News Analysis India

Tag: child trafficking

  • West Bengal couple sells 8-month-old baby to buy iPhone 14 to make reels

    By Online Desk

    KOLKATA: A couple from West Bengal sold their eight-month-old baby to buy iPhone 14, it has emerged. What is even more appalling is that they bought the iPhone to shoot Instagram reels of their travels across the country. 

    According to state police, the incident happened in Panihati’s Ganganagar area near Kolkata.

    Cops said they have already arrested the mother Sathi Ghosh. However, authorities have not yet traced the father, identified as Jaydev Ghosh, who is absconding. An active search is ongoing to apprehend the man. 

    The incident came to light only after locals got suspicious of the couple as they could not see the baby for weeks, and reported the matter to the police, a senior officer said.

    Following a confrontation, the woman finally admitted to having sold the baby for money to purchase the iPhone 14 to travel to places like Digha and Mandarmoni and shoot Instagram reels. 

    It was also revealed that the father had earlier attempted to sell their seven-year-old daughter.

    The police have filed a case against the couple and a woman who had bought the child on the charges of human trafficking. The police rescued the infant from Priyanka Ghosh. A detailed investigation is underway.

    READ MORE: Odisha tribal woman sells nine-month-old daughter for just Rs 800, 4 held

    (With inputs from PTI)

    KOLKATA: A couple from West Bengal sold their eight-month-old baby to buy iPhone 14, it has emerged. What is even more appalling is that they bought the iPhone to shoot Instagram reels of their travels across the country. 

    According to state police, the incident happened in Panihati’s Ganganagar area near Kolkata.

    Cops said they have already arrested the mother Sathi Ghosh. However, authorities have not yet traced the father, identified as Jaydev Ghosh, who is absconding. An active search is ongoing to apprehend the man. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    The incident came to light only after locals got suspicious of the couple as they could not see the baby for weeks, and reported the matter to the police, a senior officer said.

    Following a confrontation, the woman finally admitted to having sold the baby for money to purchase the iPhone 14 to travel to places like Digha and Mandarmoni and shoot Instagram reels. 

    It was also revealed that the father had earlier attempted to sell their seven-year-old daughter.

    The police have filed a case against the couple and a woman who had bought the child on the charges of human trafficking. The police rescued the infant from Priyanka Ghosh. A detailed investigation is underway.

    READ MORE: Odisha tribal woman sells nine-month-old daughter for just Rs 800, 4 held

    (With inputs from PTI)

  • Madhya Pradesh: 18 minors rescued from human trafficking racket; three held

    By PTI

    SHAHDOL: At least 18 minor girls and boys were rescued and three members of an inter-state gang involved in human trafficking were arrested in Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district, police said on Friday.

    The children between the ages of five and 17, mostly belonging to tribal families, were being transported to neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, where they were allegedly going to be sold, an official said.

    The police had received a tip-off that a gang was involved in picking up children from the district to take them to Meerut, Hapur and other cities of the neighbouring state, where they were going to be sold to sugarcane growers, Additional Director General of Police G Janardhan and district superintendent of police Avadesh Goswami said.

    According to the officials, the police intercepted a bus heading towards Uttar Pradesh late on Thursday night and found 18 girls and boys being taken away with the permission of their parents and guardians.

    At least 13 children were from Shahdol, three were from Umaria district and two hailed from Chhattisgarh, they said.

    The police have arrested bus driver Sonu Kumar Sharma (37), a resident of Bulandshahr, Surchandra (24), a resident of Meerut, an agent Shakeel Ahmed (29), a resident of Hapur in Uttar Pradesh, under relevant sections of the Human Trafficking Act and Indian Penal Code, they said.

    A hunt has been launched to nab the fourth accused Sonu Kumar, a resident of Meerut, it was stated.

  • 26 children rescued from traffickers in Bihar, nine arrested

    Express News Service

    PATNA: Child trafficking for labour from Bihar to various states including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Surat and others for labour goes unabated.

