Combating trafficking of women and children : December 2005

Trafficking of children and young women into the global sex trade is the third largest international criminal activity (Source: Interpol) and is a multi-billion dollar industry.Small, though significant, initiatives have been taken in recent years by variousGovt. agencies and NGOs by creating awareness on the issue, rescuing trafficked persons and getting the traffickers arrested. However, this is a mammoth task. War against slavery needs a multi-disciplinary approach. Women and Child Development, Labour, Home and External Affairs — all these agencies must move beyond rescue operations to rehabilitation.
THE HINDU
Date:13/09/2004 Andhra Pradesh
Sex racket busted in city resort
HYDERABAD, SEPT. 12. A sex racket being run in Epicurus Resorts at Nanakramguda on the city outskirts was busted by the Cyberabad police with the arrest of 65 persons, including nine women dancers and 21 sex workers, after midnight on Saturday.
Eleven luxury cars and four motorbikes belonging to the clients caught at the air-conditioned dance floor and the adjoining 20-room building were seized, the Cyberabad DCP (law and order), Mahesh M. Bhagawath, said.
While Kumar, an aide of the racket's alleged operator, M.S. Nagaraju of Banjara Hills, was taken into custody, the latter is absconding.
Well-to-do clients
The police learnt that most of the clients caught during the midnight raid that continued till the early hours of Sunday were from well-to-do families. Nagaraju was organising obscene dances by flying in girls from Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Mumbai. He had hired the resort premises consisting of three buildings and a huge swimming pool. One of the buildings had more than 20 well-furnished rooms. Nagaraju was charged with renting out rooms to prostitutes at Rs. 1,000 each per day. Most of the prostitutes were from towns like Guntur and Vijayawada and would book the rooms through a network of mediators. "For some reason, Nagaraju was operating this racket only on Saturdays," Mr. Bhagawat said.
Obscene dances
When the 30-member police contingent swooped down on the resort premises, 21 men were found consuming liquor and watching dances being performed by 10 semi-nude girls.
"It was a huge air-conditioned hall akin to a cabaret dance floor with modern lighting and music systems," the Rajendranagar ACP, B. Narsimhulu, explained. Subsequent inspection on the adjoining building brought the sex racket to the fore.
Twenty-five men, along with 21 sex workers were picked up from the rooms.
Liquor and food was being served both at the dance floor and in the rooms for which Nagaraju was collecting additional charges. Police seized ten mobile phones from the prostitutes and launched a hunt for the middlemen involved in the racket.
`No police lapses'
Cases under section 7 (2) of A.P. Objectionable Performances Prohibition Act and section 34 (a) of A.P. Excise Act, sections 3, 4, 57 and 8 of Immoral Traffic Prevention Act and section 294 (performing obscene acts) of IPC were booked against the accused.
The Cyberabad Police Commissioner, M. Mahender Reddy, ruled out lapses on the part of Rayadurgam police in keeping a tab on such illegal activities in their jurisdiction saying they were waiting for right time to raid the resorts.
Charged earlier too
Nagaraju was president of A.P. Hotel Owners Association and arrested a year ago by the then probationer DSP Sumathi on charges of organising a brothel in the same resorts, the Rayadurgam Inspector, R. Sudarshan, said.
Almost all the clients arrested were from the city except for a few who reportedly came to attend the `garment exhibition' in the city
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Human Trafficking-Awarness against sale of infant baby girls
THE HINDU
December 11,2005

Andhra Pradesh
News: Front Page National Tamil Nadu Andhra Pradesh Karnataka Kerala New Delhi Other States International Opinion Sport Miscellaneous Advts: Classifieds Employment Andhra Pradesh - Nalgonda
Rally against female infanticide
Staff Reporter
NALGONDA: Mahila Hakkula Vedika under the aegis of Ankitha, a volunteer organisation of Miryalaguda, organised a rally here on Sunday giving a clarion call to tribal parents not to sell or kill their baby girls.
Led by Ramprasad and Koteswara Rao of Ankitha, more than 100 people participated in the rally. They raised slogans against female infanticide.
The organisation's representatives and volunteers covered more than 50 hamlets and villages since November 25 before taking out a rally in the town. They also organised a photo exhibition to highlight the problem.
Addressing a meeting at Ambedkar bhavan, Superintendent of Police M.M. Bhagwat said that selling of girl children was a social evil. "I don't think that they sell kids owing to poverty," he said and warned of booking cases against those who sell or kill their infants

THE HINDU
Tuesday December 06,2005

Joining hands for a cause

Lambada women organize rally to create aware among
community members on sale of girl children, female foeticide.

