Child & women trafficking-violence against women-abduction-police negligence

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is calling for a legitimate investigation into the trafficking of a 14-year-old girl in Jaitpura, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. We have learned that local police officers initially refused to register the case of kidnapping and trafficking but that the Director General of Police did so after being contacted by a member of the AHRC; he has promised that a proper investigation will be conducted and that the perpetrators will be prosecuted. Nevertheless the AHRC is concerned due to past experience, in which obstacles have been created by the corruption of the local authorities. Successful investigations into child trafficking are a rarity in the area.

CASE DETAILS:

According to the information received from GURIA, a local human rights NGO, 14-year-old girl Maya (the name has been changed for the victim's protection), has been missing since 22 November 2009. After having unsuccessfully looked for her for weeks without any help from the local authorities, her father came to hear that she had been sold by their former landlady, through members of a gang involved in child trafficking. He tried to register a case against her but says that the officers at Jaitpura Police Station refused to comply.

Nevertheless, almost two months after the girl was first reported missing he was told that the police had recovered Maya in Mumbai and that she was staying in a children's home. When he found her the girl was clearly frightened and in shock. Only after they returned to Varanasi did she explain that she had been deceived by a man promising to marry her then sold to a stranger and raped several times.

Cases of child trafficking are very frequent in Varanasi, where children from poor families are being abducted, sold to strangers and then forced into prostitution or slavery. Though parents regularly try to lodge complaints at the police station, police officers systematically refuse to register the cases.

The UN has also documented various cases of child trafficking in Varanasi and has denounced the collusion between the legal authorities and those involved in the criminal network. In the September 2009 report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, several cases of child trafficking in Varanasi were reported; it acknowledged that well-known child traffickers have never been apprehended by the police, 'allegedly due to the fact that prostitution in Varanasi is a business carried out with the blessings of the local police'.

India is party to international conventions protecting children from human trafficking, forced labour and sexual exploitation. Its constitution strictly prohibits human trafficking. The Immoral Traffic Prevention Act of 1956 specifically condemns the traffic of women and girls on the purpose of sexual exploitation. Its penal code also contains provisions specifically condemning criminal activities such as kidnapping or abduction. (For more details see UAC-202-2008) Nevertheless because of rampant corruption of the police officers and the indifference of the state authorities those legal provisions have gone unheeded in Varanasi, resulting in a protection vacuum for children when it comes to kidnapping and prostitution.