Using minors in prostitution is a billion dollar industry in the city

Haima Desshpande Friday, March 09, 2007 20:46 IST


For most, Mumbai remains a city of dreams. But, for some, it has become a place full of nightmares.In recent years, the financial capital of the country has emerged as one of the leading markets for trafficked minors who engage in prostitution or, in other words, the commercial sexual abuse of a minor.

According to estimates released by international agencies, trafficking of minor girls is a $1-billion-a-year industry, and it is thriving due to increased sex tourism in Mumbai, Goa and adjoining coastal areas. Edging past North-Eastern states, poverty-stricken rural areas of Maharashtra — Beed, Latur, Solapur, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar, Nandurbar, Chandrapur, Washim, Akola, Buldhana, Dhule and the Konkan region — have emerged as one of the biggest suppliers of minors.States such as Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa have also opened up as the new supply markets, says a Mumbai police source.

As instances of HIV and AIDS reach alarming proportions, demand for younger, pre-puberty girls has hit an all-time high. Girls as little as seven and eight-years-old are being forced into prostitution, both in the red-light areas and as “professional” call girls (always accompanied by an adult), according to a DNA investigation.Affluent businessmen, some members of the film and advertising industries, diamond merchants and politicians form the “select” clientele who source minors.“Trafficking in minor girls has seen an estimated 30 per cent increase from previous years,” says a social activist working at Kamatipura — the city’s most notorious red-light district.

“Poverty due to prolonged drought, mounting farm debts, unemployment and lack of livelihood are the triggering factors, which are forcing parents to send their daughters out of town for employment.”Though migration is also emerging as an important aspect in the minor flesh trade, numbers entering the flesh trade through this route are considerably smaller, explains the activist.“Even when girls are rescued, families are unwilling to take them back,” says the police source. “This has become a common story in the rural areas.” According to conservative estimates released by NGOs, the flesh trade in Mumbai “employs” about four lakh individuals. “Nearly 45 per cent — 1.8 lakh — are minors,” says Triveni Acharya, Founder-President of the Rescue Foundation, an organisation working with commercial sex workers.

Nepal and Bangladesh are the biggest exporters of trafficked minors and women in South Asia. Though the police estimate there are about 35,000 Nepalese nationals in Mumbai’s red-light areas, social activists insist the number is closer to one lakh. A majority of them are minors.As per UNICEF estimates, about 12 lakh children are trafficked across international borders each year. Save The Children (India) states that clients today prefer girls as young as 10 years.“The victims are subjected to the worst form of torture if they do not ‘perform’ with the clients,” says another social activist. “Most are denied food, water and toilet facilities, and regular beatings are an ‘integral’ part of their lives.”Every minor girl is subjected to a probation period of three years. During this time, she is not allowed to meet or interact with others in the brothel, and kept in a locked room. The probation period is the gestation time for the brothel keeper to rake in the money.Shockingly, the same people who are supposed to uphold the laws of the country are the ones involved in the trade, says a social activist. “How else do some rescued minors find their way back to the same brothel?” she says. “This trade cannot survive without patrons in the Mumbai police. This is the main reason why the police are incapable of handling child prostitution.”And, it is all about the profits in this business.

A fair minor fetches between Rs1-1.5 lakh for a night, and a dusky one is sold for between Rs75,000-1.25 lakh. An adult always accompanies the child to the rendez-vous point, and the clandestine destination is subject to several changes to throw off decoy agents. Though several NGOs are actively involved in rescuing minors, the magnitude of the problem keeps growing. Since 1986, the age of girls entering prostitution has gradually declined. In 1998, the average age of girls was 18 years. By 2000, it was 15. In 2003, minors as young as 12 were freely available.Now, the police source says clients have been asking for minors as young as 8 years old. In 1998, NGO Prerna brought together a consortium of like-minded organisations to address the issue of trafficking of minors.The group formed the Network Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking, to begin a dialogue with women working in the red-light areas. Today, the organisation has about 250 members spread across the state. Most work in the districts from where girls are trafficked.The Rescue Foundation had till December 2006 organised 50 rescue operations. Over 700 people — about 60 per cent were minors — were rescued from the red-light areas of Mumbai and Pune.“The fear of HIV has increased demand for minors,” says Acharya. “However, it is not easy for clients to get them. They are only sourced to a select clientele known to the brothel keepers. Fearing torture, minors do not dare to venture out of the locked rooms.”