Staff Reporter
_______
Nalgonda : More than 500 persons, predominantly Lambada tribals, attended a public meeting organized by a non-governmental organization, Appropriate Technology Foundation (ATF), to created awareness among them about the sale of girl children at Devarakonda on Sunday.
Dressed in traditional attire the Lambada women danced along the four-km rally that was taken out from the ATF office at Dindi Road to the venue of the meeting, a private college in the town.
They formed a human chain at the centre of the town to attract the centre of the town to attract the public’s attention and stood for a while at every private clinic to raise slogans against abortion. “ It was an impressive rally and meeting and we hope we could send across a strong message among tribals of the Devarakonda division,” ATF Area Managers S. Nagaraju and T.V.
Devamani told the Hindu.

Superintendent of Police M.M. Bhagwat who participated in the rally asked the tribals to stop resorting to killing or selling of their baby girls. “If you don’t want children, don’t give birth to them. You will land in trouble if you resort to such in human practices.” He warned them.

Poster released
Mr. Bhagwat called for an integrated approach to the problem with active involvement of all departments. He released a poster brought out by the Police Department.
A tribal woman, Bujji of Neredugomma in Chandampet mandal, asked her tribe to plan their families. “Our tribe earned a bad name due to the sale of girl children. Please go for family planning.” She said,
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NDTV.COM
Baby girl sold for Rs 1,800 in Andhra
Uma Sudhir
Monday, August 22, 2005 (Hyderabad):
Five years after an international baby-selling racket was uncovered in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh, nothing much seems to have changed on the ground. A baby girl sold this month for Rs 1,800 by her parents was recovered by the police from a home in Hyderabad. The case has shown the route and destination may have changed but that baby girls are still bought and sold like commodities.Hit by povertyThe three-month-old baby girl Shwetha was sold a couple of weeks ago for Rs 1,800 because her parents decided they could not afford to look after a third girl child."All three of my children are girls. I have too many debts. So I gave away my baby. We don't have a house to live in, no food, no clothes. We thought we could not feed or bring up the child. They would look after her well, so I gave her away," said Swapna, mother of the baby girl.Shwetha's family lives in a tribal hamlet in the backward Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh that became notorious five years ago because baby girls from here were being routinely sold through middlemen to be traded in the international adoption market."No, we have not undergone a family planning operation. If a girl is born, I will be forced to sell her once again," said Lavudiya Kanya, father of the baby.Apathetic parentsThe police recovered Shwetha from a childless couple in Hyderabad who had bought the baby through a mediator."Sometimes parents are taking the plea that just because of poverty we are selling. But I am not going to spare anybody, mediator or parents where they are selling just because it is a baby girl," said Mahesh Bhagwat, SP, Nalgonda.Hardly three months of coming into this world, Shwetha has seen more than she should. The baby was not wanted by her father. Her mother could not or did not do enough to keep her. She was rescued by a well-meaning police force from a family who would have perhaps showered her with the love and affection she deserves. She is now being sent to the government-run Shishu Vihar where she joins a long list of children waiting for a loving home.
http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=Baby+girl+sold+for+Rs+1%2C800+in+AP&id=77744
NDTV
PROFIT
Gender bias: Mother sells girl child
Sunil PatilSaturday, September 11, 2004 (Hyderabad):The Census report has revealed that mindset against the girl child is still prevalent even today.In several states across the country, the girl child is being eliminated systematically, resulting in a distorted sex ratio.In one such instance, an eight-day-old girl child was allegedly sold by her parents because of poverty in Hyderabad. But what is most shocking is that the mother gave birth to twins and decided to keep the male child. Prejudice prevalentRuth's misfortune was that she had teeth from the day she was born. And this was enough to make her superstitious parents sell her off for Rs 6000, two weeks after she was born. "The mother has decided to keep the male child because there is more prejudice against the girl child," says M K R Vijayakumari, deputy director, Women and Child Welfare department. Child welfare officials rescued the girl child after receiving reports of her sale. But when they took her to her home in Nalgonda district, her parents refused to take her back. However, the mother agreed to let the government offer her for adoption.Rampant saleCases of the girl child being sold off have been reported earlier also from the Lambada tribe in Nalgonda district. Nearly 66 such cases were registered with the authorities last year. "Previously it happened only in Lambada Thanda's of the surrounding areas in Devarkonda area, slowly it has come to the SC colonies and other areas also," says S Ramaswamy, Deputy Director, Women and Child Welfare Department.Ruth is now being taken care of in an orphanage but her case is not an isolated one. It is a reminder of just how many girls are discarded as unwanted by their families in a patriarchal society.
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Combating trafficking of women and children

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Human Trafficking -awareness against sale of baby girls

Friday, December 02, 2005