    IG of RPF under the East Central Railway S Mayank said that recently 26 children were rescued in Bihar on the Hajipur-Chapra rail routes by the ROF along the Child line and other volunteers from a train while they were being taken to other states from Bihar’s Seemanchal districts.

    As per an official data, as many as 56 children from Bihar were rescued by the RPF alone in Bangalore between July 17 and August 18. 

    “Altogether 9 traffickers were also arrested by the RPF on charges of illegally taking the minor children by trains to engage them for labour,” the IG RPF said. 

    Meanwhile, Shilpi Singh, who runs a social organisation namely ‘Bhoomika-Vihar’ in Patna, said that trafficking in children increases mostly during the flood or drought or post flood time.

    “Traffickers try to board with children in train from normal category of railway station where securities of law enforcing agencies happen to be less. Now, Bihar’s many parts mostly falling under flood affected areas, generally reported the group migration of children also,” she said.

    Sources said that almost daily, children from poor families are promised for jobs in other states with handsome salaries and taken to other states by both road and rail routes from Bihar.

    Alert RPF across the railway areas with the support of volunteers and others are continuously rescuing children from being trafficked to oterh states. 

    As per an official data of RPF, 830 children were rescued from trains and other distressed condition from trains and railways areas in 2019.

    In 2020, 313 children were rescued from trains and more than 426 till August in 2021 by the RPF and others.

  • 12-year-old trafficking survivor becomes West Bengal child rights’ body chairperson for one hour

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: A 12-year-old boy, survivor of child trafficking and child labour was made the chairperson of West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) for an hour, an official said. The boy, who was rescued from a household in north Bengal seven years back where he was working as a domestic help, was made of the chairperson of WBPCR on Friday.

    “After being rescued by Childline NGO with the help of police, the boy got a new lease of life. We appointed him as the chairperson of the WBCPCR for one hour on the International Day against Trafficking on July 30 to share his valuable experience and feedback on the issue,” a spokesperson of WBCPCR said.

    The boy as WBPCR chairperson wrote a letter to West Bengal Women and Child Development and Social Welfare minister Shashi Panja and demanded that the state must ensure education for all children for their bright future.

    He said that traffickers and perpetrators of child labour should be punished strongly and fined heavily. They should be made to bear all expenses of education of the victim. The boy in the letter said that many children are forced into child labour because of the situation at home.

    The government must ensure sponsorship for such children so that they don’t have to leave school. He also demanded that a strict child labour law must be created to instil the fear of law in people. The 12-year-old also advocated for setting up of more parks and playrounds for children.

    “All drug, cigarette and gutka companies must be closed and the government should build schools in their place,” the letter in the official letterhead of the panel with memo number 1112..,” said.

    The letter, which was available with PTI on Saturday, also demanded “traffickers and perpetrators of child labour should be punished strongly, made to bear all expenses of education for the trafficked child”. It also demanded that the government should work towards creating awareness among children not to interact with unknown people or accept anything from them.

    A panel spokesperson said the child, who now studies in class 7 and stays at a children’s home, was brought to the household by a trafficker without the knowledge of his parents and forced to do jobs like mopping floor, washing utensils, fetching water and even babysitting the granddaughter of the family.

    The boy is now under the custody of the panel and is a fan of International football icon Messi. “I want to be a commando when I grow up, and rescue all children in distress,” the boy told the commission members when asked about his aim in life.

  • 40 Assam kids rescued in Sikkim as inter-state human trafficking racket

    Express News Service
    GUWAHATI: Forty children from Assam were rescued from Sikkim by the police who busted a thriving inter-state human trafficking racket and arrested two gang members.

    The rescued were among 80 children trafficked from four villages of Bodoland Territorial Region in Assam.

    Official sources said the arrest of the two traffickers, Krishna Yogi and Tika Ram Ghimiray, led to the rescue.

    With this latest case, 107 Assam children and women were rescued from different parts of the country in the last two months.

