2009, up from 31,000 in 2008. Emigration officials say that it is up to the passport officials to cross-check the details of the affidavit giving proof of age, or to get an applicant medically tested if there is any doubt. Immigration authorities at airports are also not vigilant or else they would soon spot the obvious fraud. For those born after 1989, the only age of proof that is accepted by passport authorities is the municipal birth certificate or a certificate from the registrar of births. But for those born earlier, a certificate attesting to age from an educational institution or an affidavit sworn before a magistrate or notary stating date and place of birth is also accepted. Crooked agents use this latter provision by managing to get fake affidavits.
                  The police register cases under Section 24 of the Emigration Act and 420 of the IPC (cheating) against the bogus agents. In Kadapa, police booked around 35 such agents and in East Godavari two agents were arrested recently. The Regional Passport Officer was not available for comment for this article. Clearly, greater vigilance is required by the passport and emigration authorities, and by the police to nab traffickers and unscrupulous agents. A massive information campaign to warn poor women desperate for a job about the pitfalls ahead would also go a long way in preventing their exploitation.

2010-03-03T11:49:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU
Andhra Pradesh - Rajahmundry
Girl trafficking on the rise in coastal Andhra
Date:03/03/2010

‘Sravanti’ gather information about 246 slum children in Rajahmundry
Sravanti is an NGO working on child rights and related issues
HIV positive cases have also increased
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rajahmundry: Girl trafficking in coastal Andhra, particularly East and West Godavari districts, has been on the rise for the last two years and most of the girls are minors.

According to Sravanti, an NGO working on child rights and child abuse and related matters, which released a report on Tuesday, the prevalence rate of HIV has also increased among the children in East Godavari. The rise in HIV positive cases is 2 per cent in the age group of 9-18 years.

Speaking to media persons after conducting ‘awareness creation for media persons about child rights and formation of network’, G. Saikumar and A. Ramakrishna, project coordinator and secretary respectively, said that the organisation took up social mapping in 30 slums of Rajahmundry. In the exercise, the organisation identified different issues including early child marriages, HIV, child labour, child trafficking, orphans, semi-orphans, drop-out children, migration and neglected child.

Mr. Saikumar said that the NGO gathered information about 246 children from 30 slums, among whose 46 were HIV-affected. He said that most of the school drop-outs in Chenchukona hamlet of Konthamuru panchayat were staying in the school till 11 a.m. and after mid-day meal they were coming out for begging, going for labour work in quarry area and rest of the children were in the grip of the gangs involved in girl-trafficking.

According to Mr. Ramakrishna, “Most of the minor girls that are released from prostitute houses from Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa and other areas are from East and West Godavari districts.” He said that four blocks in Satellite City, Bruhannalapeta, Seethampeta, Annapoornammapeta were identified as the areas where girl trafficking was prevalent. Child labourers were more in Namavaram, Lingampeta, Ambedkarnagar and Andhra Nagar areas, he said.

New Delhi based Godman, air hostesses held for running sex racket

2010-02-28T18:00:00.000+05:30

New Delhi based Godman, air hostesses held for running sex racket

A self-styled godman who preached spirituality while running a prostitution racket and two air hostesses were among eight people arrested for flesh trade here, police said Friday.

The eight, including two men and six women in the age group of 19 to 30 years, were taken into custody near the PVR cinema at Saket in south Delhi Thursday while travelling in two cars.

They included an air hostess who worked for an Indian carrier and another who was employed by a European airline.

The mastermind was identified as Shiv Murat Dwivedi, 39, alias Ichchadhari Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot Wale.

Deputy Commissioner of Police HGS Dhaliwal said that Dwivedi belonged to Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh. He came to New Delhi in 1988 and worked as a security guard at a five-star hotel in Nehru Place.

He later worked for a massage parlour at Lajpat Nagar. He was arrested for carrying out prostitution 1997 and 1998, Dhaliwal said.
“Dwivedi then changed his appearance and started calling himself Ichchadhari Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot Wale. He was based at a Sai Baba temple in Badarpur and gradually started a flourishing flesh trade racket in the guise of leading a spiritual life,” he said.
Dwivedi started holding religious discourses and congregations and even got a video CD titled “Shri Sai Amrit Varsha” released. He even wrote for a magazine.
He constructed a 200-bed hospital and a huge temple in Chitrakoot.
Dhaliwal said the two air hostesses lived in posh areas of South Delhi. “One is pursuing MBA. The other is an aspiring model who wants to debut in Bollywood.”

Inter-state trafficking gang held, 10 women rescued

2010-02-27T17:51:00.000+05:30

Inter-state trafficking gang held, 10 women rescued

Fri, Feb 26 09:20 PM

Hyderabad, Feb 26 (PTI) Police today claimed to have busted an inter-state trafficking racket with the arrest of 12 persons and rescued 10 women, including three minors, who were forced into prostitution in Andhra Pradesh''s West Godavari district. Acting on a tip-off, a police team conducted a raid on the house of S Rajeswari, a resident of Tadepalligudem town in the district yesterday and rescued the girls, Eluru Range DIG Mahesh M Bhagwat said.

When the raid was made, the woman along with 11 other persons were negotiating a deal for buying and recruiting the girls for flesh trade, he said. "While the negotiations were coming to an end, the police party surrounded the house and caught the traffickers'' gang red-handed," Bhagwat said.

During interrogation the accused revealed that they used to trap poor girls by promising them jobs in Chennai, he said, adding that the gang used to sell the victims at the rate of Rs 30,000 each. The girls were sent to medical examination and the accused were being sent to judicial remand after being booked under various sections of IPC, the DIG said.

Sensitization of stake holders on human trafficking at Eluru

2010-02-25T11:00:00.000+05:30

Concern over women trafficking

Staff Reporter

ELURU: Sunita Krishnan, founder of ‘Prajvala’, a Hyderabad-based non-governmental organisation working for the victims of women trafficking, on Tuesday expressed her concern over the State turning into a hub of sex tourism of late. She was speaking at a sensitisation programme on human trafficking here. In a bid to drive her point home, she said the recent raids by the police in Hyderabad had revealed that the tourists from Azerbaijan, Serbia and Uzbekistan had been descending on the State for their sexual exploits with children aged below 10 years.

A decoy operation conducted by her organisation in Hyderabad had led to the rescue of a 12-year-old high school girl from the sex work. Alarmingly, even the children in 3-4 years age group were being used for shooting of pornographic films to be sold in the European market, Ms. Sunita said.

She regretted that the Internet turned out to be a convenient market channel for sex tourists.

The activist said the increasing consumerism allegedly abetted by the media through advertisements had been forcing the women into the trafficking regardless of their economic and social status.

The societal attitude towards the victims of trafficking made it difficult for their re-integration with the mainstream society after their liberation from the traffickers, she added.

Mahesh M. Bhagavat, DIG of Police, Eluru range, appealed to the district administration to sanction a bridge school for the children of trafficking victims in the district. He regretted over the reported passive role of the Revenue Divisional Magistrates (also RDOs) in exercising their powers under the Section 18(1) of the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, 1986 in closing brothels and eviction of traffickers. Superintendent of Police B. Balakrishna and Collector A. Vani Prasad spoke

10 years conviction for traffickers in A.P.

2010-02-25T10:54:00.000+05:30

In a human trafficking case of procuring minor girl for prostitution with a plan to send her to Malaysia-Singapore reported in 2007 at Eluru 2 Town P.S. of West Godavari District in A.P., on 5/2/2010, 2 traffickers are convicted for 10 years rigorous imprisonment under section 5 of Immoral Traffic Prevention act 1986, 7 years of rigorous imprisonment under 366A IPC. and 6 months of imprisonment under 417 IPC. One of the trafficker had earlier worked in Singapore- Malaysia & her passport was seized. Victim was trapped in the name of giving her admission in Nursing School at Chennai & her Passport was under prepration when raid was conducted.

Investigating officers Sub Inspector Govind Raju & Inspector Vijay Paul underwent training at AP Police academy for human trafficking under UNODC's project. Dedicated efforts of sensitized Police officers, prosecutor & Judicial Magistrate helped in getting this note worthy conviction. Anti Human trafficking Unit for Andhra region is located at Eluru

Compendium on Best Practices: Anti Human Trafficking by Law Enforcement Agencies

2010-02-13T17:51:00.000+05:30

Compendium published by UNODC on best practices on anti human trafficking by Law Enforcement agencies where I have contributed

Brothel owner held at Samalkot

2010-02-13T11:48:00.000+05:30

Brothel owner held at Samalkot
By By DC Correspondent
Feb 13 2010
Feb. 12: Two minor girls of the city escaped from a brothel at Samalkot on Friday.With the help of an auto-rickshaw driver, the girls reached Samalkot police station. The police took the brothel’s organiser into custody.
According to the girls aged around 14 years, a few days ago, a woman Devi from Kattipudi in East Godavari approached the girls’ parents, residents of Kakinada II Town.
Devi asked the parents to send the girls along with her and promised them that she would show some work to the girls somewhere in the district. The parents agreed and sent the girls with Devi who sold the girls to the brothel organiser, Vemagiri Missamma, who is living in a Rajiv Gruhakalpa house at Samalkot.
For the last six days, Missamma started pestering the girls to join her work with a person in Hyderabad. The girls refused to do so.
On Friday morning, the girls escaped from the house and met an auto-rickshaw driver, G Veeranna. With his help, the girls met the district Congress secretary, Mr U. John Moses, who took them to the police station.
Police immediately raided the house and took two women, P. Lakshmi and Devi into custody initially and launched an investigation.
Speaking to reporters, the girls said that Missamma was planning to send them to Chennai and Hyderabad for sex work.

15 minor girls brought for factory work freed

2010-02-10T12:28:00.000+05:30

15 minor girls brought for factory work freed
TNN, 10 February 2010,
BANGALORE: Fifteen minor girls from Andhra Pradesh who were brought to Bangalore to work in a garment factory at Nayandanahalli, were rescued at the City Railway Station on Tuesday.

Railway authorities, who saw the group of anxious girls from Srikakulam district in AP, alerted the police and child helpline. Preliminary inquiry revealed they were bought and then brought for work.

BOSCO child helpline coordinator Gnana Prakash said: “Off the 15 girls, three are above 18 years and were working at a garment factory. They were paid by the employer to get more girls. So they brought the minors from their hometown Srikakulam. Such incidents are regular in garment factories but are left unchecked by the authorities.”

A security personnel from the garment factory was waiting at the railway station with a vehicle to take these girls to the factory. However, timely action from the railway authorities saved them.

The girls are at the government girls home now. The child helpline has registered a case of trafficking with the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights

Indian gov't plans code of conduct for ‘safe’ tourism

2010-02-04T12:52:00.000+05:30

Indian gov't plans code of conduct for ‘safe’ tourism

Ranjeet S. Jamwal
The Statesman
Publication Date: 04-02-2010

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In view of the increasing incidences of rape, sexual offences, sexual abuse of children, particularly street-children, the Indian tourism ministry has finalised a 'code of conduct' for the industry to prevent any form of exploitation of children.

Apart from preventing sexual exploitation of children and women, the 'code of conduct for safe and honourable tourism' also aims to protect India’s culture, values and heritage.

As 70 per cent of sex workers in the country are children, the code has specific guidelines for hotels, tour operators and airlines for preventing sexual exploitation of children by guests.

It has been finalised after consulting all stakeholders in the tourism sector, including state governments. According to sources in the tourism ministry, the code of conduct will be implemented once it gets the approval of the tourism minister Miss Selja. The most likely date for its implementation is March 8 (International Women’s Day).

When the code of conduct comes into effect, suppliers of tourism services will have to take measures to protect children against sexual exploitation in the business. As per the code of conduct, hotels, tour operators and airlines will have to train their staff to identify and report a possible exploitative activity to authorities. It also forbids tourists from seeking out children for sex via chat rooms and discussion groups. Hotels would also be asked not to ‘help’ tourists get access to children for sex or employ minors in their industry.

Child sex tourism is believed to be prevalent in many states of the country. Studies have shown that in the name of pilgrim, heritage and coastal tourism, sexual exploitation of children is quite widespread in Maharastra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa.

Apart from major cities and places for sightseeing, pilgrim centres like Tirupati, Guruvayoor and Puri are growing hubs for sex tourism. Study reports say foreign tourists engage in paedophilia and sex with minors through short-term marriages.
Last month, the Supreme Court had asked the government to come out with foolproof measures to curb ‘sex tourism’ in the country and register cases of rape against those pushing children into prostitution rackets or having sex with them. It directed that sexual assault on children must be registered as rape.

Centre’s code push to wipe off child sex tourism stain

2010-02-03T13:29:00.000+05:30

Centre’s code push to wipe off child sex tourism stain
New Delhi, Feb 2, DHNS:

Deeply disturbed and concerned with the widely growing perception that India is emerging as a prime sex tourism destination, the Centre has taken the first big step towards checking an anomaly by putting together a code of conduct for the tourism industry.

What has made the government and the tourism industry sit up and take note of a trend in which foreign tourists visit tourism hubs like Goa, Kerala as well as pilgrimage-rich stateslike Tamil Nadu and Orissa to seek more than the sun and the culture.

The code of conduct is a virtual admission by the government that the problem exists. The code of conduct, which is likely to become effective on March 8 – observed as International Women’s Day – after approval from Tourism Minister Kumari Selja, has come following several recent exposes involving foreigners indulging in child sex, paedophilia and pornography.

The code of conduct for service providers in the tourism sector for “Safe and Honorable Tourism” has been finalised after consulting all stakeholders, including state governments.

“It had become an urgent necessity to come up with such a code as India has been identified as a source, transit and destination point in the international circuit, and a large number of children are also trafficked within the country,” the sources stressed.

Tourism Ministry sources said the government decided to act following warnings from experts that the menace had assumed dangerous proportions not just in tourist havens but also in pligrimage centres in Tamil Nadu and Orissa.

Humane view

The government is also taking a humane view and would not want condemning impoverished children to the explotation of sex tourism. “The code aims to protect children and women, culture, values and the coutnry’s heritage to ensure long-term sustainable and responsible tourism in India,” the sources said.