Though RR Patil, Deputy Chief Minister and in-charge of Home Department, mooted the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) to include brothel owners, pimps and others found guilty of trafficking women and children, it has yet to be implemented. During 2004 and 2005, the police sealed 21 brothels for housing minors soliciting clients on their premises. Currently, the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and provisions of the Indian Penal Code punishes offenders. If a minor girl is found on the premises of a dubious establishment, the said premise is sealed for a maximum period of three years, and the accused can be punished for a minimum period of 10 years. The Mumbai police recently launched a special juvenile aid police unit (JAPU) to tackle the menace. The unit has been staffed with trained personnel.(Inputs by Dayanand Kamath)

For sale
Fair minor: Between Rs1-1.5 lakh for a night

Dusky minor: Between Rs75,000-1.25 lakh for a night

Age profile
1998: Girls as young as 18 years

2000: Girls as young as 15 years

2003: Girls as young as 12 years

Today: Girls as young as 8 years

The horrors of the trade Client listAffluent businessmen, members of film and advertising industries, diamond merchants and politicians form the “select” clientele.Shocking riseTrafficking in minor girls has seen an estimated 30 per cent increase from previous years. The dark sideVictims are subjected to the worst form of torture if they do not ‘perform’ with the clients. Most are denied food, water and toilet facilities. Regular beatings are an ‘integral’ part of their lives

India set for tough child abuse law

NDTV CorrespondentWatch story
Monday, March 19, 2007 (New Delhi):
India's National Commission for Children on Monday backed tough measures to protect children from abuse. Its chairperson Shanta Sinha said children should become a part of national conscience to prevent abuse.Her biggest tool could be the new Child Protection Bill. The draft of the Bill is awaiting approval by the Cabinet. "The first task is to know who the victims are," Sinha said in an exlusive interview to NDTV. Non-bailable offenceForty-two per cent of India's population are children and crimes against them will soon become a non-bailable offence. The legislation will provide authorities with a mechanism to identify and punish offenders for crimes against children.The Ministry for Women and Child Development feels existing laws are inadequate to recognise and penalise offenders. Sinha says trafficking and sexual exploitation of children should be on top of the nation's agenda. "There is just no data, if we don't know how many children are victims, how will we formulate policies?" "It's a monumental task but need to collate data of how many children are missing how many are trafficked," said Sinha, a winner of the Magsaysay Award. According to the draft of the Child Protection Bill: It will be compulsory for doctors, teachers and social workers to report cases of child abuse to the authorities. Sources say while exploitation of women and crimes like rape have stringent laws there is little protection for boys from abuse – an area that the new bill will address.ExploitationThe current laws also do not recognise exploitation of children either through sex tourism, child labour or violence against children including emotional abuse or instances like deliberate starvation.Sinha says children between 0-6 age group are not on anyone's radar "Children of all ages are important till six years of age."Till now laws related to children have had minimal impact. But recent incident involving murder and rape of children in Nithari near Delhi exposes the inability to protect them from abuse.

