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.