Among the organisations involved in evolving the code are PATA India, Save the Children India, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Equitable Tourism Option (EQUATIONS), NEST India Foundation and the National Commission for Women was also consulted in this regard.

”Under the code, hotels will have to report any suspicious behaviour by any staff or customer to the local police. If any material pertaining to child pornography is found on the computer of any employee or customer, it will also have to be reported to the local police,” the sources said.

Tour operators will have to train personnel to be alert against any possibility of sexual exploitation of children.

“Airlines operating within and to India will have to commit themselves to pursue, with every possible means, public awareness about the issue through in-flight magazines, ticket jackets, internet links, and videos on long-haul flights,” the sources said.

The code will be applicable to all directors, employees, suppliers, contractors and patrons of hotels, airlines, tour operators and institutions connected with the industry. It will require hotels to even prevent guests from visiting child pornography sites using the Internet, and seeking to contact children for sexual purposes via chat rooms or discussion groups.

The code has been necessitated, the sources said, in the light of growth in high-spending foreign tourists and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC)’s projection that India will be among the nations having the fastest-growing tourism industry over the next 10-15 years.

The government move follows the 2008 World Congress against the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents held in Rio, Brazil, in which countries were asked to draft special laws to prevent children from being used in the tourism industry.

Police bust gang trafficking in girls

2010-02-03T12:36:00.001+05:30

THE HINDU

Date:03/02/2010

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Andhra Pradesh - Rajahmundry

Police bust gang trafficking in girls

Staff Reporter

Minor shifted to hospital for tests
Rajahmundry: Police cracked two important cases on Tuesday at a time. In once case, they arrested members of a gang involved in trafficking of girls. In another case they arrested two persons who were allegedly taking 75 packets of ganja along with them in a car. The two cases were dealt with by D. Janaki, Sub-Divisional Police Officer and her team.

In a media conference, the DSP said that Boddeti Seetha Mahalakshmi and her brother Boddeti Ganesh were engaged in tailoring in Narayanapuram area from 2007. They kidnapped a minor girl and Ganesh allegedly molested her and then sold the girl with the help of his sister to Nani-Raju brother gang in Hyderabad. In 2008, Malakpeta police raided the brothel and sent back the minor girl to Swadhara Home in Rajahmundry. Recently, the girl went back to her grandmother’s house and Seetha Mahalakshmi and Ganesh chased her and tried to engage her in prostitution. However, she escaped from their clutches and reached One-Town police station.

Sub-Inspector M.G. Ramakrishna took her to DSP and the DSP and SI raided the house of Seetha Mahalakshmi and Ganesh on Tuesday morning and arrested them. The minor girl was shifted to Government Hospital for medical tests. The police booked cases under different sections under IPC and POA Acts.

International trafficking India as destination

2010-02-01T18:34:00.001+05:30

The new white flesh trade
Mihir Srivastava
January 21, 2010

Lola, 22, is a tall girl with high, thin eyebrows on a slender face. Her features are sharp but her eyes are uninterested, fixed at a painting on the wall of the coffee shop, as she tries hard to explain, in broken English, why she is in India. Clad in a too-tight pink sweatshirt, faded cream shorts and shiny red boots, her right hand bearing a cocktail ring which she keeps twisting nervously, her blue nail varnish chipped, she seems a far cry from her alluring nocturnal avatar as one of the Capital's high-priced prostitutes. She speaks of how she came to work here two-and-a-half months ago. Her boyfriend TC, not Tom Cruise, she clarifies, momentarily showing signs of life, joined her last month. Both are clear about what they want from their lives--enough money to buy a house in Tashkent, their hometown in Uzbekistan.

The cost of fantasy

CIS girls now dominate the high-end sex market offering sexual pleasure as leisure
SERVICES TIME IN HOURS RATE IN RUPEES/per head
One trip (sexual intercourse) Two 8,000
Two trips Two 10,000
Two trips Four 15,000
Unlimited trips Eight or overnight 25,000
Orgy (at least one girl per person) Eight or overnight 25,000
Escort service (travel outstation with the client, all expenses are met) Per day 25,000
Play hostess at a stag party Four hours 15,000
Posing as nude model for photography and sketching One hour 5,000
Payment is in advance/all credit cards accepted, cash is preferred. The websites guarantee confidentiality.
One of five siblings who grew up in poverty, Lola's mother is dead and her father was abusive. For her it's just another job. There are no regrets. "It was TC who did all the running around for me, got my papers done and put me on a flight to Delhi," she says.

Lola is not alone. She is part of a growing army of fair-skinned prostitutes, about 3,000 of them in the Capital and about the same number in the other parts of the country. They are from Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Chechnya and Kyrgyzstan, all of which are part of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Replacing the earlier favourites, imports from Nepal, and charging 40 per cent more than Indian prostitutes, they are changing the rules of the game, feeding on the Indian fascination for white skin and the greater openness with which they can promote their sexual favours, through classified advertisements in newspapers and professionally-designed websites.

That the fascination for white skin is transnational is evident from the string of recent arrests. Last year, on December 10, a Delhi-based hotel manager, Shanker Mishra, was arrested in Rajkot along with an Uzbek prostitute in her late 20s, Ragini, a native of Tashkent. Initial investigations revealed that Mishra would provide women to cash-rich traders and garment exporters in Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Indore.

A little earlier, on October 30, another sex racket was busted in Mahipalpur, Delhi, where three women of CIS origin, Aslefya, 23, Sonya, 25, and Roma, 27, were arrested following a scuffle between a few pimps and locals in front of a guesthouse, 365 Inn.

In July, the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police arrested two CIS prostitutes when a decoy customer was sent to strike a deal with them. The pimp, Goldy, came with the two foreign women in a car. They were here on a six-month tourist visa and had been in the Gulf before coming to India; with their stay here governed by a Rs 1.5 lakh contract for each girl for one month. The women will be deported soon.

But it's quite likely they will be back, admits Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime, Mumbai, Rakesh Maria. "The prostitution racket involving CIS women is very well organised. The Indian pimps are in close touch with their counterparts in Dubai and CIS countries," he says. It's the culmination of events that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union and gained momentum with the entry of young CIS women into Dubai, transforming it into a major centre of prostitution.

According to an article in The New Yorker in 2008, an "almost perfect recipe: mass immigration, mass transience, a tremendous concentration of money and anonymity, and a robust demand for labour". But a crackdown in Dubai in December 2007 when 240 people were arrested and in May last year when 2,713 prostitutes were detained as well as the deportation of 228 Uzbek women from Thailand recently, ensured that many women moved south, a process hastened by the meltdown.

Inside the new trade

Getting a light-skinned prostitute is rather easy. All one has to do is call one of the numbers flashed in the two dozen-odd difficult-to-ignore massage advertisements in the classified pages of leading dailies. The sales pitch starts as soon as the ad is mentioned. Then there's the Net, where a search for 'escort service' with the city name yields pages of results.
Most of the women come as tourists from the impoverished republics of the former Soviet Union, particularly Uzbekistan. Some are coerced while others get into this business voluntarily.
The so-called 'aunties', CIS women who have been illegally living in India for several years, act as the interface between the women and local pimps. The aunties are local agents of a mafia back home and share up to 50 per cent of the profits.
Most prostitutes are not paid; they serve 'aunties' under informal contracts that pay off loans taken back home by their families in return for services provided here. The contracts run for three to six months, during which up to a third of a prostitute's earnings go repay family loans.
Lured by big money, some women come back as 'freelancers'. They then stay with an Indian pimp, who sometimes helps them get a visa. They also pay these women a daily fee which is usually between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000. Most women reinvest their earnings to make a profit; exporting leather garments is a favoured avenue.
The pimps also make money by organising rooms for clients. Five-star hotels, farmhouses and guesthouses are hotspots, with smaller establishments bending rules to ensure anonymity. Official addresses are avoided.
Some women aren't prostitutes and others aren't just that. As part of dancing troupes, they are called 'belly dancers' or 'item girls' and serve as hostesses and showgirls at parties.
Lax visa rules make for a thriving sex trade. Joint Commissioner of Police,Crime,Mumbai, Rakesh Maria says, "The pimps in India, Dubai and CIS countries work in close coordination." A secret report of the NSA had expressed concern over foreigners buying land illegally. Others have established guesthouses and restaurants.
Only half a dozen arrests were made last year; there were no convictions. According to the law, soliciting or encouraging the exchange of sexual services for money is a sex crime and not prostitution. Sometimes these women are deported, but most of them come back.
The Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls (Amendment) Act, 1978, is toothless. Most arrested women get bail as soliciting is difficult to prove. This prompted the Supreme Court last month to ask the government to legalise prostitution, on a PIL filed by an NGO called the Bachpan Bachao Andolan.

"The odds were against staying in Dubai," says Nagina, a 27-year-old Muslim from Samarkand who was in Dubai till a month ago. She escaped the police but many of her friends are in jail for illegally entering the country on false passports. She doesn't like to go to a bar to meet a client as "it is against my religion". But prostitution? "They need our services and we provide it," she says. Or take Roma, a 25-year-old from Karshi, Uzbekistan, who ran away from a violent father when she was 17. She was sucked into prostitution and sent to Dubai where her travel documents were confiscated. She is now a veteran with seven years of experience and this is her third stay in India. She lives in a three-storey flat in Delhi, atop a spiral staircase. It's a big living room with bare orange walls, a dressing table with lights and a smorgasbord of cosmetics. As she settles down in a couch to talk, the only sign of her profession is a roommate who lies huddled in the bedroom next door, sleeping in mid-afternoon, working off the effects of a late night. As she flicks the ash from her cigarette, Roma says, "Only the best survive. The pressure to do well is so high. I learned English and have been to the US and Europe. I am okay with this life."

Two of the three prostitutes arrested in the Capital in October last year.As the hunting ground shifts from Dubai, the CIS women, often referred to as "night butterflies", find India easier to work in. The classified advertisements in newspapers are easy to spot, printed by the dozens every day, five lines each costing Rs 1,800, giving mobile numbers, the option of paying by credit card and dropping cryptic hints of "body massage" assuring "full satisfaction". Translate what that means: accompanying clients on long drives, having sex with them during the lunch hour in pimp hideouts around commercial hubs or in designated safehouses, and playing host at 'stag' parties where they serve alcohol and food skimpily dressed. All this for prices ranging from Rs 8,000 to Rs 30,000 depending on the duration.

It's difficult to miss them, whether it is five-star hotel lobbies, elite clubs or farmhouses. They come here on tourist visas for three to six months and stay with 'aunties', women from CIS countries, who act as mediators between agents in home countries and pimps in India. The women are paid on a daily basis.

In Delhi, for example, over 150 Indian pimps host them and some of them have four to five CIS women on their payroll. The pimps pocket the money from clients, as payment for their upkeep as well as promotion. Call at any of the numbers advertised in the newspapers and they are quite blunt. "She will do all you want," says the male voice at the other end. "Trained handling" means the client will relive his "wildest fantasies". And when they say "full satisfaction guaranteed", they mean "the girl will do whatever the clients wants, in the way they want, with great ability". Some even promise to refresh clients with world class 'blwoiob' (blowjob) 'ser'(vice), the misspelling deliberate to avoid trouble.

Some get poetic, luring clients with phrases such as "indulge yourself in the most electrifying experience of your lifetime with our bewitching masseuses" or proclaiming that carnal pleasures can be sublime, "where mind and soul entwine together in heights of pleasure". So says a classified ad aimed at older customers. The idea is all are welcome, from the cash-rich entrepreneur to the high performing salesman, who gets sex as a bonus.

There is an even easier option, the Internet. Google 'escort service' and the name of the city where you intend to access the services, and voila, the choices pop up faster than Roger Federer's serves. Professionally designed websites offer a host of services and a detailed rate list. Again, all it requires is a call to the given number, the time of requirement, and the specific service.

"Whether for pleasure trips, business occasions, corporate events, functions or dinner dates", "especially handpicked to provide the highest level of service possible with professionalism, integrity and discretion assured at all times for the discerning gentlemen," declares one website. Clients can book their services from anywhere in the world, can even outsource the planning of a fun-filled holiday to them. Payment is to be made in advance and clients are given the convenient option of paying by credit card.

A pimp strikes a deal in a shady corner.Declares one website, "For gentlemen who would want to move beyond the confines of the hourly session, I offer these exclusive getaway packages," to the scenic towns of Nainital and Shimla in summers and to regal Jaipur and Agra in winters. Yet another tells its prospective customers, "My favourite pastime in the field of the adult industry, always has been related to couples, including lesbian or bisexual female couples and groups of people."

Their skin colour is their biggest selling point. "Sex with light-skinned women is aspirational," says Pramada Menon, a Delhi-based gender activist. The CIS women agree. "Indians are so conscious of their colour and ours," says Sarah, 27, from Tashkent, who has been here now for five months on a tourist visa. So much so that Indian women find it difficult to counter the 'white cult' that is taking over the premium flesh trade. Indian women have to be hard-sold. So if it's an Indian woman, the advertisement reads: she is a 'Punjabi' (read intense and fair), 'model' (slim and beautiful), 'airhostess' (suave and smart), 'hygienic' (clean), 'broadminded' and 'sober'. Broadminded assures clients that the women will play out their fantasies, while 'sober' indicates that they will be professional about it.

"East European girls have a different look and they are exotic for Indians as much as Delhi girls are unusual for Americans," that's a recorded voice playing on Vivek's phone--he operates in an upmartket neighbourhood of the Capital and has four CIS women on his roster. "Most of our clients have gained money recently and want new girls every time," he adds.

CIS women also offer anonymity. "For our older, wealthier and regular customers, it is not about sex but courtship," says Feruza, 32, an Uzbek woman. "They want somebody to give them an honest hearing and like the way we pamper them. Language is an issue but we can talk them into relaxation. They like that they are in command and that actually helps them surrender to us," she says. Ask Nitin, who runs a computer hardware business at a commercial complex in Delhi. He is in his mid-30s and is married with children. For him, the once-a-week sexcapade is an addiction he cannot do without.