AP trafficking victims will be paid to testify
Karn Kowshik
Posted online: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST
HYDERABAD, MARCH 13The idea is to help victims of trafficking help themselves.
Many cases against traffickers in humans in Andhra Pradesh fall apart because the witnesses, usually the victims themselves, don’t want to testify. And it’s mainly because they do not have the money to appear at
hearings.
So for the first time in the country, the Andhra police are heading a UN agency plan to compensate witnesses for coming to testify. They will get fare to and from their village to the court, said P Umapathi, inspector general of Women’s Protection Cell. “We also propose to give them daily minimum wages for the period that they are in court. They will get some money for child maintenance, too,” he said.
The court currently pays witnesses only Rs 8 for food.
The money for the new initiative is coming from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The agency will give each of the five worst-hit districts Rs 5 lakh for a year. “While it will be funded by UNODC to start with, the state will eventually take over the programme,” said Umapathi.
He said the aim is to introduce the compensation scheme to all 23 districts. The payment scheme will also cover men who appear as witnesses.
Andhra has the highest number of cases of trafficking in women in the country. Records show that last year, 1,431 arrests were made in 458 cases under the Immoral Trafficking Act by the Andhra police across the country.
While the police are still compiling figures on those rescued, an official here said that in the last three months, they have had 300 rescues and a similar
number of arrests. About a quarter of those saved
are minors.
The police here say victims of trafficking often shun the courts because they are unsure about what the police are doing for them. In many case they want to go back to the brothel or the pimp who they were with, for reasons ranging from financial security to fear of being ostracized at home.
But the main reason, said a senior Women’s Cell official, is that victims lose their daily wages when they come to court to testify. “They have to spend money on transport and food, as well as food for their children,” he said

Sunday, 10th March,2007


Worst crime, gross profit
Sex slaves-I

New Delhi, March 10: Trafficking of women and children has emerged as the third largest billion-dollar industry after the arms trade and drugs. Researchers estimate that Kamathipura, in Mumbai, alone generates at least $400 million annually with 100,000 prostitutes servicing six customers per day at Rs 100 per customer.

Transactions in prostitution are reported to be grossing Rs 40,000 crores per annum with revenues being shared between procurers, pimps and brothel keepers, and the police. A massive study undertaken by the Institute of Social Sciences (ISS) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) highlights how traffickers have emerged as the kingpins of this operation.At the top of the hierarchy are the master traffickers, whose identities remain largely unknown. These are then assisted by field-level purchasers, transporters, master operators, pimps and procurers, and the crime syndicate, which involves owners and managers of the brothels where most of these trafficked women and children end up being forced to live.


Most of the time, traffickers and brothel owners have remained an anonymous lot. But the ISI decided to track down these merchants of the human trade. Assured anonymity, 160 traffickers spoke at length about their modus operandi. A fifth of these were from Andhra Pradesh while the others came from Bihar, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, West Bengal and UP. Most of those interviewed were in their mid-20s, though the researchers came across two traffickers, from Maharashtra and Goa, who were just 18 years of age. Interestingly, many of them could converse in more than three languages, allowing them the freedom to move from one State to another with impunity.


Trafficking, they admitted, was a lucrative, low-investment and high-profit business. Girls were being purchased for as little as Rs 1,000 per girl though the majority admitted they spent around Rs 5,000 or less to purchase a girl. It was only in exceptional circumstances that they forked out as much Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 for a girl with payments being made on a commission basis.


The study cited the example of “AM”, a well-known trafficker from Muzzafarpur, who is at present supplying women in Siliguri, Darjeeling, Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnea and Ataria. On an average, “AM” traffics 40 women and children every month, earning over Rs 10 lakhs just from the sale of these women. During the festival season, the number of women can go up to 60. He is reported to own three houses in Siliguri alone apart from earning properties in several other cities.


On an average, each of these traffickers had trafficked over 42 women and children. They then admitted to having sexually assaulted their victims. Forty-two per cent of them admitted to having abused between three and 10 of their victims while 37 per cent admitted to having abused more than 10 victims. It was only after they had sexually exploited the victims that they would hand them over to a brothel to start soliciting clients.


