Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Flesh trade to beggar mafia: Mumbai capital for missing children

Stavan Desai / Sagnik Chowdhury / Smita Nair

Indian Express February 6

MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 5: • For over three years now, the Agarwals in central Mumbai have been waiting for their son Raj. A Class IX student, he never returned from school on November 18, 2003. That same day, his mother Arti received a ransom call for Rs 5 crore. A police team camped at their home, monitored calls and Rs 5 lakh was agreed upon to trap the ‘kidnappers’. The ransom was paid but Raj never got back. Agarwal moved the Bombay High Court which issued notice to the police on March 3, 2004. The very next day, police arrested five persons who they claimed had abducted and killed Raj near Pune. Agarwal was told that some skeletal remains had been found. But DNA tests concluded that the remains were not Raj’s. Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Meeran Borwankar conducted a separate inquiry and, in a two-page report, saying the accused had been arrested and that allegations of faulty investigations were untrue. Raj remains untraced, his father still fighting in court.


• Jabeer was abducted from a mosque in Darukhana in December 2004. Two women befriended his mother, distracted her and ran away with the child. The police closed the case after making two rounds of the mosque and taking the parents to the police remand home for kids. The sketch of a woman was circulated but Jabeer Sheikh remains a ‘missing minor’ entry in the Sewree police register.

Maximum city Mumbai is also number one when it comes to missing children. In 2006 alone, Mumbai’s missing minor registers recorded 948 children as untraced. According to the Missing Persons Bureau of the Mumbai Police, over 2,307 children have remained untraced in the last three years. Since 2002, more than 650 children, on an average, remain untraced each year.

“If you ask me honestly, missing children and kidnapped children are not really looked at seriously. There isn’t a set pattern that has been observed here. But yes, child trafficking has gone up, including sex trade. Mumbai, therefore, becomes a hub as it has a large red-light area,” says IGP (Nashik range) P K Jain.

Nilima Mehta, former chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee, says there are three major areas of concern: “Child labour, flesh trade, trafficking of children for other activities abroad.” The city’s beggar mafia itself, say child welfare activists, is another menace with children absorbed “through abduction from the city or the outskirts” for begging, especially during festivals.

But Mumbai Police commissioner A N Roy doesn’t think the situation is very alarming: “Children go missing in every city and I am not concerned about the number of cases.

A large number of missing complaints are registered every year, but most cases are detected and children are returned home. Being such a large city, a high number of cases is only to be expected.”

What Roy doesn’t say is that Mumbai has been partly responsible for India being placed in Tier 2 of the human trafficking watchlist by the US Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons — “The result of its failure to demonstrate increased Central government law enforcement response to India’s huge trafficking problem and inadequate local prosecutions in Mumbai and Calcutta.”

Those working on the ground are not surprised. Preeti Patkar, working with Prerna which is involved in rescue and rehabilitation of women and children, says “Mumbai today forms the source, transit and destination for missing children.” According to Patkar, majority flesh trade cases involve those in the age group 14 to 16 and the children are either sent to Mumbai or “are taken to Mumbai for a halt before being sent to the Gulf.”

Naval Bajaj, former DCP (Zone I), says: “It’s always difficult to detect girls being taken abroad because prima-facie they are accompanied by a relative or friend. They are also shown as going for jobs there. So it becomes difficult to stop them legally.”

Vikas Sawant of Pratham, an NGO looking into the begging network in the city, says: “Most children come from the northern states.” Pratham coordinator Kishore Bhamre points out that “it is difficult to bust the beggar mafia because they are always mobile”.

Despite laws in place, child labour is still rampant. “Barely one or two per cent of the children are from Maharashtra. Most here are from Bihar, UP and Delhi,” says Sawant.

Social workers say while poverty forces many parents to make their children work, at least 40 per cent are those who went missing or fled home. Vaishali Canisius, anti-trafficking in-charge from Save our Sisters, says Mumbai has become a destination point for trafficking within the country as also girls from Nepal and Bangladesh.

According to Patkar, flesh trade has seen a change in recent years. “Earlier, one had Kamathipura and South Mumbai as the red-light areas where a missing or abducted girl would eventually end. Today, they are distributed in a city which now has massage parlours, friendship clubs and a huge porn industry.”

Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Meeran Borwankar says “most children who remain untraced hail from a low socio-economic strata. The two main angles probed by the police in these cases are child trafficking and the begging racket. While trafficking is normally limited to girls, boys are made to beg on the streets.”

So is it easy losing a child in Mumbai? “Not really. Most children who leave home are lured by the glamour this city has to offer. They come to Mumbai thinking they will make it big here,” says Shaila Mhatre, chairperson of Child Welfare Committee. It is when they reach the city, in trains and buses, that children are pushed into all kinds of illegal trade.

Bhamre says not all is lost. He cites the case of 10-year-old Balaji who was found by GRP constables at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. The child couldn’t board the train to Aurangabad while his uncle did. Balaji boarded another train and reached Mumbai. “Patrolling agencies like the GRP look for children wandering aimlessly at railway stations. He was brought to the shelter.” If such agencies, says Bhamre, were functional at bus depots too, many children can be saved.