"These women have an element of professional detachment. They are here for a few months and you don't know whether you will ever see them again. They are not interested in you beyond the task well done," he says, comparing them with their Indian counterparts. "But the Indians want your number. They give theirs, want to know what I do and how much I earn. Then they go on about how they belong to a good family too but have been forced into prostitution by some compelling circumstances. That is so irritating."

Shrugs Shruti, a 19-year-old college girl who doubles as a call girl and is on the roster of two pimps in Delhi, "If Indian men are looking for white women for their novelty, white men are interested in us. They give us generous tips." But why do white women attract so many repeat customers? "We cannot do things that white women do with Indian men," says Shruti huffily.

CIS women dress well, wear immaculate make-up and carry the best accessories. They also play nice enough to have some men in their thrall. Roma gives the example of a 35-year-old married businessman, who offered to marry her. When she refused, he would insist only on her, paying extra for her services. "Aunty wanted me to meet him more often as money was coming thick and fast, but I stopped because he was getting emotional about the whole affair," she says, adding on second thoughts, "but it is not a bad idea to get married after all."

The 'aunties' are the key to the business. Usually heavily-built, manicured, made-up, chain-smokers, they pronounce their verdict with the authority borne of years of handling pimps, visa agents and police officials. "I tell my girls to come back if the clients get rough. They can call me any time even when they are with the clients. If they don't like something, they can stop right there," says one aunty. Four of them have formidable reputations. They have their areas of domination but their areas of operation overlap.

White women with their partners enjoying a meal after a hard day's work in Delhi.With names like Svetlana, Diana, Nafisa and Sweta, these aunties have never been prostitutes themselves but are cashing in on their strong Indian connections. The fathers of two aunties were diplomats stationed in India 20 years ago; another has a KGB background. For them, it's not a racket but a business. Says an aunty, dressed in a long black skirt, a thick bead necklace nestling in the V of a cleavage-popping white T-shirt, "More then 20,000 girls have come and gone from India in several lots over the past two years. Most were from CIS countries and have done well for themselves." The numbers are lower than in the UAE and Dubai, she adds.

These aunties are careful and so are the women. Unlike their Indian counterparts, they always carry a pack of flavoured condoms. Cleanliness is an issue and they insist that clients take a shower before going to bed with them. They have a dress code for bed too: red and black lingerie from the best brands. Sometimes the aunties insist on sending Indian prostitutes first. Only when she gives an all-clear signal is the client allowed to sleep with a white woman.

In order not to attract undue attention, only two girls are lodged in one flat each in areas close to busy neighbourhoods. They wear Fabindia clothes by day, have a fetish for leather garments at night and sport dark eyeliner at all times. "That's our fashion statement," says Bessica, 27. The mother of two has been in India for four months after her jobless husband persuaded her to come here. "I was in the UAE and Dubai before I came to India. The girls of my generation do feel the pangs. We are spiritually dead," she says.

Most of the women come directly to aunties to pay off loans their family took back home. "It is according to an informal contract between the family and the agent back home where the girls are required to stay overseas for three to six months to pay off their debt by making themselves available for prostitution," says Mashhura, 28, who belongs to Buxoro in Uzbekistan. Some come back to make money for themselves and get in touch with Indian pimps like Vivek who maintains four such 'freelancers' and pays each Rs 10,000 per day for their period of stay. They sometimes end up working 12 hours a day, meeting six different clients, as pimps make Rs 35,000 a day, which includes the police cut, their stay and other expenses.

Rajiv, 30, a pimp in Delhi, has six such women in his list. He calls prospective clients to his home and gives them one of his rooms. His wife, a tall woman in a salwar-kameez, who listens to him negotiating from behind the curtain of the living room and often walks out to tell the client sternly, "the price is fixed."

The number of CIS-origin prostitutes in India is growing. Four hundred prostitutes are expected to arrive in the Capital during the Commonwealth Games to be held later in the year. "We know there will be great demand for women then and special arrangements are being made, like renting safehouses. Some Indian pimps are even buying flats," says Avita, 30, who came here with her cousin from Tashkent.

Insiders also say that some girls are brought to India as part of dance troupes. These women perform group dances in revealing clothes, mostly at private parties. According to Rishikant, a 32-year-old activist who works for the NGO, Shakti Vahini, and has rescued more than 1,000 girls in the last decade from prostitution, "Their number has increased significantly in the last one-and-a-half years." He explains that the police are aware of the problem but can do little as senior officers are involved.

India's anti-trafficking law, the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls (Amendment) Act (SITA), 1978, aims at combating the commercialisation of the flesh trade (brothels, prostitution rings and pimping). Prostitution is not illegal. But in practice, SITA is not commonly used; instead the Indian Penal Code is deployed to charge sex workers with crimes such as public indecency or public nuisance, punishable with imprisonment up to six months or fine or both. If the sex worker is a minor, the client may get a sentence of seven to 10 years. But, given the overt manner in which the flesh trade operates, it cannot happen without the support of the police. Former police officer Kiran Bedi calls it the "collective failure of the whole criminal judicial system."

Failure or not, the women don't mind. "We get to travel, stay in new places and make friends. Yes, the money is good. But I like it here as well," says Kate, 27, who was presented as a model to an exporter in Delhi with whom she would be travelling to Goa. She arrived in India about a month-and-a-half ago and has already been with 50 men. As she leaves, dressed in tight jeans and a brown psychedelic top under a black leather jacket, a white taxi waiting outside to take her to her 51st client, she shrugs her shoulders.

"I was deported from Israel last year. The next few days will be tricky. It's Republic Day and security is tight.'' It's one of the perils of her profession. But one she carries off as easily as the Christian Louboutin high heels she bought online last year. It's price she extracts for the pleasure she provides.

Brothel to boudoir

The changing nature of the premium sex market

The flesh trade in India has become a big money-spinner with about 30 lakh girls (the population of Pune) involved, according to a recent government-commissioned study. Most women forced into prostitution due to abject poverty are from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. They live in sub-human conditions in congested brothels in areas such as G.B. Road in Delhi or Kamatipura in Mumbai. Till 2000, the women for the so-called 'premium category' were trafficked illegally across the border from Nepal and Myanmar for Rs 1,000 a night. Things started to change when the fruits of globalisation reached younger urban Indian men thanks to the robust growth in the outsourcing industry and the advent of multinational companies that paid fat salaries. On the home turf too, voluntarism replaced coercion thanks to the easy, and big, money to be made here. The flesh trade soon became an organised business; pimps became 'agents' who would now move around in flashy cars, unlike in the past where the contact person was a taxi driver or paan shop owner. Pimps no longer meet clients, preferring to send women in chauffeur-driven cars with full payment to be paid in advance before they step out of the car. The services are paid for by the hour, and not night.

"It is not just about quality sex but it is about a quality experience that is more about companionship," says 26-year-old Rishab, single and an executive in a Gurgaon-based multinational company. "They are out not to hide but to flaunt," he says, adding that he considers being in the company of light-skinned women an indicator of his success.

75 Manipur Children rescued from traffickers

2010-01-20T13:34:00.000+05:30

Imphal, Jan 19 : At least 75 children including 24 girls were rescued in the year 2009 while being trafficked outside Manipur, according to sources.

The year 2009 witnessed several children and girls being rescued by NGOs or by the police while being transported to cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Delhi.

Jubita Hajarimayum, secretary of Ereima Gender Empowerment Resource Centre asserted that the development in Manipur could be brought only when the issues relating tochildren and women are solved.

According to reports, 25 children hailing from Kaibi village in Senapati district were rescued by Kolkata police from an Andhra Pradesh-bound train in June last year. Six girls from Churanchandpur district were rescued, also in June last year from an inter-State bus and the girls were reportedly being taken to Delhi. About 15 girls were rescued last year by Child Line, Imphal while they were being trafficked to Chennai.

A total of about 110 girls including minor girls were rescued in January 2008, according to available records. The minor girls who were rescued were either found in illegal homes or intercepted while being trafficked to other States of the country or outside the country.

Significantly, the victims belonged to poor families who are ignorant and the traffickers take advantage of their innocence and lure them by promising them free education outside the State.

Besides, Manipur is not lagging behind in the matter of crimes against women as well.

In one such incident, a woman was murdered by her husband in Thoubal district on December 2 last. The murderer identified as H Ibomcha strangulated his wife to death. Several rape cases had also had taken place in the State during 2009, some of which are unregistered with police

2010-01-16T18:53:00.001+05:30

Child trafficking in a civilised country like India unaceptable: SC
TNN, 16 January 2010,
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday firmly told the Centre that the scourge of child trafficking and its extent in a civilised country like India was just not acceptable and the government had to strengthen mechanism to curb it.

Examining the issue in the light of submissions made by Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, a Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A K Pattnaik said: "In a civilized country you cannot have the problem of this magnitude. We need to identify the places where it happens and strengthen implementation mechanism."

Submitting a report titled `The Indian Child: India's Eternal Hope and Future', Subramanium suggested that the Goa Childrens Act, 2003, could serve as a model legislation.

"Not only does it define child trafficking but also seeks to provide punishment for abuse and assault of children through child trafficking for different purposes such as labour, sale of body parts, organs, adoption, sexual offences of pedophilia, child prostitution, child pornography and child sex tourism," he said. He even set out the need for having a rescue plan for children caught in prostitution and trade.

Though the Bench appreciated the report, it was not oblivious of the problems on the ground. "Our real problem is implementation. We do not lack material. The whole problem emanates from poverty. In a number of cases, you rescue these children and put them in remand homes. When their parents are informed they are not ready to take them back as they cannot afford them two square meals or because of the social stigma." it said.

"You must have adequate remand homes with infrastructure and proper hygiene conditions. There must be a programme for sending these children to school and schools must be told to admit these children. You need to first chalk out this programme on priority basis," it suggested.

Appearing for petitioner NGO `Bachpan Bachao Andolan", senior advocate Colin Gonsalves said the government for years have been sitting on an NHRC report suggesting an alarming figure of 44,000 children reported missing annually of which only 11,000 get traced.

In this regard, the Bench asked Gonsalves along with several other NGOs like Prajwala, Sankalp and National Legal Services Authority to make suggestions within a week and present a comprehensive report. Advocate Aparna Bhatt representing NGO Prajwala informed the court that by involving NGOs in rehabilitation work, the victims of trafficking have benefited. As a model case, she cited Andhra Pradesh where victims of trafficking are given land. The matter was posted for hearing on January 22.

Child Rights forum at Vijaywada

2010-01-10T10:51:00.001+05:30

THE HINDU
Date:10/01/2010 URL:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada

Cultural show marks Children’s Mela

Staff Reporter

Street children rehabilitated by voluntary bodies celebrate birth anniversary of Manihara

— PHOTO: RAJU. V

VIJAYAWADA: As many as 2,000 children, who were mostly street children rehabilitated by different voluntary organisations, gathered in Fr. Devaiah auditorium of Andhra Loyola College here on Saturday to participate in several events held during the day on the occasion of birth anniversary of N.S. Manihara, the founder of SKCV Children’s Trust.

The Children’s Mela-2010, as it was called, witnessed cultural performances and competitions in games and sports in sub-junior, junior and senior categories. Prizes were presented to the winners in each category.

Dance-drama

The day began with a dance-drama by the children of SKCV Home on the life of the late Manihara. They depicted how Manihara reached India and set up the organisation for the welfare of deprived children.

A few more skits on child labour were performed on the occasion.

Vijayawada Central MLA Malladi Vishnu, speaking as chief guest, underscored the need for more service organisations joining hands for the welfare of street children. He commended the Forum For Child Rights for brining all service organisations working for the children under one umbrella and providing help to the children in need.

Mayor M.V. Ratna Bindu, who presided over the meeting, recalled the services rendered by Manihara for the streetchildren. She said there was a need to eradicate child labour completely from the city and the support of every citizen was needed to achieve this task.

Police Commissioner (in-charge) Mahesh M. Bhagwat highlighted the importance of three ‘P’s – protection, prevention and prosecution – in implementation of child rights. He observed that trafficking in women and children was going on a large scale in Krishna and Godavari districts, as compared to other districts, but steps were being taken to protect every child.

Deputy Commissioner of Labour Yousuf Sheik, Forum treasurer B.S. Koteswara Rao, former treasurer of the TANA foundation K. Sambasiva Rao, Deputy Mayor S.P. Gritton and others were present.

Krishna district Collector Peeyush Kumar, who was the chief guest at the valedictory session, presented prizes to the winners of various competitions. Lauding the services of the non-governmental organisations, he assured support form the district administration for eradication of practice of child labour. General Manager of the Vijayawada Telecom District John Chrisostham, vice-president of the Forum for Child Rights N. Bhakti Manihara and others were present.

Abducted girl called up parents for help

2009-12-18T13:05:00.001+05:30

Abducted girl called up parents for help
By: Prawesh Lama Date: 2009-12-18 Place: Delhi

The police have spoken to the accused over phone, yet both the victim and the culprit remain at large

This is a story about a teenage girl who led her parents as well as the police to the people who trafficked her from Siliguri in West Bengal to Delhi.

Ironically, the police have been able to trace the culprits but the 16-year-old is yet to be reunited with her family. The brave teenager called up her parents from Bihar that her abductors were driving her to Delhi in a car with the registration number DL 4C AG 5809.

Scavengers: Sundar Singh (extreme right) with wife Sandhya and driver.
The West Bengal police registered a case on December 2 on the complaint of the girl's parents. Based on the leads given by the girl, the West Bengal police traced the driver of the black Santro car who confirmed that three girls were brought from Siliguri and delivered to Sundar Singh, a resident of Shakarpur in east Delhi.

During the course of investigation, it was established that Sundar Singh -- who runs an automobile business in Delhi -- traffics girls from Siliguri, Darjeeling and New Jalpaiguri and brings them to New Delhi.

He owns a house in Siliguri too which was damaged by locals after his cover was blown following the police complaint by the abducted girls' parents. Interestingly, several photographs of young girls were recovered from Singh's house.