While many of the traffickers pretended to have petty businesses which they maintained as a front, almost 20 per cent of them doubled up as sex workers. The study has also computed their earnings. The 160 interviewed had a total annual income of Rs 2,77,46,000. Their annual expenditure was around Rs 50,000 while they grossed a profit of around Rs 2 lakhs. In the majority of cases, the traffickers admit to first developing a relationship with members of the family before actually trafficking the girl child or a woman. The study highlighted how in 35 per cent of the cases family members and relatives helped facilitate this entire operation with parents, in-laws and husbands doing so in lieu of receiving some payment.


These traffickers confided that in the majority of cases, the women/girls were being sold because of poverty; in approximately 10 per cent cases they were being handed over to them out of greed. But they also mentioned that 15 per cent of the victims came from the upper strata and would be lured with the promise that they would be helped get a foothold in the Hindi film industry.


Traffickers admit they do not need to use coercion or force to kidnap a victim. Rather, they and their informers are on the lookout for women and children who appear to be vulnerable and so can be lured easily. Young girls continue to be the main target, especially since clients express a keenness to have sex with “virgin” girls. The majority admitted to having trafficked children in order to sexually exploit them.


Many admitted to exploiting women and children for pornographic reasons. Children from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh were being trafficked out of the country to West Asia, the UK, Korea and the Philippines for pornographic reasons. If there was one question they refused to respond to, it was regarding their international links with traffickers. Even though some admitted travelling abroad to buy and sell girls, they often circumvented the question by saying it was to arrange “dance and song programmes”.


Countries frequented by traffickers included Nepal, Dubai, Bangkok, Kenya, the UK and South Africa, though some respondents admitted to sending male children to Saudi Arabia in order to make them beg.

NEW INDIAN EXPRESS

Daughters on sale
Sunday March 10, 2007 18:13 IST
http://www.newindpr
Raka Sudhakar Rao and Vikram Sharma