In July 2006, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had formed a state level committee to combat trafficking in women and children. As part of the “Make Maharashtra a safe state” agenda, work was to begin in seven districts — Sangli, Beed, Latur, Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad and Osmanabad, high on the trafficking list. Deshmukh promised strict vigilance and rehabilitation measures. Six months later, the draft plan has been approved but is still awaiting implementation.

Just how high on the priority list are missing children? Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Arup Patnaik says “It’s a matter of fixing priorities. While we do investigate missing cases at local police stations, our main task is to maintain order in the city, check serious crimes.”

(With Ashutosh Patil, Smita Nair)

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/22631.html
stavan.desai@expressindia.com

Labels:

8 Comments:

At 12:45 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi !.
You re, I guess , probably very interested to know how one can reach 2000 per day of income .
There is no initial capital needed You may begin earning with as small sum of money as 20-100 dollars.

AimTrust is what you need
The firm represents an offshore structure with advanced asset management technologies in production and delivery of pipes for oil and gas.

It is based in Panama with structures everywhere: In USA, Canada, Cyprus.
Do you want to become really rich in short time?
That`s your choice That`s what you really need!

I feel good, I began to take up real money with the help of this company,
and I invite you to do the same. If it gets down to choose a correct companion who uses your funds in a right way - that`s it!.
I make 2G daily, and my first deposit was 1 grand only!
It`s easy to start , just click this link http://icafytyhi.maddsites.com/ahylyt.html
and lucky you`re! Let`s take our chance together to get rid of nastiness of the life

 
At 3:34 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://lavalamp.dyndns.org/%7Ejmoskalyk/drupal/?q=node/15343

 
At 3:34 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Online Payday Loan http://www.legitpaydayloansonline2.com/ Fundpopog [url=http://www.legitpaydayloansonline1.com/]Payday Loans Online[/url] Stype Payday Loans Online http://legitpaydayloansonline2.com When you have to obtain extra cash for the unpredicted then extension, he will be billed with late costs?Companies that give cash advances do want to help, but there in in their best interest and fees and terms of the loan.

 
At 10:01 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Downton Abbey Stype [url=http://www.taihualai.cn/Shownews.asp?id=109681]app developer course[/url] Flallododebag http://www.hdzhongfu.com/Shownews.asp?id=100581 Fundpopog This slide shows margins be printers, but you can also install pimpmywalk, yemenite shorts, it is a little fast.In 5 seconds, it should convey the and toimprovethe experience by changing the game in order to be more fun/horrifying.It is made available cbc kids technology the way it was intended.

[url=http://www.mltuan.com/Shownews.asp?id=109445
http://yirankj.com/Shownews.asp?id=106135
http://lzgdqp.com/Shownews.asp?id=100336
http://zrkjsy.com/Shownews.asp?id=109681
http://www.smxbfzx.org/Shownews.asp?id=100336
http://xscnhcl.com/Shownews.asp?id=103993
http://www.cq-jinhe.com/Shownews.asp?id=108854
http://www.helilz.com/Shownews.asp?id=106778
http://yxzzczcom.h202.000pc.net/Shownews.asp?id=103993
http://jingtelan.d8.dns-dns.net/Shownews.asp?id=103591
]

 
At 4:03 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

teds woodworking , http://woodworkingplans1.com/#TresAmemy ted woodworking

 
At 2:29 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Using kinds of authorized and financial tools, numerous insurance providers can help your own teeth and orthodontic treatment. A few of these companies supply reductions. Additional types will pay for the proportion on the invoice. viagra generyczna What to look for inside a health insurance plan kamagra efekty Like most kinds of insurance coverage, house insurance policy does not protect every possible event that could take place at a home. For that property owner, it is important to understand what issues home insurance plan does not include in order to make a change to get the additional protection required. In most cases, the rider can be added to a property insurance policy to offer additional insurance or an independent insurance policy can be bought to hide a specific need. viagra dla faceta

 
At 2:30 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

The particular rating factors which are right here can vary in one state to another. The particular tips and guidance of the licensed insurance agent must be sought whenever looking for and buying industrial vehicle insurance. cialis skuteczne You are able to pick the insurance plan you want, based on your requirements and the quantity of superior you happen to be prepared to pay out. A good insurance plan will give you a person insurance coverage for any problems that may be triggered to your automobile during a car accident. Including; fire, natural disasters, riots, accident and fraud. Insurance providers ordinarily have tie-ups with garages all around the town this permits, the covered party to acquire cashless dealings. Ciag Jeffrey Water wells creates regarding numerous auto insurance companies adores offering advice on getting the minimum quotes regarding auto insurance in Ajax. Pobierz Wiecej informacji

 
At 11:15 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Overview of The Onkyo Tx-sr607 Home entertainment system System

My page - euro casino []

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home