The victim's relatives also visited Shakarpur police station after which the Station House Officer sent the beat officer to Singh's shop, Sundar Motors, at Car Bazar, Main Road, Shakarpur. Sundar in fact has married twice and his first wife told the beat officer that he rarely visits her and stayed at some unknown place in east Delhi with his second wife Sandhya.

Sandhya too has been arrested in similar cases earlier. Following the police raid at his house, Sundar called up the victim's relatives and threatened them not to approach the police again but during one of his calls the family managed to make the beat officer overhear it. When the policeman talked to him on the mobile phone number 9732915486. Singh pleaded with him that he would hand over the girl at Shakarpur police station, however, a fortnight has passed and Singh is still absconding.

Karma Dorjee Yolmo, officer in charge of Jaldhaka police station in West Bengal, raided Sandhya's house in New Ashok Nagar last week. However, she had already vacated the house.

"We could not arrest her, we have to produce the driver and others before the court. We have told our Delhi counterparts that an east Delhi resident is the prime suspect in the case. It is also suspected that the girls whose photographs were recovered from Singh's Siliguri house might have been trafficked too. We hope to arrest him and rescue the girls as soon as possible," Yolmo told MiD DAY.

A senior police official posted at Shakarpur police station said the mobile phone from which Singh called up is being tracked. "We are on Singh's tail and he will be arrested soon."
Importation of Girls
(Sec. 366-B IPC), (Incidence...61)A decrease of 9% has been observed in such cases as 61 cases were reported during 2007 as compared to 67 cases in the previous year (2006).

Only Bihar (56) and West Bengal (5) have reported such cases accounting for 91.8% and 8.2% respectively of total such cases at the national level.

Procuration of Minor Girls
(Sec. 366A IPC), (Incidence...253)253 cases were reported in 2007 as compared to 231 such cases in 2006, accounting for 9.5% increase over 2006.

West Bengal has reported 54 such cases indicating a share of 21.3% at national level followed by Andhra Pradesh (37) and Bihar (36). An increasing trend was observed in these cases during the last three years.
Figures: National Crime Records Bureau

Selling of Girls for Prostitution
(Sec. 372 IPC), (Incidence...69)69 cases of 'Selling of Girls for Prostitution' were reported in the country during 2007 against 123 such cases in 2006, thereby indicating a decline of 43.9% over 2006. West Bengal has accounted for 79.7% (55 cases out of 69 cases) of the total such cases reported in the country.

Reported Incidents of crime
(Incidence...4,087)A total of 4,087 incidents of crimes under various provisions of laws relating to human trafficking were reported in the country during 2007 as compared to 5,096 during 2006 recording a decrease of 19.8% during 2007. 5,850 cases relating to human trafficking were reported during 2003 as compared to 6,175 and 6,402 cases reported in 2004 and 2005.

Set up anti-trafficking cell in every district: Chidambaram

2009-12-03T06:47:00.000+05:30

Set up anti-trafficking cell in every district: Chidambaram
December 2nd, 2009 - 11:25 pm ICT by IANS -
New Delhi, Dec 2 (IANS) Home Minister P. Chidambaram Wednesday urged all states in the country to set up anti-human trafficking cells in every district.
“Only nine districts have anti-human trafficking cells. This is out of over 600 districts of the country. So, we have barely scratched the surface of the problem. I would like to urge states to set up anti-human trafficking cells in all districts, network them and coordinate with the home ministry,” said Chidambram.

“This would take time and money, but more than that it requires will,” he added.

He was speaking after releasing a book “Human trafficking - dimensions, challenges and responses” written by a former Central Bureau of Investigation official P.M. Nair.

Nair has handled many cases, including former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, international arms drop in Purulia as well as a number of human right violations and many inter-state and international organised crimes.

“Most countries are slow to wake up to the gravity of the crime….one can’t shift blame from one country to another because women and children are bought and sold within the country.”

“The scale of human trafficking in India is not clear, but it is a fair assumption that it is on a very large scale,” Chidambaram said.

“It is the most grievous and pernicious of crimes. The victims are mostly women and children. There are a variety of reasons for human trafficking but mostly it is sex trade. It is a crime against humanity,” he added.

The home minister said: “He (Nair) has put together a large amount of literature (during his work). This book would prove to be a valuable reference book for people interested in the field of anti-human trafficking, law enforcement officers, NGOs and jurists.”

Priced at Rs.600, the proceeds of the sale of the book will go to the victims of human trafficking.

Read more: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/set-up-anti-trafficking-cell-in-every-district-chidambaram_100283423.html#ixzz0YaHSC7BY

Housewife gets 7 yrs in jail for pushing minors into flesh trade

2009-12-02T10:36:00.000+05:30

Housewife gets 7 yrs in jail for pushing minors into flesh trade
Nitasha Natu, TNN 2 December 2009,
MUMBAI: A 33-year-old married woman from Kandivli has been sentenced to seven years' rigorous imprisonment for pushing minor girls into prostitution. Bharti alias Itee Bodaee was nabbed along with her accomplice, Firoz Siddiqui (32), in May 2009. The duo was booked under the stringent PITA (Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act).

A native of Kolkata, Bodaee worked as a bar dancer for 5 years. But after the state ban on dance bars, she started bringing minor girls from her hometown to Mumbai on the pretext that they would be employed as domestic helps. Bodaee charged the clients anything between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.

"An NGO called Oasis India tipped off our officers about Bodaee's activities. On May 28, our team raided a footpath near the Kandivli level-crossing and caught Bodaee and Siddiqui," said inspector Subhash Vele. . The officers also rescued four girls, three of them minors. The girls told the investigators that Bodaee had been keeping them captive for the past six months.

On November 30, sessions judge SD Bhate sentenced Bodaee to seven years' rigorous imprisonment and levied a fine of Rs 1,500. If she fails to pay up the fine, she will have to serve another three months' rigorous imprisonment

17 girls rescued from Mumbai

2009-12-01T21:48:00.001+05:30

17 girls rescued from Mumbai
TNN 1 December 2009,
HYDERABAD: Fifteen girls from the state, including 12 from East Godavari, two each from Vijayawada, West Godavari and one from Visakhapatnam were rescued from the clutches of human traffickers by West Godavari police and CID with active help from Mumbai Police Enforcement.

The CID also rescued two minor girls hailing from West Bengal during the operation. Deputy inspector general of police, Eluru range, Mahesh M Bhagwat, said eight traffickers were arrested in the raid. The incident came to light when a complainant, Illa Anjiyya of Gavaravaram of Koyyalagudeum (WG district) lodged a complaint with Koyyalagudem police station on Nov 19 stating that his 19-year-old daughter and a 24-year-old housewife were taken away by B Sayamma of the same village on the promise of providing jobs in a hostel for a salary of Rs 2,500 per month along with accommodation.

Based on the complaint, a criminal case was registered at Koyyalagudem PS under various sections of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act-1956 and an investigation was taken up, the DIG said. A special team visited Mumbai on November 26 and contacted the local officers to conduct searches.

The team visited a prostitution den being run by one Kunkipudi Devi at Dayanand building, Pula Street, in Mumbai and rescued the victims

Half the Districts in India are Affected by Human Trafficking

2009-11-29T20:04:00.000+05:30

Half the Districts in India are Affected by Human Trafficking

According to a report of the National Commission for Women, (NCW) at least half of the 612 districts in the country are affected by trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation.

The NCW report says that in 378 districts, there are 1,794 identified places of origin from where females are trafficked and 1,016 areas where commercial sexual activities take place.

The NCW says that the promise of a job is the biggest way of deception and accounts for over 50 per cent of trafficking cases.

The states in southern and eastern India ae the most vulnerable as far as trafficking is concerned, say the report.

The report also found out that almost all the districts in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal are affected by this problem.

Tamil Nadu with 93.33 per cent of its districts are affected, is leading the tally of the states affected by human trafficking followed by Orissa with 86.66 per cent and Bihar 86.48 per cent.

The report further added that 2.4 per cent of the total female population in age group of 15-35 years in the country are affected by commercial sexual exploitation.

According to the report there are over 28 lakh commercial sex workers in the country. And over 43 percent women enter to this flesh trade in their minor ages.

The report expressed concern over the entry of minors in flesh trade from the regions where incidence of poverty and hunger are comparatively high

Reasons like violence against women, high rate of unemployment and lack of options contribute to the vulnerability of trafficking of adults, the report says.

The report says that gender discrimination and gender specific violence and crimes perpetuate the vulnerability of women and children and act as one of the reasons behind trafficking.

The report also says that more than 22 per cent women are trafficked and forced into flesh trade by family members.

Around 8 per cent women are trafficked by husbands or in-laws and friends or neighbours lure 18 per cent. More than 51 per cent women in commercial sex were trafficked either by family members or in-laws, the report says.

The report reveals that about 22 per cent of traffickers are not prosecuted due to their political backing.

Red light district swaps sin for skyscrapers in Mumbai

2009-11-29T11:28:00.003+05:30

Red light district swaps sin for skyscrapers
Clara Lewis, TOI Crest 28 November 2009, 03:47pm IST
Mumbai
Brothel Kamathipura
Many brothels are now video parlours and shops selling CDs
Till about four years ago, garishly painted women in glittering attire were a common sight on Cursetji Shuklaji Street, a busy road in Mumbai's notorious red light district, Kamathipura. Once known as Safed Gully (White Lane) on account of the European prostitutes that it housed during the British Raj, Shuklaji Street was the place where, for years on end, one could find sex workers plying their trade. These days however, they're out there not to solicit but to await the private taxis that ferry them to dance bars in the suburbs.

From 50,000 sex workers in 1992 (a statistic recorded by the BMC as part of its AIDS documentation ) to a mere 1,600 today, Kamathipura and the adjoining Foras Road are a mere shadow of their former selves. The street-facing brothels have given way to little shops vending CDs and mobile phones; there's also a clutch of video parlours where boisterous youngsters throng to catch the latest Telugu blockbuster.

Gentrification is slowly descending on Kamathipura , like it has on many of Mumbai's distinctive boroughs. The one-storey , ground-hugging structures are making way for dizzy skyscrapers - two, of 35 storeys, have come up on Shuklaji Street, while another two, 47 storeys each, are nearing completion. Salim Balwa, director D B Realty, the company that's busy making over the area, is planning several more projects here. "The space crunch in Mumbai has meant that you go looking for land where no development has happened," he says. All the towers overlook Kamathipura.

Balwa, who's developed 10 lakh square feet in the area and is in the process of acquiring another 3.5 lakh, is sure that he's on to a good thing. "All said and done, the place is centrally located, and it is better than living in far-off Mira Road," he says. The present residents, most of whom live in houses that are about 100 sq ft in size, will get 300 sq ft after redevelopment, says Balwa. And, of course, there will be a more-than-neat profit for him.

It was the twin factors of AIDS and the Maharashtra government's redevelopment policy that played a major role in getting sex workers to move out of the oldest profession in the world and subsequently out of Kamathipura. The AIDS scare led to the first serious government intervention in the area's prostitution dens: Dr Jairaj Thanekar, Chief Executive Health Officer, BMC, who worked in Kamathipura for 15 years to implement the AIDS intervention programme, says the corporation played a key role in reducing the number of prostitutes . "From organising raids on the Yellappa markets down south - the main source of girls for Kamathipura - to raiding the brothels, we made it difficult for prostitution to function," he says. "From 1999 onwards, the number of sex workers started dwindling."

When the BMC intervened, the rate of transmission of HIV was a shocking four per cent. By then a large number of sex workers had died. "Brothel owners, faced with sex workers who kept falling ill, moved them out to other brothels in Mulund, Bhandup and Ghatkopar, but procuring new girls was also becoming difficult," says Thanekar. This and other factors - a reluctance among landlords, newly aware of AIDS, to lease out their premises to prostitution, spiralling rents, police raids, and the emergence of a new generation of financiers who got into more lucrative ventures - hastened the downward spiral of prostitution in Kamathipura.

The reconstruction wave of dilapidated buildings completed the process. "Several people were bought out by the builders," says a brothel owner. "Gangubai Chawl on 11th Kamathipura Lane was among the first to be torn down and reconstructed into a six-storey building by a private developer. Normal households moved in." The stigma attached to Kamathipura began to dwindle somewhat , and the newly reconstructed prostitution dens began to be put to other uses - for the last four years, businessmen have been renting out the infamous rooms to small manufacturing units. Mohammed Israr, a 22-year-old native of Bihar, who assembles travel bags for a local manufacturer, has rented 600 sq feet in a one-storey structure in Kamathipura. He pays a stiff monthly rent of Rs 12,000 for the space, but says that it's worth the money, given the central location.

Abdul Sattar, a local pan-beedi stall owner on Lane 13, has been in the business for the last 15 years. "Earlier, sex workers' clients frequented my stall," he says. "There were a lot of goons and hangers-on around. Now, proper businessmen come here. It's a welcome change, as people working in the vicinity are no longer looked down upon. There was a time when we were ashamed to tell our relatives that we lived and worked in Kamathipura . But not any more." Adds Sadiq Ismail, who owns a consumer goods shop on 12th Kamathipura Lane, "I live in a house above my shop with my wife, three sons and a daughter. There is nothing shameful about living here any more."

Street named desire

Kamathipura is Mumbai's oldest and Asia's largest red light district. It got its name from the Kamathis (workers) of Andhra Pradesh. They worked as labourers on construction sites. The neighbourhood also had Chinese residents who worked as dockhands and ran restaurants. Kamathipura was formerly Lal Bazaar, an area set aside by the British for their troops' sexual pleasures. By the end of the 19th century, Lal Bazaar was known as a "tolerated area" as prostitution was illegal. At the time, Bombay and to a lesser extent Calcutta were the most important cities in an expanding prostitution network.

Cursetji Shuklaji Street in Kamathipura was called Safed Gully as it was home to European prostitutes. The brothels here were classified into first, second and third class. In 1916, the British set up the Venereal Disease Clinic, the first of its kind in Bombay. The BMC took over the clinic in 1925.