In December 2005, 16-year-old Anjamma (name changed) was sold by her brother to agents in Kurnool and was brought to Hyderabad. In spite of her resistance she was forced into flesh trade by the traffickers. Between December 2005 and September 2006, she was gang-raped several times. Finally, she was rescued from Secunderabad in December last year. In the first information report, a total of 16 traffickers were named, nine women and seven men, but the police could arrest only two. In a small town called Karepalli in Khammam district, you are likely to spot a BMW. The owners of this car are three sisters, aged between 23 and 25, who 'struck' gold in Mumbai and got the swanky automobile as a gift for their 'customer care'. Once in two or three months, they drive down from Mumbai in this car. They also have their own house, where the parents and a brother live. Stories of Anjamma and of the girls moving in BMW speak volumes of how thousands of girls are being trafficked from Andhra Pradesh each year. But the real story is that the traffickers are mostly their parents, husbands and brothers! Andhra Pradesh woke up to this reality recently, following the rescue operations taken up by the State CID. Starting from January this year, the State Police, especially the Crime Investigation Department (CID) has rescued over 200 victims of trafficking and has arrested nearly 200 traffickers, from some pockets of Maharashtra, including Bhiwandi and Chandrapur. It was only after these rescue operations that the police learnt that many of the victims were sold by their family members and in some cases, their own parents. The trend of parents or other members of the family selling their daughters or sisters has been going on for the past two decades. Most of the girls come from the Lambada tribe, where flesh trade has become an accepted practice within the community. The police coyly refers to it as "family tradition." According to one officer: "It is common for a man in this community to get married for a second time if the first wife is unable to give birth to a male child. Therefore, the married women believe in producing more number of children in order to give birth to a male child so that their husbands do not marry again. In the process, the females, when they grow up, are sold." A study shows that in five mandals around Kadiri in Anantapur district, three in Kadapa and three in Chittoor district, this has been serious business for several years now. "The girls know that they will be sold some day and what is in store for them. They are sold for anything between Rs 20,000 and Rs 70,000. The girls are sold in Maharashtra or Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Delhi," police officials say. Nobody knows how many girls have been trafficked so far and or how many are still in those dingy brothels somewhere out there. What the police do have is a list of traffickers active in Andhra. Surprisingly, women form a major chunk of traffickers with over 350 of them listed out by the sleuths. There are 157 men who are operating from various parts of the State. Some of them have been arrested, but there are many who continue to do business with these girls. The trafficking network in the state is very well organised and very well-knit. "Poverty and illiteracy are the two main factors that drive these girls into brothels. But the main problem is the demand for the Andhra girls. As long as there is demand, supply is bound to be there," officials say. Nearly, 30 percent of trafficked victims in the country are reportedly from Andhra Pradesh. Approximately, 15,000 girls and women have been trafficked from East and West Godavari districts alone and most of them are Dalits or from Dommari, Bogam and Kalavanthula communities. Out of the 15,000 FIRs registered for crime against women (per year), 537 cases were registered against traffickers in 2005. In 2006, 195 cases were registered and 780 people, including women traffickers, were arrested. "In the last seven months, charge-sheets were filed in 140 cases, nine cases resulted in conviction and 10 cases ended in acquittals. Unfortunately witnesses are not coming forward to depose due to lack of witness protection and support programmes," officials say. The police are also planning to register cases against such husbands who get married for the second time only for want of a son. They are in the process of studying the law under which cases can be registered. By the end of the year, the State Police hopes to arrest 1,000 more traffickers, prosecute them under Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act and other sections of IPC, rescue atleast 1,000 victims, set up witness protection and victim support and provide toll-free Helpline, trauma care and counselling. The police hopes to conduct sensitisation programmes for officers deployed in problem areas, and establish a network with Women and Child Welfare Department, Juvenile Justice Department and NGO's. The police has also established anti-trafficking units in Hyderabad, Anantapur, and Eluru in West Godavari district and plans to set up more such units in other parts of the State. Thanks to the massive trafficking business, in some parts of the State, especially villages, young men in some communities are unable to find suitable girls and one can see quite a few 30-plus bachelors in these villages. How they operate K Haribabu works as a junior assistant in Tangutur mandal revenue office. He has been trafficking women, especially minor girls, and has supplied them from Guntur, Krishna and Khammam districts to Bangalore and Hubli. He has five operatives working for him. All were arrested in June 2006 and the police rescued five girls, who were being sent to Karnataka. K Baji and Subrahmanyam Kumar are a team. They caught the women in their net by offering them roles in movies and sent them to Chennai. Baji used to take the the girls to Vijayawada and Subrahamanyam used to pick them up from there. They were assisted by Karnati Usha, who supplied the girls to Chittemmayi of Puranandampet in Vijayawada. The latter was running a brothel and had expanded her operations to supplying girls to Chennai. They were arrested in December 2006. How they are caught On January 2 this year, the Guntur police arrested one Mastan and rescued some girls who were being trafficked to Chennai. These girls were being brought from Tadepalligudem in West Godavari and taken to Hyderabad and Chennai via Guntur and Tirupati. On January 4, Guntur police conducted raids in Tadepalligudem and arrested five more persons. Mastan started singing and the police came to know of the gang's links in Chennai. They trapped Cherukuri Mohana Rao alias Raju who forced the women brought from various parts of Andhra Pradesh into prostitution. He also used to send some girls to Muscat, where his daughter Varalakshmi supplied girls to prospective customers. The police rescued three girls from East and West Godavari, who were waiting for their visas to fly off to Muscat.. On January 12, based on information obtained from the arrested persons, the police raided an apartment in Saroornagar area in Hyderabad and arrested pimps and brokers. The police recovered a diary containing telephone numbers of sex workers. On the same day, the police raided a premises in Mehdipatnam in Hyderabad and arrested two persons and rescued two girls from Eluru of West Godavari district. At the end of this operation police arrested 22 people and rescued 10 girls.