Pleasure Island

The purest form of Afghan afeem (opium) was available only at Bachchuseth ki Wadi on Foras Road, a place famous for its kothewalis and mujras. Free-flowing liquor, the aroma of kebabs, the scent of mogra gajras and the resonance of ghungroos, musical instruments and melodious voices made it the most famous entertainment zone in Mumbai. In the 1970s and early '80s Bachchu Wadi was the haunt of Mumbai's underworld, with such kingpins as Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, and Dawood Ibrahim frequenting it. The kothewalis, trained in Hindustani music, were much sought after. "The place would come alive after sunset, and there was music and laughter till the wee hours of the morning," reminisces Abdul Rauf Sheikh, a pan-stall owner. But after R R Patil became home minister in 2003, policemen started forcibly shutting down the kothasat 12.30 am. Sheikh says that girls from Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh now rent out their rooms while they themselves work in beer bars in the city and suburbs. Shah Bano, a one-time singer and dancer at one of the kothasin Bachchu Wadi, now lives in Mira Road, dropping by once a week to meet her children who still live there. The children, however, have shunned the kothatradition and do odd jobs for a living.

Salim Balwa, director, D B Realty, is all set to change the face of Bachchu Wadi and Kamathipura in turn. Bachchu Wadi is to be his first redevelopment project in the area. The wadi has 280 tenants - of these 100 are kothewaliswho regularly hold mujraswhile the other 180 are normal households. For Balwa, the major stumbling block was that the two groups did not want to live in the same building. "So , over the course of several meetings it was decided that the 100 tenants who hold mujras would be given a separate building with a separate entrance and lift. And the rest would be in a different building. Once my door is closed, how does it matter who does what?"

Trafficking prevention in West Godavari Dist. of A.P.

2009-11-06T16:42:00.000+05:30

THE HINDU

Date:06/11/2009

Andhra Pradesh - Eluru

3 towns gain notoriety for women trafficking

Staff Reporter

ELURU: Three towns -- Tanuku, Tadepalligudem and Kovvuru -- in West Godavari district earned notoriety for women trafficking, according to Superintendent of Police B. Balakrishna. Several victims were rescued from trafficking in these three towns during a series of raids by the police, the SP said at a meeting on women trafficking here on Thursday. He said 56 traffickers were arrested and 23 victims were sent to rescue homes for rehabilitation in the last two months.

Mr. Balakrishna said police were contemplating implication of the relatives of victims in cases relating to trafficking for reportedly abetting their kith and kin into the trade. In some cases, it was the parents and relatives who were selling their minor girls.

Half the Districts in India are Affected by Human Trafficking

2009-10-08T17:02:00.000+05:30

Half the Districts in India are Affected by Human Trafficking
Tuesday, October 06, 2009

According to a report of the National Commission for Women, (NCW) at least half of the 612 districts in the country are affected by trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation.

The NCW report says that in 378 districts, there are 1,794 identified places of origin from where females are trafficked and 1,016 areas where commercial sexual activities take place.

The NCW says that the promise of a job is the biggest way of deception and accounts for over 50 per cent of trafficking cases.

The states in southern and eastern India ae the most vulnerable as far as trafficking is concerned, say the report.

The report also found out that almost all the districts in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal are affected by this problem.

Tamil Nadu with 93.33 per cent of its districts are affected, is leading the tally of the states affected by human trafficking followed by Orissa with 86.66 per cent and Bihar 86.48 per cent.

The report further added that 2.4 per cent of the total female population in age group of 15-35 years in the country are affected by commercial sexual exploitation.

According to the report there are over 28 lakh commercial sex workers in the country. And over 43 percent women enter to this flesh trade in their minor ages.

The report expressed concern over the entry of minors in flesh trade from the regions where incidence of poverty and hunger are comparatively high

Reasons like violence against women, high rate of unemployment and lack of options contribute to the vulnerability of trafficking of adults, the report says.

The report says that gender discrimination and gender specific violence and crimes perpetuate the vulnerability of women and children and act as one of the reasons behind trafficking.

The report also says that more than 22 per cent women are trafficked and forced into flesh trade by family members.

Around 8 per cent women are trafficked by husbands or in-laws and friends or neighbours lure 18 per cent. More than 51 per cent women in commercial sex were trafficked either by family members or in-laws, the report says.

The report reveals that about 22 per cent of traffickers are not prosecuted due to their political backing

Minors in circus human trafficking

2009-10-08T16:48:00.000+05:30

Minors in circus human trafficking

Himalayan News Service

2009-10-05 2:17 PM

Print This News

KATHMANDU; The Supreme Court (SC) has treated the recruitment of minors in circus as seriously as human trafficking.

Stating that the recruitment of minors in hazardous circus jobs is a violation of children’s fundamental rights and is against the Person Trafficking (Control) Act, 1976, the apex court has termed it a criminal offence requiring prohibition.

The SC also cited a news report published in The Himalayan Times on September 6, which said 12,000 children and women were trafficked into India annually, as well as a report published in The Times of India on August 22.

“Neither the parents nor the society has authority to violate the rights of children by exposing them to hazardous jobs,” a division bench of Justices Bala Ram KC and Rajendra Prasad Koirala said in their full text of judgment made public today.

The bench turned down the appeal filed by traffickers, who sold three children to an Indian circus for IRs 2,000 each.

The bench also upheld punishment slapped by lower courts to traffickers Bir Bahadur Shrestha, Radhika Lama, Thuli Maharjan alias Thuli Didi, Dhan Bahadur Gurung and his second wife. Challenging the Hetauda Appellate Court verdict that upheld the one by Hetauda District Court, the defendants had moved the apex court two years ago.

The traffickers had sold three minors — Sunima Lama, Roshana Lama and Devi Bista — to an Indian circus in 1998. The trio was rescued after a few weeks. Interestingly, their parents were found to have signed contracts for their kids’ deployment there.

The bench also observed that the guardians do not have rights to sign any such

contract.

Underlining the need for a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty or Judicial Cooperation Treaty between Nepal and India to curb crimes, the SC directed the government to initiate process to seek the help of the Indian government in this regard.

The court also stressed on the need to create awareness among schoolchildren on trafficking and to adopt Guidelines for Action on Children in the Criminal Justice System while conducting trials on cases related to child rights.

Drive against Human Trafficking and Crime against Women to be intensified: Ajay Maken

2009-09-20T16:27:00.000+05:30

Drive against Human Trafficking and Crime against Women to be intensified: Ajay Maken

MHA issues Advisories in this regard to States/UTs --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Ajay Maken today said that the Government of India in close co-ordination with the various State and UT Governments had intensified measures against Human Trafficking and Crime against women. Shri Maken also informed that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) along with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), will be organizing a workshop for training of trainers of all stake holders against Human Trafficking by the end of this year. The Conference will be inaugurated by the Home Minister, Shri P Chidambaram, he said. After this workshop, the MHA also intends to organize similar workshops for stake holders from SAARC countries in line with Government of India’s offer of conducting training programmes for Capacity building for implementation of the SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children, he elaborated.

In this regard the Ministry had convened a meeting of the Nodal Officers for Human Trafficking of various States and UTs on August 28, 2009 and had pushed forward the agenda of co-ordinated and intensive efforts against trafficking, Shri Maken informed.

While the meeting resolved to strengthen the respective Nodal Officers and Offices at the Centre and in the States, it also deliberated upon certain common operating procedures and practices, following which MHA has issued the following two advisories to the State Governments and UT administrations to issue suitable directions to all concerned to check crime against women and Human Trafficking;

1. Advisory regarding Measures needed to curb Crime against Women issued on September 4, 2009.

2. Advisory on Preventing and Combating Human Trafficking in India issued on September 9, 2009.

Main Points of advisory on checking crime against women

The advisory has detailed measures that are needed to curb crime against this vulnerable section of the society. The States and UTs have also been asked to convey the status on the measures to the Centre within a month. The Government of India have been advising the State Governments from time to time regarding the steps that need to be taken to afford a greater measure of protection to the women and in particular to prevent incidence of crimes against them. Through the advisories, the State Governments were also requested to undertake a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of the machinery in tackling the problem of women and to take appropriate measures aimed at increasing the responsiveness of the law and order machinery.

Some State Governments, no doubt, have taken some measures in this regard. However, the inputs regarding crime against women available with this Ministry indicate that these measures need to be strengthened further. Despite several steps being taken by the State Governments, picture still is very grim and disappointing. Complaints are still being received regarding non-registration of FIRs and unsympathetic attitude of police personnel towards rape victims and victims of violence.

The National Commission for Women has been undertaking visits to various States to review the status of women and has been making available findings of their inquiry to the concerned State Governments as well as to the MHA. The reports of the inquiries conducted by the Commission in specific incidents indicate that the level of sensitiveness and care with which crime against women should be handled is not up to the desired level.

The Government of India is deeply concerned with these trends and ground situation and has re-emphasized that urgent action should be taken on the following:-

i. Vigorously enforce the existing legislation relating to Crime against Women and Children, i.e., Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987 and Violence against Women (Prevention) Act, 2005, Section 67 of the IT Act, 2000, the display of lascivious photographs/films on computer through internet, etc.

ii. Government must ensure proper enforcement of law and convictions in women related crimes. Enforcement agencies should be instructed in unambiguous terms that enforcement of the rights of the weaker and vulnerable sections including women and children should not be downplayed for fear of further disturbances or retribution and adequate preparation should be made to face any such eventuality.

iii. The administration and police should play a more proactive role in detection and investigation of crime against women and ensuring that there is no under reporting.

iv. Increasing the overall representation of women in police forces. The representation of women in police at all levels should be increased through affirmative action so that they constitute about 33% of the police.

v. Sensitizing the law enforcement machinery towards crime against women by way of well structured training programmes, meetings and seminars etc., for police personnel at all levels as well as other functionaries of the criminal justice system.

vi. Government must take concrete steps to increase awareness in the administration and among the police in particular, regarding crime against women, and take steps not only to tackle such crimes but also deal sensitively with the ensuing trauma.

vii. For improving general awareness on legislations, mechanisms in place for safety and protection of women, the concerned department of the State Government must, inter-alia, take following steps:

a. Create awareness through print and electronic media;

b. Develop a community monitoring system to check cases of violence, abuse and exploitation and take necessary steps to curb the same;

c. Involving the Community at large in creating and spreading such awareness; and

d. Organize legal literacy and legal awareness camps.

viii. Explore the possibility of associating NGOs working in the area of combating crime against women. Citizens groups and NGOs should be encouraged to increase awareness about gender issues in society and help bring to light violence against women and also assist the police in the investigation of crime against women. Close coordination between the police and the NGOs dealing with the interests of women may be ensured.

ix. There should be no delay whatsoever in registration of FIR in all cases of crime against women.

x. All out efforts should be made to apprehend all the accused named in the FIR immediately so as to generate confidence in the victims and their family members;

xi. Cases should be thoroughly investigated and charge sheets against the accused persons should be filed within three months from the date of occurrence, without compromising on the quality of investigation. Speedy investigation should be conducted in heinous crimes like rape. The medical examination of rape victims should be conducted without delay.

xii. Ensure proper supervisions at appropriate level of cases of crime against women from the recording of FIR to the disposal of the case by the competent court.

xiii. Help-line numbers of the crime against women cells - should be exhibited prominently in hospitals/schools/colleges premises, and in other suitable places.

xiv. Set up exclusive ‘Crime Against Women and Children’ desk in each police station and the Special Women police cells in the police stations and all women police thana as needed.

xv. Concerned departments of the State Governments could handle rape victims at all stages from filing a complaint in a police station to undergoing forensic examination and in providing all possible assistance including counseling, legal assistance and rehabilitation. Preferably these victims may be handled by women so as to provide a certain comfort level to the rape victims.

xvi. The specialized Sexual Assault Treatment Units could be developed in government hospitals having a large maternity section.

xvii. The Health department of the State Govts., should set up ‘Rape Crisis Centres’ (RCCs) and specialized ‘Sexual Assault Treatment Units’ (SATUs), at appropriate places. RCCs could act as an interface between the victims and other agencies involved.

xviii. The administration should also focus on rehabilitation of the victims and provide all required support. The police should consider empanelling professional counselors and the counseling should not be done by the police.

xix. For improving the safety conditions on road, the concerned departments of the State Government must take suitable steps to:

a. Increase the number of beat constables, especially on the sensitive roads;

b. Increase the number of police help booth/kiosks, especially in remote and lonely stretches;

c. Increase police patrolling, especially during the night;

d. Increase the number of women police officers in the mobile police vans;

e. Set-up telephone booths for easy access to police;

f. Install people friendly street lights on all roads, lonely stretches and alleys; and

g. Ensure street lights are properly and efficiently working on all roads, lonely stretches and alleys.

xx. The local police should arrange for patrolling in the affected areas and more especially in the locality of the weaker sections of the society. Periodic visits by DM & SP will create a sense of safety and security among these sections of the people.

xxi. Special steps to be taken for security of women working in night shifts of call centers.

xxii. Crime prone areas should be identified and a mechanism be put in place to monitor infractions in schools/colleges for ensuring safety and security of female students. Women police officers in adequate number fully equipped with policing infrastructure may be posted in such areas.

xxiii. Action should be taken at the State level to set up of Fast Track Courts and Family Courts.

xxiv. Dowry related cases must be adjudicated expeditiously to avoid further harassment of the women.

xxv. Appointment Dowry Prohibition Officers and notify the Rules under the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.

xxvi. All police stations may be advised to display the name and other details of Protection Officers of the area appointed under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005.

xxvii. Police personnel should be trained adequately in special laws dealing with atrocities against women. Enforcement aspect should be emphasized adequately so as to streamline it.

xxviii. Special steps may also be taken by the police in collaboration with the Health and Family Welfare Department of the State to prevent female foeticide.

xxix. Special steps should also be taken to curb the ‘Violation of Women’s Rights by so called Honour Killings, to prevent forced marriage in some northern States, and other forms of Violence’.

xxx. Ensure follow up of reports of cases of atrocities against women received from various sources, including NCW & SCW, with concerned authorities in the State Governments.

The advisories issued by MHA, inter-alia, include gender sensitization of the police personnel, adopting appropriate measures for swift and salutary punishment to public servants found guilty of custodial violence against women, minimizing delays in investigations of murder, rape and torture of women and improving its quality, setting up a ‘crime against women cell’ in districts where they do not exist, providing adequate counseling centers and shelter homes for women who have been victimized etc.

Main points of advisory on preventing and combating human trafficking in India

The key points include implementation of legal provisions in the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act 1956; Juvenile Justice Act 2000; Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006; capacity building of the State machinery; prevention of trafficking; investigation and prosecution and rescue and rehabilitation measures. The states and UTs have also been asked to convey to the Centre the present status within one month. The key points have been worked out in collaboration with the related Ministries of Women & Child Development, Labour & Employment and Health & Family Welfare.

To facilitate matters in this regard, MHA has already established an Anti Trafficking Cell (ATC) which deals with the following major subject matters:

a. All matters pertaining to the criminal aspect of trafficking in human beings especially of women and children, which is the fastest growing organized crime and an area of concern.

b. To act as the Nodal cell for dealing with the criminal aspect of Human Trafficking in India, hold regular meetings of all States and UTs, communicating various decisions and follow up on action taken by the State Governments.

c. To interface with other Ministries like Women & Child Development, Social Justice &Empowerment, External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs, Labour & Employment, Law, and NCRB regarding the criminal aspect of human trafficking.

The Anti Trafficking Nodal Cell of MHA has developed an MIS proforma for the monitoring of the action taken by various State Governments regarding the criminal aspect of human trafficking as well as crime against women. The State Governments are required to send quarterly information.

Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Ordinance 2009.

2009-09-16T16:25:00.002+05:30

Chandigarh, Sep 16 (PTI) To curb the fraudulent activities of people involved in organised human trafficking and to check the activities of unregistered travel agents, the Punjab government today approved the promulgation of Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Ordinance 2009.

The state has seen many cases in recent years where people were duped on the pretext of sending them to foreign countries.

Human traffickers exploit economic crisis, redoubled prevention efforts urgently needed, warns high-level conference at OSCE

2009-09-14T17:47:00.001+05:30

VIENNA, 14 September 2009 - The impact of the global economic crisis in severely reducing legitimate employment opportunities and increasing the vulnerability of millions of people to sexual and labour exploitation is the focus of an OSCE-organized conference that opened in Vienna today.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a video address opening the two-day conference, urged OSCE participating States to redouble prevention efforts.

"New economic pressures are likely to aggravate the problem further, so this conference comes at a time of renewed urgency. It is an opportunity to place a renewed focus on prevention and the root causes of trafficking," said Clinton. "Together we must implement a comprehensive approach that both confronts criminals and cares for survivors."

The 9th Alliance Against Trafficking in Persons Conference, focusing on "Prevention of Modern-Slavery", brings together more than 250 experts from governments, international organizations and civil society to discuss the business of trafficking in the context of the economic crisis, which has increased both supply and demand.

"Widespread unemployment, a drastic decline in opportunities and a loss in remittances from labour migrants result in desperate situations both in countries of origin and of destination, where people have few viable alternatives and are prone to take more risks," said Eva Biaudet, the OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings.

"In the context of our global economic crisis, empirical evidence on the extent of trafficking and the effectiveness of our efforts is more necessary than ever. We must prevent the root causes of trafficking such as unemployment, all forms of discrimination, corrupt practices and the demand for commercial sex and exploitative labour, before trafficking occurs, but also to prevent re-trafficking by having strong protections in place."

Conference participants will also discuss current best practices using a human rights approach, including the media's role in preventing trafficking. Investigative journalists, documentary filmmakers and photographers will take part in a panel discussion on the media's role and responsibility in covering human trafficking

Govt urged to enforce laws to protect women

2009-09-11T15:32:00.000+05:30

By Express News Service
11 Sep 2009 03:16:00 AM IST

Govt urged to enforce laws to protect women

HYDERABAD: The AP Women Network, an organisation formed by women social activists working to end violence against women in the State, has urged the government to enforce the Domestic Violence Act 2005 and the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act 1956 to protect the rights of women and prevent attacks on them.
Talking with reporters here today, APWN convener C Bhanuja said the government had failed to rehabilite women and help them reunite with their families. Several victims were rescued from flesh trade centres in Pune, Bhiwandi and Mumbai by APWN. Unless the government provided proper facilities to the rescued victims the APWN would not cooperate with the officials concerned in conducting rescue operations, she said.
The APWN has urged the government to provide counselling and skill development programmes to the victims at Swadhar Homes, to strengthen them mentally and make them employable, which can certainly prevent them from going back to the oldest profession. G Sucharitha, a member of APWN, said the government was to provide Rs 10,000 as rehabilitation fund as per rules but failed to release the money immediately.
They were taking long time _ six months to one year - in releasing the fund, she noted.
They appealed to the government to strengthen the rehabilitation and reintegration mechanism to successfully bring them to normal life from `hell-holes’.
They called for better coordination among the women development and child welfare department, police, NGOs and lawyers. They also urged the government to take stringent action against human traffickers.
Kota Sivakumari, another member, charged the government with failure to enforce the Domestic Violence Act effectively.
Though numerous attacks on women were being reported by the media every day, only 3,565 cases were booked under the Domestic Violence Act in the last four years, she wondered and urged the government to provide a special budget, protection officer and employees to the enforce the Act effectively

17 year old girl rescued from traffickers

2009-09-02T13:10:00.003+05:30

THE HINDU

Date:01/09/2009
Andhra Pradesh

TADEPALLIGUDEM: The life of a 17-year-old minor girl from Gopalapuram area in West Godavari district would have ended up as a victim of women trafficking, but for the timely intervention of police. A special team led by Sub-Inspector M. Venkateswara Rao rescued the girl while being sold away to a couple of traffickers from Eluru for a ‘price’ of Rs 10,000 here.

Kovvuru DSP G. Janaki Sharmila said efforts were under way to send the victim to a State-run rescue home at Eluru for rehabilitation. Besides the minor girl, five other women, who were forced into flesh trade, also secured freedom following a raid on a den by the police in the town. Ms. Janaki Sharmila presented 16 persons who were allegedly involved in the trafficking at a media conference here on Monday.

The DSP said the accused were allegedly luring the young women with poor economic background into trafficking to cities such as Bangalore and Hyderabad by presenting them expensive gifts.

Ms. Janaki informed that police launched a drive against women trafficking in the Kovvuru sub-division and freed 15 victims, including four minors, in the last two weeks.

A recent raid on a den at Tanuku led to the release of nine victims, including three minors, from the clutches of traffickers.

In all, 27 persons allegedly involved in the trafficking were arrested in the two incidents reported at Tanuku and Tadepalligudem. Suspect sheets were opened against 11 persons belonging to different places in the district for allegedly having connections with the traffickers.

Hyderabad- It's boom time for brothels in city

2009-08-28T14:37:00.001+05:30

Bushra Baseerat,
TNN 28 August 2009, 01:46am IST
|
HYDERABAD: The organised business of brothels is becoming big time in Hyderabad with an estimated 5,000 brothels dotting the Twin Cities.
According to officials of Andhra Pradesh State Aids Control Society and ‘coordinators’ of flesh trade, the number of brothels has doubled in the city in the last two years.

The business, which has been recession-proof, is booming in brothels with girls in the trade charging anywhere between Rs 500 and Rs 10,000 a day or even more, depending on their age, appearance and the client’s spending capacity. These brothels are largely being operated from residential apartments that are spread across Twin Cities, according to non-governmental organisations and networks working with the People Living with HIV/Aids (PLHAs).

What is new in the city’s flesh trade is the organised business model that they have adopted with pimps saying that Hyderabad brothels are going the Mumbai way. Pimps say that the number of such brothels would be around 2,000 to 3,000.

Take for instance, this brothel in a residential area in Kukatpally that TOI visited. Managed by a ‘madam’, the ‘brothel’ appears like a normal flat with sparse furniture. The madam is a 25-year-old sex worker and says she has now recruited four girls who operate from this flat. These girls give a portion of their income to the woman who sub-lets her flat to them. She also has two male members in her ‘family’ to ward off curious neighbours and police raids.

The trend of ‘contracts’’ too has come to stay in Hyderabad. “I was taken on a contract for ten days by a pimp and catered to ten clients a day earning Rs 23,000. Now, I have set up my own business,’’ says a sex worker who continues to work. She maintains that she insists on condom use by her clients, a claim that officials aren’t too sure of.

Sex workers share that girls in the age group of 15 to 25 years are in demand and their customers are mostly married who range from businessmen, software engineers to even auto-walas.

A pimp who operates in the Yousufguda area, told TOI that coordinators lure girls with ‘good money’, showcasing Hyderabad as a cash-rich destination with the IT and real estate boom. “Girls are being brought from rural areas of West Bengal as well as Maharashtra and tribal Gujarat. Even girls from Warangal and Nalgonda are being inducted. Earlier, they were mostly natives of Andhra from districts like Krishna, Guntur, East Godavari (Kakinada and Rajhamundry) and Vizag,” said the broker, in the business since past five years. Officials said they started mapping brothels as it became impossible for them to fan out to each sex worker to spread Aids awareness messages. That there could be a considerable number of minor girls operating from these brothels is a serious area of concern, but police officials admit it is difficult to keep tabs on these brothels as they are temporary in nature and sex workers shift out of their flats every month.

C Ravi Verma, DCP west zone, said that girls are promised money up to Rs 40,000 and brought to the city and says that more people in the city are visiting sex workers than before. “The problem is even after we catch them, they come out on bail and start operating from a different place all over again,’’ he says, ruing that very few people lodge complaints.

Protocol for Pre rescue & post rescue for sex trafficking victim

2009-08-28T12:50:00.001+05:30

PROTOCOL FOR PRE-RESCUE, RESCUE AND POST-RESCUE OPERATIONS OF CHILD VICTIM OF TRAFFICKING FOR COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

I. GUIDELINES FOR STATE GOVERNMENTS

1. Develop an Anti-Trafficking Policy specifying victim’s friendly provisions and structures.
2. Create an Anti-Trafficking Cell at the State and District level to co-ordinate with other relevant Departments and NGOs on the issues pertaining to trafficking, especially on the rescue and rehabilitation of child victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.
3. Create a Database on traffickers, brothel owners, informants, decoy customers, number of cases registered, status of each case, source and destination areas in the State/District and any other relevant information. The information in the Database should be kept confidential and should be parted only to genuine information seekers.
4. Form Community Vigilant Groups (CVGs) at the Community Level. The CVGs can help in rescue and rehabilitation of victims at the community level.
5. Assign sufficient number of police personnel especially women Police personnel for the rescue operations.
6. Prominently display signboards in hotels, tourist places, restaurants, beaches, airports, bus stands, railway stations and other susceptible places, warning people against trafficking and use of children for commercial sexual exploitation. In case, any child is seen under suspicious circumstances in these places, the informant should inform the Police/childline/ NGO immediately.
7. Repatriate the victim from the Destination State to the Home State. The State would be responsible for transportation and the State Government would meet all expenses towards travel for the victim and escort, food and incidental. The State Government should provide a separate budget for repatriation of the victims.
8. Give adequate publicity, through both print and electronic media, on child-lines and women help-lines over a sustained period of time.
9. Declare names of fit people and fit institutions, where victims of trafficking can be kept in safe custody. The list should be circulated to all Police Head Quarters, Police Stations at State and District Levels, Courts and NGOs.
10. Declare fit institutions where mentally challenged or ill child victims and women can be kept in safe custody and proper medical treatment can be provided.
11. Issue directives that all Court proceedings related to child victims of trafficking are carried out in-camera.
12. Assign trained Child Welfare Officers in every Police Station.
13. Every Police Station should have separate clean and hygienic toilet (s) for women.

II. FOR RESCUE TEAM MEMBERS

A. STRATEGY FOR PRE-RESCUE OPERATIONS

i. For Rescue of Trafficked Child Vicitms
• Cultivate networks of informants who will provide specific information about trafficked under-aged child victims (below 18 years) or woman willing to be rescued from brothels. Specific information may be in the form of letters, emails, photographs, personality traits, identification marks and scars, addresses, physical presence of relatives and people known to child victim, computer graphics generated by the description and mannerisms (e.g. accent, distinctive body language like frequent rubbing of fingers, blinking of eyes or any other). It is desirable, that a small remuneration is paid to the informant, which sustains their motivation.
• Identify the child victim by the use of decoy customers and authenticate the available information. The decoy customer should try to motivate the child to talk on a one-to-one basis and to facilitate further rescue operations.
• Involve an NGOs and Social Workers in Rescue operations carried out by the Police or the Community.
• Prepare a strategic plan for rescue operation with minimum loss of time. The plan should include the following: -

1. Compilation of all available valid information. For example, physical layout of the brothels and hideouts, specific characteristics of the location, etc. Seek help of key informants people such as petty-shop owners, sweepers, part-time maids, milkmen or any other persons who may provide their service to the brothels/hide-outs, local contractors and builders who would know the layout of the brothels/hide-outs.
2. Rescue team, preferably trained, should consists of the designated Special Police Officer as defined under Section 13 of Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956, Assistant Commissioner of Police and/or District Commissioner of Police, police personnel including women, NGO representative and social worker. The number of rescue team members should be constituted depending on the size (number of brothels/victims) of the rescue operation.
3. Maintain confidentiality and secrecy of the rescue operation, all members of the rescue operation should gather at a commonplace or location at least 2 hours before the actual rescue operation.
4. To prevent leakage of information, prior to the actual rescue operation, mobile phones and any other mode(s) of communication belonging to the rescue operation team members should be taken in custody by the rescue team leader.
5. The strategy that would be adopted for the rescue operations and its various steps should be explained at this time. To each team member, explain his/her role in the rescue operation and clear any doubts that she/he may have.
6. Preparing key players: Formation of teams would depend upon the situation and targeted number of brothels to be covered and expected number of minors to be recovered.
7. Under no circumstances should the decoy customer(s) be exposed before, during and after the rescue operations.
8. Under no circumstances should the rescue operation be revealed to any person (s) other than those directly involved”. If by any chance, the media does happen to get word of it, they should not be allowed to cover the rescue operation.
9. Check /verify vacancies available in Government and other certified Homes, so that the rescued victims can be taken to the appropriate Homes for safe custody. This should be done in total confidentiality, so that any information on the rescue operation is not leaked.
10. Before conducting rescue operations, all police formalities should be completed.
11. During the rescue operations, the rescue team members should not physically touch the girls, women, or their belongings. Only female members of the rescue team should deal with the victims.
12. During the rescue operations, no rescue team members should use abusive language towards the girls and women.
ii. Rescue Operation at a Community Level

• The community should be sensitized about trafficking, the harm resulting out of this exploitative situation and what to do in case they have knowledge of such an incident. Community members should be motivated to keep a watch in the community for irregular movement of child victims to and from the area, their possible traffickers and hideouts.
• The Community members should immediately provide information on suspicious people or to the nearest NGO working on rescue of trafficked victims. In absence of an NGO, the nearest police station may be informed.
• Involve community group in rehabilitation of the victim, if he/she is from the same community.