In December 2005, 16-year-old Anjamma (name changed) was sold by her brother to agents in Kurnool and was brought to Hyderabad. In spite of her resistance she was forced into flesh trade by the traffickers. Between December 2005 and September 2006, she was gang-raped several times. Finally, she was rescued from Secunderabad in December last year. In the first information report, a total of 16 traffickers were named, nine women and seven men, but the police could arrest only two. In a small town called Karepalli in Khammam district, you are likely to spot a BMW. The owners of this car are three sisters, aged between 23 and 25, who 'struck' gold in Mumbai and got the swanky automobile as a gift for their 'customer care'. Once in two or three months, they drive down from Mumbai in this car. They also have their own house, where the parents and a brother live. Stories of Anjamma and of the girls moving in BMW speak volumes of how thousands of girls are being trafficked from Andhra Pradesh each year. But the real story is that the traffickers are mostly their parents, husbands and brothers! Andhra Pradesh woke up to this reality recently, following the rescue operations taken up by the State CID. Starting from January this year, the State Police, especially the Crime Investigation Department (CID) has rescued over 200 victims of trafficking and has arrested nearly 200 traffickers, from some pockets of Maharashtra, including Bhiwandi and Chandrapur. It was only after these rescue operations that the police learnt that many of the victims were sold by their family members and in some cases, their own parents. The trend of parents or other members of the family selling their daughters or sisters has been going on for the past two decades. Most of the girls come from the Lambada tribe, where flesh trade has become an accepted practice within the community. The police coyly refers to it as "family tradition." According to one officer: "It is common for a man in this community to get married for a second time if the first wife is unable to give birth to a male child. Therefore, the married women believe in producing more number of children in order to give birth to a male child so that their husbands do not marry again. In the process, the females, when they grow up, are sold." A study shows that in five mandals around Kadiri in Anantapur district, three in Kadapa and three in Chittoor district, this has been serious business for several years now. "The girls know that they will be sold some day and what is in store for them. They are sold for anything between Rs 20,000 and Rs 70,000. The girls are sold in Maharashtra or Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Delhi," police officials say. Nobody knows how many girls have been trafficked so far and or how many are still in those dingy brothels somewhere out there. What the police do have is a list of traffickers active in Andhra. Surprisingly, women form a major chunk of traffickers with over 350 of them listed out by the sleuths. There are 157 men who are operating from various parts of the State. Some of them have been arrested, but there are many who continue to do business with these girls. The trafficking network in the state is very well organised and very well-knit. "Poverty and illiteracy are the two main factors that drive these girls into brothels. But the main problem is the demand for the Andhra girls. As long as there is demand, supply is bound to be there," officials say. Nearly, 30 percent of trafficked victims in the country are reportedly from Andhra Pradesh. Approximately, 15,000 girls and women have been trafficked from East and West Godavari districts alone and most of them are Dalits or from Dommari, Bogam and Kalavanthula communities. Out of the 15,000 FIRs registered for crime against women (per year), 537 cases were registered against traffickers in 2005. In 2006, 195 cases were registered and 780 people, including women traffickers, were arrested. "In the last seven months, charge-sheets were filed in 140 cases, nine cases resulted in conviction and 10 cases ended in acquittals. Unfortunately witnesses are not coming forward to depose due to lack of witness protection and support programmes," officials say. The police are also planning to register cases against such husbands who get married for the second time only for want of a son. They are in the process of studying the law under which cases can be registered. By the end of the year, the State Police hopes to arrest 1,000 more traffickers, prosecute them under Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act and other sections of IPC, rescue atleast 1,000 victims, set up witness protection and victim support and provide toll-free Helpline, trauma care and counselling. The police hopes to conduct sensitisation programmes for officers deployed in problem areas, and establish a network with Women and Child Welfare Department, Juvenile Justice Department and NGO's. The police has also established anti-trafficking units in Hyderabad, Anantapur, and Eluru in West Godavari district and plans to set up more such units in other parts of the State. Thanks to the massive trafficking business, in some parts of the State, especially villages, young men in some communities are unable to find suitable girls and one can see quite a few 30-plus bachelors in these villages. How they operate K Haribabu works as a junior assistant in Tangutur mandal revenue office. He has been trafficking women, especially minor girls, and has supplied them from Guntur, Krishna and Khammam districts to Bangalore and Hubli. He has five operatives working for him. All were arrested in June 2006 and the police rescued five girls, who were being sent to Karnataka. K Baji and Subrahmanyam Kumar are a team. They caught the women in their net by offering them roles in movies and sent them to Chennai. Baji used to take the the girls to Vijayawada and Subrahamanyam used to pick them up from there. They were assisted by Karnati Usha, who supplied the girls to Chittemmayi of Puranandampet in Vijayawada. The latter was running a brothel and had expanded her operations to supplying girls to Chennai. They were arrested in December 2006. How they are caught On January 2 this year, the Guntur police arrested one Mastan and rescued some girls who were being trafficked to Chennai. These girls were being brought from Tadepalligudem in West Godavari and taken to Hyderabad and Chennai via Guntur and Tirupati. On January 4, Guntur police conducted raids in Tadepalligudem and arrested five more persons. Mastan started singing and the police came to know of the gang's links in Chennai. They trapped Cherukuri Mohana Rao alias Raju who forced the women brought from various parts of Andhra Pradesh into prostitution. He also used to send some girls to Muscat, where his daughter Varalakshmi supplied girls to prospective customers. The police rescued three girls from East and West Godavari, who were waiting for their visas to fly off to Muscat.. On January 12, based on information obtained from the arrested persons, the police raided an apartment in Saroornagar area in Hyderabad and arrested pimps and brokers. The police recovered a diary containing telephone numbers of sex workers. On the same day, the police raided a premises in Mehdipatnam in Hyderabad and arrested two persons and rescued two girls from Eluru of West Godavari district. At the end of this operation police arrested 22 people and rescued 10 girls.