B. STRATEGY FOR RESCUE OPERATIONS

1. Planned rescue operations should be carried out on brothel communities.
2. Place the rescue team members in strategic location as pre-planned for the rescue operation, before entering the brothel/community,
3. Immediately go to the place/area where the child is being kept/confined.
4. Remove the Child from the brothel/community as quickly as possible. He/She should collect all his/her belongings. In case, she has a child or children of her own, make sure that she is not separated from them.
5. Treat the child victim with sympathy and not as a criminal.
6. Remove any mentally-challenged or ill child victim or woman in the brothel, irrespective of their age.
7. Be aware of your body language and do not make any unnecessary contact, unwelcome gesture, use physical force, cause physical harm, use vulgar or inappropriate language to any inmates of the brothel.
8. Seize/collect all records showing expenses/income/payment/financial transactions and any other important document from the brothel owners, as they would form important piece of material evidence in the Court.
9. Identification of the victims should be kept confidential, her name, address, photograph or any other information should not be published in any newspaper, magazine, news-sheet or visual media. This is mandatory as per Section 21 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.
10. Identity and location of decoy customer should be kept confidential.
11. The rescue team members should be accountable to the rescue team leader and any violation of the rights of the victim should be dealt in appropriate manner.

C. STRATEGY FOR POST-RESCUE OPERATIONS

1. Separate the victims by sight and sound from the accused. While taking the child victim to the Police Station, the child and brothel owners/traffickers should be taken in a separate vehicle. If this is not possible, they should be kept separate from each other. This is to prevent the accused from threatening or intimidating the child.
2. Do not keep the child in the lock-up under any circumstances. The victim should be immediately taken to a certified place of safety after the raid. The victim is not an accused person and should not receive the same treatment as the accused. Keep her separately from the brothel owners/traffickers.
3. Document the rescue operation in the diary, in presence of two independent reliable witnesses and get it signed by them for authentication.
4. The First Information Report (FIR) should be immediately registered by the victims or NGO in the Police Station and it should contains details of location of crime, description of offence, victim and accused, chronology of crime right from the time the child was trafficked. The FIR should be as detailed as possible. The child should receive a copy of the FIR and it should be kept in safe custody of the NGO/Protective/children Home, where the child is kept.
5. Invoke all relevant Sections of Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956 and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 against the trafficker and brothel owners.
6. Hand over the Child to a representative from the Protective/Children Home run by either the Government or NGO. The child should be counseled about her stay in protective custody and that she has been kept there for her safety and well being.
7. It is important to ensure the following: -

• Only Plain-clothes police accompany the child to the Protective/Children Home.
• The functionaries of the Protective/Children Home should ensure that the child does not come in contact with its traffickers, pimps, brothel owners or any such persons, who may have bad influence on him/her.
• The medical examination, including age verification test is carried out properly and scientifically. The age verification test is mandatory as per Section 15 b (5A) of Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, 1956 and Section 49 of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000.
• The child victim is produced before the Child Welfare Committee within 24 hrs of taking him/her into custody. In case, the Child Welfare Committee is not available, then he/she should be produced before concerned Magistrate for relief.
• The child has immediate access to standardized counseling, health care and legal aid. On behalf of the victim, the Personnel from the NGO, including Social Worker or Protective/Children Home should sign the vakalatnama (or the consent for a lawyer’s representation).
• A social worker accompanies the child whenever he/she leaves the place of safety.
• A counselor is present whenever a child is giving testimony in the Court.
• The concerned Magistrate or the members of the competent authority as the case may be, visits the rescue home once in every fifteen days to conduct legal proceedings.
• The child is prepared by explaining to him/her about court proceedings, so that he/she is aware of the procedures and is mentally well prepared. After every hearing of the case, the child should be informed about the court order, if any, so that he/she is kept fully updated on his/her case.
• It is recommended that trafficking cases be fast tracked under Speedy Trial to reduce the trauma and suffering of the child.

D. STRATEGY FOR REHABILITATION (for functionaries in the Protective/Children Home)

1. Ensure that the child is informally welcomed and is introduced to other residents and shown around. She should be shown to her room and her locker where she can keep her personnel belongings. It is advisable that for the first few days, she should be given space for privacy and if possible kept separately from the others or with those who have been rescued like her.
2. Provide a welcome kit that includes a change of clothes, towel, undergarments, chappals/slippers and toiletries (soap, oil, hair brush/comb, tooth brush, paste, powder, rubber band, shampoo, sanitary napkins etc.), to the child on arrival.
3. Explain to him/her the rules and regulation of the Protective/Children Homes and their objectives, once he/she settles down,. This will make him/her feel comfortable and secure in his/her new environment. Also, explain to the child his/her responsibilities and duties during his/her stay in the Home.
4. A registered medical doctor should examine the child for any ailments, allergies, skin rashes and psychological disorders or problems. Routine blood, urine, lung X-rays and stool tests should be carried out. In case, the child is suffering from any aliment, she should be given appropriate medication as prescribed by the doctor and there should be continuous follow-up on her condition.
5. Talk to the child and find out whether he/she is interested in continuing with her education and accordingly, admit him/her to a regular school or make arrangements for non-formal education or tutoring so that she can catch up with his/her studies. In any case, the child should be given some basic education which will help his/her to be independent when he/she leaves the Home.
6. Provide the child with vocational training, including marketing strategies that are marketable, sustainable and practical. (Please check that providing a child with vocational training and marketing strategies is not contravening any child rights or child labor laws).
7. Prepare the Child for his/her repatriation/integration with his/her family. No rescued child should be sent back to his/her family without ensuring social acceptance, family support, to prevent re-trafficking and further exploitation.

Delhi Magistrate booked under Immoral Trafficking Act

2009-08-28T11:15:00.001+05:30

Delhi Magistrate booked under Immoral Trafficking Act

STAFF WRITER
19:52 HRS IST
Panipat, Aug 27 (PTI)
A Metropolitan Magistrate from Delhi and three others, including a young girl, were today booked under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act by Haryana police.

R K Aggarwal, posted in Tis Hazari Court, was detained and two other acquaintances and a girl were arrested after police raided a house at Samalakha's Punjabi colony in Panipat following a tip-off, Investigating Officer (IO) Inspector Satpal Malik said.

The three "picked up the girl from Delhi-Karnal bypass" and brought her to the rented house where the police "caught the accused red-handed," he said.

Aggarwal, his acquaintance Subhash Dhuvan, Dhuvan's Hisar-based relative Shamsher and the girl, who hails from Kolkata, have been booked under the Act, the IO sai

Preventing 2nd generation trafficking

2009-08-25T10:40:00.004+05:30

Miss India World 2009 Pooja Chopra visited red light area

Mumbai: Winner of Femina's beauty contest Pooja Chopra who will be representing India at Miss World 2009 contest in December this year visited the red light area of Mumbai.

The purpose behind her visit was to interact with the children of sex workers who are studying in a school set up for them and encourage them.

She feels that these children are not fortunate enough to have a decent social tag so must be encouraged to study and progress in life. This visit was organised be Apna which works for the welfare of sex workers.

The children were delighted to have a beautiful celebrity take out time to come visit them. The children thanked her by presenting beautiful drawings sketched by them.

�A small gesture can go a long way in shaping someone's life. Perhaps this visit by Pooja Chopra might help these children of sex workers to be motivated and do well in life.

CBI: Tirupati, Shirdi in Nexus Too

2009-05-21T20:22:00.001+05:30

Human traffickinjg - Tirupati, Shirdi in Nexus Too
By: Anshuman G Dutta
Date: 2009-05-21
They are traditional soul-cleansing destinations. But pilgrim towns Benaras, Tirupati and Shirdi have instead become hubs of global human traffickingNineteen-year-old Seema (name changed to protect her identity) had come to Benaras on a pilgrimage. It was the city's religious importance that had persuaded her parents in Nepal to allow their young daughter to travel to a foreign country.
Sin City: Pilgrims at one of the ghats of BenarasBut instead of angels, Seema met the demons here. She was held captive, gang-raped and then pushed into the flesh trade.Fortunately, Seema was rescued by an NGO and a group of students from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) who have decided to cleanse the holy city's unholy underbelly.Non-government orgnisations working in Benaras say 500 to 700 girls are brought to the city from Nepal and Bangladesh to be pushed into the flesh trade every year. Later, these girls are taken to Mumbai, Delhi and other metropolitan cities. That's not all. Between 20,000 and 40,000 people are brought here to work as bonded labourers while about 1,000 children are turned into beggars every year.But Benaras is not the only Indian town of religious importance that has become a ripe picking ground for human traffickers. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has revealed cities like Benaras, Tirupati and Shirdi attract human traffickers who find easy targets from among the large number of people who visit these places.
Hotbed Benaras "Seema was only 17 when she was brought to Benaras. She fought her captors and resisted even in the face of near-starvation and physical torture. But her will snapped after she was gang-raped by the members of a human trafficking racket," said Dr Lenin Suryavanshi, director, People's Vigilance Commission on Human Resource, one of the most prominent NGOs working in Benaras.According to Suryavanshi, the Benaras-based gangs "cater" to clients in all the big cities of the country. Children and girls are also brought to Benaras from Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa.
"While most of them are forced into prostitution and begging, many are made to work as bonded labourers as well. Many of them work in the bricks kilns around Benaras," said Suryavanshi.The CBI and NGOs also informed that the racket is thriving between Benaras and Mughalsarai. "There is no denying that human trafficking is rampant in these parts but no own knows how deep-rooted it is. Regular raids are being carried out but the police hardly get any proof as the gangs keep moving along with the kids and girls," said a senior police official from Benaras, wishing anonymity.CBI has an eye on Tirupati and ShirdiThe CBI, in a recently conducted seminar on human trafficking, revealed that religious towns like Benaras are happy hunting grounds for international gangs as well.
"India is being used as source, transit point and destination by global human traffickers," said CBI director Ashwani Kumar at the seminar, organised in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC).A senior CBI official was more specific. "Benaras and Tirupati are two of the most active destinations for both inter-country and intra-country human trafficking. All kind of human trafficking networks child labour, flesh trade and begging rackets are being operated from these cities," said the officer."There is a complete list of religious places from where begging and prostitution gangs are operating. Shirdi is one such town in western India where gangs force children and women into begging," he added.Another senior CBI official said that the investigating body is actively monitoring these religious places to take stock of the situation."So far no one knows the exact strength of the trafficking rackets being operated from these cities. It's being run in connivance with international gangs," he said, wishing not to be named.Unholy factsNGOs working in Benaras say 500 to 700 girls are brought to the city from Nepal and Bangladesh for prostitution every year. Between 20,000 and 40,000 people are brought here to work as bonded labourers, while about 1,000 kids are turned into beggars.
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Eunuch convicted for raping minor

2009-05-15T18:02:00.001+05:30

Eunuch convicted for raping minor
15 May 2009, 1650 hrs IST, PTI
MUMBAI: The sessions court on Friday sentenced a eunuch to ten years rigorous imprisonment on charges of raping a minor girl and immoral trafficking. Additional sessions judge P V Ganediwala convicted the eunuch Rekha Lamb (42), who has been diagnosed with AIDS, on charges of rape and under various sections of the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act. Another accused, Sarfaraj Siddiqui (23), who had paid Rekha to sleep with a minor girl, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the court. On February 16, 2007 the Trombay police had raided Rekha's residence in suburban Chembur and had found Siddiqui and a minor girl in the front room in a compromising position and Rekha in the kitchen with another minor girl. According to the statement of one of the girls, she used to do household chores at Rekha's house since last year when one day Rekha raped her. Since last three to four months, Rekha has been getting customers to her house for sexual favours with the two girls, the prosecution has said. Public prosecutor Usha Kiran Makasare examined nine witnesses in the case including the two girls and Rekha's neighbour who had informed the police about the racket.

Trafficking of Indian ladies to Middle East

2009-05-01T00:41:00.002+05:30

Date:30/06/2008
Andhra Pradesh -
Kadapa Three held on charge of human trafficking
Special Correspondent
KADAPA: Rayachoti police arrested Pasupuleti Veera Nagaiah, Jeelani and Mahaboob Basha and remanded them on charges of resorting to human trafficking, Kadapa Superintendent of Police Mahesh M. Bhagwat said on Sunday. The police are making efforts to apprehend Nazeer, who was allegedly involved in trafficking of women to Kuwait in the past.
A 40-year-old woman victim (whose name the police withheld) of Gorlamudivedu village in Rayachoty had approached Pasupuleti Veera Nagaiah collected Rs. 40,000 from her promising to send her to Kuwait as a maid servant. He sent her to Kuwait through an unauthorised agent Jeelani of Rayachoty and his brother Mahaboob Basha, the SP told a press conference. In Kuwait, Nazeer, another brother of Jeelani, sold the victim to a brothel house, where she was confined for 10 days along with some other women, he stated. The victim managed to escape through a bathroom window of the brothel house and approached the police station and were jailed as they did not possess relevant documents, he said. Complaint lodged
The victim and another woman of Rayachoti and three women of West Godavari contacted the Indian Embassy and they were sent back to India, Mr. Bhagwat stated. The victim lodged a complaint and on its basis, Rayachoti Urban police registered a case under section 420 IPC, section 24 (1) AP Immigration Act, sections 3, 4 and 5 of Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act against Jeelani, Pasupuleti Veera Nagaiah, Mahaboob Basha of Rayachoty and Nazeer, resident of Kuwait, the SP said.
He appealed to people not to approach unauthorised agents. People aspiring to go abroad should obtain insurance from Pravasa Bharathi Bima Yojana. They could contact the Indian Embassy in Kuwait if they encountered problems

Prostitution of boys at India's pilgrim sites called rampant

2009-03-10T16:51:00.001+05:30

Prostitution of boys at India's pilgrim sites called rampant
By DPAMar 10, 2009, 10:16 GMT
New Delhi - Sexual exploitation of boys in three of India's major pilgrimage centres is pervasive and on the rise, a study released Tuesday said.
The study focused on male children in prostitution at Hindu temple sites of Puri in eastern Orissa state and Tirupati and Guruvayoor in southern Andhra Pradesh and Kerala states.
It was conducted by Ecpat, an international network that aims to stop sexual exploitation of children, and Indian non-governmental organization Equations.
The study found that in these centres, development of tourism had led to sexual exploitation of children, in the form of child abuse, child trafficking, child prostitution, child sex tourism and child pornography.
'There is a dearth of information on male child sexual exploitation and prostitution due to the assumption that most sexual exploiters are men and therefore their victims are women or girls. However, this is not true,' said S Vidya, a coordinator with the Equations.
'The double standards that society has about homosexuality and the fact that it is criminalized in India only makes the problem less visible.'
In Tirupati, which receives mostly Indians, a survey of boys aged between 6 and 18 years revealed that sexual abuse of boys is rampant due to demand from domestic tourists. Pressure on boys to earn a living for the family was cited as a reason why they were forced into prostitution.
'Family members saw less risk when male children are involved in selling sex as compared to girls, as the social stigma is less and the fear of pregnancy does not exist,' the report said.
In Puri, boys interviewed reported that both domestic and foreign tourists were involved in the sexual exploitation.
'A number of massage parlours and health clubs have mushroomed in Puri that primarily cater to foreign and domestic tourists, where prostitution takes place involving both adults and children,' the study said.
In Guruvayoor, child sexual abuse was less visible but discussions with locals revealed that several boys were involved in prostitution, selling sex to domestic tourists and locals.
The groups urged the Indian government to set up agencies to safeguard children and tighten laws to stop child sex tourism, including severe punishment for convicted offenders

Trafficking: Lens on women's role

2009-03-08T17:16:00.002+05:30

Trafficking: Lens on women's role
8 Mar 2009, 0505 hrs IST,

Ratnottama Sengupta, TNN
KOLKATA: In Bappaditya Bandopadhyay's Kaal, a male actor inducts four helpless young females into the flesh trade. In Hollywood films Human Trafficking and Trade, again, it's men Russians, Mexicans, Poles, Czechs, Filipinos who steal, trick, lure, lock up, brutalize, and repeatedly sell women mothers, daughters, sisters, even wives.

Typically, organized crime is a male activity, right? Not really, says United Nation's Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, released to mark International Women's Day. Men make up over 90% of the prison populations of most countries. They are perpetrators of the most violent crimes, terror acts, drug-related horrors. Surprisingly, data from 46 countries suggest for the first time that women play key roles in human trafficking, a trade where two-thirds of the victims are women, and about 13% are girls. Estimates suggest that close to 8 million women and children are trafficked around the world, and two-thirds of these are in the sex trade.

The term sex worker' hides the fact that few choose it as a career option where legislations regarding minimum standards of wages don't apply.

A woman's price varies with age, and there are no retirement benefits. Instead, they face brutalities, forced penetration, repeated abortion, insomnia, even AIDS. The worst part is that the victims' are apprehended as criminals, while the traffickers and buyers of sex get away scot-free. Sexual exploitation is by far the most common form 79% of trafficking, the third most lucrative after trade in arms and drugs. It's the most visible in city centres and along highways, be it in Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangkok, Berlin, London or New York.

But by no means is it the only form of forced labour. We know of slumdogs forced to beg on Indian streets, or of bonded labour. How many know about those used in warfare, or for organ removal? "We are unable to segment today's slave market'," says Antonio Maria Costa, ED, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Break-ups say little about demand and supply, or about relative prices of children used for begging or for rag-tag armies of killers. What pushes illegal immigrants into American sweatshops?

"It is unclear whether the enterprises' are driven by compulsions in source countries or demands in destinations," says Costa. However, the report as much as the films in the festival, that was hosted by Apne Aap, American Center and ICCR, reveals that in source countries, locals win the trust and acquire victims, then control them by threatening retaliation against kids and aged parents. In high-income destinations, though, the offenders are more likely to be foreigners.

"Diaspora population from source regions is often the conduit for moving victims," Costa said. Care for some more revelations? Many African countries have no law against trafficking, or criminalize only child trafficking. In India, while sex with a minor is punished as rape, women victims are penalized for soliciting'. Not all high-income countries have comprehensive legislation, either. So, "the fight against the lucrative exploitation of fellow humans essentially remains an individual national initiative," said Costa.

Giving a purpose to life

2009-02-12T17:20:00.003+05:30

Giving a purpose to life
D. Chandra Bhaskar Rao

Sharmila goes all out to help young girls caught in the pincer grip of prostitution rings

Proud moment: Probationary sub-divisional police officer G. Janaki Sharmila receiving cash award from Superintendent of Police Mahesh M Bhagwat.

KHAMMAM: Chasing leads on flesh trade gangs, she entered places where even her male peers would hesitate to venture into. Putting herself often at risk by confronting people of all sorts, she proved that she was made out to shoulder special tasks and not the mundane stuff.
G. Janaki Sharmila, a probationary sub divisional police officer has been in the thick of action grabbing attention of the media and the public during her brief stint of six months in the district. Her main target
Ms. Sharmila has gone all out helping young girls caught in the pincer grip of prostitution rings that enjoyed the patronage of powerful clientele. Brothels luring poor girls into prostitution were her targets and she is thankful to her bosses for tasking her with the drive against human trafficking.
An Intermediate student forced into prostitution by a notorious gang along with a girl of the same age group was rescued by the police team led by Ms. Sharmila on December 24 last. The two girls were considered for special assistance by the administration, thus enabling them to lead a normal life.
Another gang in the flesh trade trapped a teenaged girl from a village in the district cashing in on her urge to make it big in life. The girl was in for a rude shock to know that she was pregnant. Khammam accounts for a good number of cases of forced prostitution and gullible women are being lured into the racket.
There is some let-up now, thanks to the crackdown, which is mainly because of this gutsy woman in uniform.
Quick and to the point in conversation, she says she joined the police service with a purpose by topping the Group 1 examination.
She gave up a job with a handsome package of Rs. 12 lakh in the HRD wing of a software company because of her “urge to reach out the helpless.” She lost her one-year-old child Snigdha in a road accident at Nagarjunagar in 2004.
This turned out to be her moment of transformation.

Delhi High Court orders probe into child trafficking

2009-01-23T17:32:00.001+05:30

Delhi High Court orders probe into child trafficking
New Delhi, Jan 22 (ANI): Concerned over the increasing number of child trafficking cases, the Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered senior police officials to investigate the case and present the results by Friday.
A division bench of Chief Justice AP Shah and Justice Sanjeev Khanna said, "This is a very serious matter and needs to be investigated by a senior level officer of the Delhi police".
The court heard Public Interest Litigation filed by the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan blamed the placement agencies for the illegal trafficking of girls and advised compulsory registration of all such agencies.
Senior lawyers H S Phoolka and Kavita Tiwari, advocating for the NGO, told the bench that the girls were forced into prostitution and the boys into illegal activities.
Bachpan Bachao Andolan, in early January, claimed of rescuing thirty-five girls and four boys from various placement agencies in the capital.
Though child trafficking is growing rapidly in India, there is no reliable data available on the issue in India.
According to figures provided by the National Crime Records Bureau, in 2004, as many as 2,265 cases of kidnapping and abduction of children qualified as forms of trafficking and were reported to the police.
Of these, 1,593 cases were of kidnapping for marriage, 414 were for illicit sex, 92 for unlawful activity, 101 for prostitution and the rest for various other things like slavery, beggary and even selling body parts.
Most of these children (72 per cent) were between sixteen and eighteen years of age. Twenty-five per cent were children aged eleven to fifteen years.
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are the states from where the maximum numbers of children are trafficked to other states.
Intra state/inter district trafficking is high in the states of Rajasthan, Assam, Meghalaya, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra while States like Delhi and Goa are ‘receiver’ states.
Trafficking of children from the North-Eastern states of India and the bordering countries in the north-east is a serious issue but has so far not drawn public attention.
Children are trafficked for several reasons including sexual exploitation; adoption; entertainment and sports (for example, acrobatics in circus, dance troupes, beer bars; as camel jockeys); marriage; labour; begging, organ trade (though only anecdotal evidence of this is available); drug peddling and smuggling. (ANI)

Video on recue of teenaged girls

2009-01-11T18:13:00.001+05:30

Follow the link
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=OL8hTxIMfnA

Human trafficking- One more girl rescued by Khammam Police

2009-01-04T18:21:00.003+05:30

Date:04/01/2009

Andhra Pradesh - Khammam One more girl rescued
Staff Reporter
KHAMMAM: A police party led by the probationary DSP, G. Janaki Sharmila on Saturday freed a girl from forced prostitution by arresting three persons, including a woman and her son, on the charge of running a brothel and indulging in trafficking.
Disclosing this at a press conference, Khammam DSP P. Rameshaiah said the girl was rescued when she was being handed over to another person at a lodge in the town.
The accused, including the 52-year-old Velpula Jayamma and her son, both of Gollagudem village, were arrested on the spot.
Two girls, including the one who was freed in the day, were in the captivity of the accused for quite some time.
Three mobile phones, an auto rickshaw and a motor cycle were seized from the accused

Man gets RI for forcing minor into flesh-trade

2008-12-25T09:55:00.002+05:30

Man gets RI for forcing minor into flesh-trade
22 Dec 2008, 0459 hrs IST, TNN
PUNE: Additional sessions judge T M Jahagirdhar on Saturday sentenced brothel owner Sonal Roy (34) of Nepal to five-year rigorous imprisonment for inducing a minor girl into prostitution. In March last year, activists Somling Kamble and James Varghese of US-based organisation Freedom Firm received a tip-off that a minor girl has been induced into prostitution in the red-light district in Budhwar Peth. The activists, with the help of sub-inspector Gajanan Pawar of the Faraskhana police, rescued the 16-year-old victim on March 16, 2007. Roy, who had "bought" the girl from an unidentified woman, was arrested under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act. Additional public prosecutor C G Kulkarni examined six witnesses to establish Roy's guilt. Of the six, the panch witness had turned hostile. Rohit Takawane, the lawyer appointed by Freedom Firm to assist Kulkarni, said after the trial that the organisation had flown the victim to Pune from West Bengal to depose in court. Freedom Firm works to prevent child abuse, Takawane said.

Human trafficking network busted in Khammam

2008-12-25T07:52:00.002+05:30

THE HINDU
Regional
Human trafficking network busted in Khammam
Wednesday, December 24, 2008 : 1830 Hrs

Hyderabad (PTI): Andhra Pradesh police have busted a human trafficking network and rescued three girls while arresting seven persons including six women involved in the racket in Khammam district.
The rescued girls including a second year Intermediate student were sent to rehabilitation centre for counseling and rehabilitation, Khammam district Superintendent of Police M M Bhagwat told PTI on Wednesday.
The human trafficking network was exposed when a victim girl recently lodged a complaint stating that one Dharavath Nagulu trapped her and forced her to indulge in prostitution at Khammam town, Vijayawada city and other places, Bhagwat said.
On the basis of the complaint police teams conducted raids at various places and arrested Nagulu, kingpin of the racket and six women who were involved in selling girls to brothel houses at Khammam, Kodada, Vijayawada and Mumbai, he said.
Nagulu reported to have confessed that he was involved in human trafficking for the last five years, the SP said. Three other accused in the racket are absconding and efforts are on to nab them, Bhagwat said.

Inter student among minors rescued

2008-12-25T07:45:00.002+05:30

Date:25/12/2008

Police launch major drive against human trafficking
Police recommend immediate relief, compensation to the girls
Khammam accounts for a number of forced prostitution cases, says SP

Trainee sub-divisional police officer Janaki Sharmila listening to one of the rescued girls.

KHAMMAM: Three minor girls, including a junior college student, were freed from forced prostitution as part of a major operation launched in the district against human trafficking. The initiative spearheaded by Superintendent of Police Mahesh M. Bhagwat resulted in the arrest of some 11 persons accused in the prostitution racket.
One of the minor girls sold to a brothel in the red light area of Mumbai managed to escape and return to Khammam while two others were found to be pregnant. The police department has recommended an immediate relief of Rs 10,000 to each of the girls besides a compensation ranging up to Rs 1 lakh. They would be sent to the rehabilitation centre for counselling.
He said Daravath Nagulu, a resident of Balapet Tanda who had been in the flesh trade for over five years sold girls from the district in Mumbai. He enjoyed the support of affluent clientele in places such as Vijayawada and Kodad. Boda Ramesh, another person accused in the case, was also arrested along with nine others as part of the drive.
The Police department is working on information that similar gangs were operating in other parts of the district including Yellandu area trying to lure gullible women into flesh trade.
He said Khammam accounted for a substantial number of girls forced into prostitution. Out of 45 women set free by the State police from the red light area of Mumbai in 2007, some 15 women were from the district.
The SP said the breakthrough in the drive owed itself to the efforts of the Khammam sub divisional police officer, Rameshaiah, the trainee DSP, Janaki Sharmila and CI, Khammam rural, Syed Sarwar. The constables and head constable who took part in the operation would be suitably rewarded.