Date:09/03/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/03/09/stories/2007030922850500.htm
Andhra Pradesh -

Hyderabad Police rescue woman from brothel in Uppal
Staff Reporter
The woman in her early 20s, forced into prostitution by four persons
HYDERABAD: A woman from a remote village of Nalgonda district, who was allegedly sold to a brothel by her lover three years ago, helped the police rescue another woman forced into prostitution in Uppal on Thursday.
Brothel raided
The 20-year-old woman from Nalgonda escaped from a brothel being operated allegedly by one Sweetie at Warasiguda a couple of days ago and approached Ankuram, a voluntary organisation. With Ankuram's help, she met the Crime Investigation Department officials.
Reacting to her complaint, the CID officials with the help of the Uppal police, raided the brothel from where she escaped.
Police found an alleged pimp Sweetie and her associate Srikanth Reddy. Later, they raided another brothel in Uppal.
"There we found a local woman in her early 20s forced into prostitution by one Padma, her associates - Pandit and Prashant - and a customer Tillu," the Uppal police said. According to the police, it was Pandit, a roadside eatery owner, who sold the woman from Nalgonda to Padma three years ago.
Hailing from Turkapally village, the woman fell in his trap when she came to the city on some work. Pandit allegedly befriended her with sweet talk.
Leading her to believe that he wanted to marry her, Pandit sold her to Padma. From there, the woman was sold by one pimp to another in the next three years before landing in Sweetie's brothel.
The two women would be sent to a State Home, the police said.
© Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu

HYDERABAD
Mar 4, 2007

CID sleuths raid brothel, rescue six sex workers

Saturday March 3 2007 12:46 IST
HYDERABAD: A 30-minute late-night operation followed by a raid at dawn helped the sleuths of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) bust a sex racket at Krishna Nagar in Banjara Hills on Friday. A 24-year-old ‘mistress’ was arrested and half-a-dozen sex workers were rescued.Six mobile phones and two motorcycles were seized from the premises.Five persons found negotiating with the mistress also landed behind the bars.The raid is part of efforts to bust women trafficking network in the State.Days after receiving a tip-off, the well-planned decoy operation began on Thursday night. A CID constable posing as a businessman walked into the ‘den’ and negotiated with Udaya alias Uddi for two girls. She demanded Rs 4,000 (Rs 2,000 for each girl). The constable paid an advance of Rs 1,000 and left asking Udaya to arrange the girls the next day.On Friday morning, minutes after the constable entered the den, a team of CID personnel descended on it and took into custody all those present there.‘‘Udaya hails from Tirupati and has been in the trade for the last six years. She brought the girls, aged around 24, from Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati,’’ SP (CID) Mahesh Bhagwat told this website's newspaper.Surprisingly, Udaya, who had taken the house on rent, had been running the trade for all these six years at the same premises without attracting the attention of the local police.The five arrested customers are: V Raja, M Srisailam, G Krishna, G Ramesh and P Srinivas. A case under Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act (PITA) was registered against them.They were handed over to the Banjara Hills police for further investigation. The rescued sex workers are being shifted to a rehabilitation centre. A few days ago, the CID had raided a brothel in Jeedimetla and rescued four sex workers.The drive against human trafficking would continue, Mahesh Bhagwat said.

IndiaTrafficked girls from Andhra Pradesh rescued in Delhi


By IANS, Feb 28, 2007 - 5:38:21 PM
New Delhi, Feb 28 - Police have rescued four girls from Andhra Pradesh and two minors from brothels in the capital.The girls were rescued from the brothels in the city's red light area Monday night after a special Andhra Pradesh police team conducted a raid with the help of the local police of the Kamla Market police station.'In response to five cases of trafficking registered in Andhra Pradesh, a police team from the state arrived in the city and conducted the raid with our help and rescued the four girls,' said Rakesh Giri, Station House Officer of the Kamla Market police station, without disclosing the names of the girls.While the victims were counselled and interrogated, the Andhra Pradesh police also managed to nab four of the traffickers.Giri said that apart from rescuing the four girls from the southern state, they also rescued two minor girls from the brothel. 'We rescued two minors during the raid as well. They have been sent to Nari Niketan, a government-run counselling home,' Giri told IANS.According to the United Nations -, Andhra Pradesh records the highest number of human trafficking cases in India. In an effort to prevent the trade and exploitation of human beings in the country, an Anti-Human Trafficking Unit was established in Andhra Pradesh last month in partnership with the US government and the UN.The US government provided $2.5 million - for this project, the largest single anti-trafficking project ever funded in the world. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime implements the project, and the Indian government chairs the meetings to help guide the planning and implementation.Apart from Andhra Pradesh, the project also targets four other states -- Bihar, Goa, Maharashtra and West Bengal. The Andhra Pradesh police team that rescued the girls here is a part of the same project.



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India on US 'watch list' for human trafficking
[ 1 Mar, 2007 2310hrs IST]
TIMES NEWS NETWORK


NEW DELHI: India continues to be placed on the US "watch list" of countries allegedly not complying with the international effort to combat human trafficking. Placing state-wise details of human trafficking cases in the Lok Sabha, the minister said the four southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh accounted for over 85% of the total trafficking cases reported so far. During 2003-05, Tamil Nadu topped the list with 2,777 cases registered in the two-year period out of a total of 5,900 cases reported in the country. Karnataka was second with 1,241 cases and Andhra Pradesh and Kerala registered 681 and 225 cases respectively. In its 2006 report on efforts of countries worldwide to eliminate trafficking in persons, the US has placed India in the "Tier 2" category, along with 31 nations to be closely monitored. Countries that comply with US and other international efforts to fight human trafficking are generally placed in "Tier 1". Those falling under the "Tier 3" category face significant sanctions from the US. Bangladesh was under this category when the report was first prepared and released in 2003 by then secretary of state Colin Powell. Minister of state S Regupathy said the government has initiated several measures and advised states to deal with the crime. He said state governments have been asked to evolve an "comprehensive strategy, encompassing rescue, relief and rehabilitation
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