    The trail was unravelled after the Kalimpong police had intercepted a 13-year-old child being trafficked to Sikkim from Shantipur area of Assam’s Chirang district.

    On being alerted, an Assam police team reached Bengal and took custody of Yogi and Ghimiray. During their interrogation, it emerged that several children were trafficked from Assam’s Runikhata area to Sikkim.

    Another police team was sent to Sikkim on July 19. After three days of sustained efforts with the help of Sikkim police and Child Welfare Committee, 40 children and two adults were rescued.

    “While 16 are girls, the remaining 24 are boys. Efforts are on to rescue other children and apprehend the culprits involved,” a source said,

    ‘Policy soon for rehabilitation’

    Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said his government would adopt a child rehabilitation policy to secure future of such children.

    The policy would address emotional issues of the minors so that they could become resourceful citizens after getting the right education, Sarma said, adding that he would visit the villages of the children and talk to their parents to solve the issue permanently

  • JNV principal, teacher among 8 arrested for child trafficking; incident sparks political slugfest

    By PTI
    BANKURA: The principal and a teacher of a Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) in West Bengal’s Bankura district were among eight people arrested for allegedly attempting to traffic five children, police said on Monday.

    The incident has sparked a political slugfest between the BJP and the TMC, with state minister Shashi Panja accusing a senior BJP leader of having a connection with the racket, and the saffron party dismissing the charge and calling it an attempt at mudslinging “just for the sake of opposition”.

    The racket was unearthed when a local panchayat chief noticed two children crying when they were asked by some people to get inside a car on the JNV campus in Kalapathar locality in Bankura Sadar police station area on Sunday, an officer said.

    The panchayat chief enquired with the car occupants, and upon finding a discrepancy in their answers, informed the locals.

    The principal, on the other hand, attempted to escape from the area, following which locals blocked the roads, he said.

    The principal, a teacher, and three others were arrested from the spot, and three more people were later nabbed from Durgapur in neighbouring Paschim Bardhaman district, Bankura Superintendent of Police Dhritiman Sarkar said.

    Three girls and two boys were also rescued from the spot and sent to a safe home, he said.

    An investigation is underway to find out where the children were being trafficked to, the officer said.

    The accused people were produced before the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate during the day, which remanded three of them, including the principal, to five-day police custody, and the remaining five to 14-day judicial custody.

    The arrested people have been booked under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.

    Sharing a purported photograph of the principal with a BJP MP from the area, state Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Minister Dr Shashi Panja tweeted: “Murky stories of @BJP4Bengal doesn’t seem to end! Principal of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Bankura has been accused in a child trafficking case. Alarming connection with BJP MP. Does BJP give shelter to such known criminals?!” PTI, however, could not independently verify the authenticity of the image.

    Dismissing the allegation as baseless, Bankura’s BJP MLA Niladri Sekhar Dana said, “Protection of the school is the state government’s responsibility. Dr Shashi Panja is levelling baseless allegations just for the sake of opposition. But the truth will come out.”

    The BJP MP in question, however, could not be contacted for a comment.

  • Assam Police rescues nine girls trafficked to Kerala 

    By PTI
    GUWAHATI: The Assam Police has rescued nine girls who were trafficked to Kerala and arrested two persons, a senior officer said on Saturday.

    The survivors and the accused are being brought back to Assam, Special Director General of Police G P Singh said.

    “An information was received by @Hojai_Police about an illegal human trafficking racket operating from Assam, in which several girls belonging to various districts in Assam have been trafficked to Thampanoor, Kerala,” Singh tweeted.

    Based on specific inputs, a case was registered at Lanka police station in Hojai district on July 11 under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, and a team of eight police personnel left for Kerala on July 13 to rescue the victims and apprehend the accused, he said.

    The girls hail from Hojai, Nagaon, Sonitpur, Morigaon and Kamrup Rural districts, while the accused are from Hojai and Nagaon, Singh added.

  • RPF rescued over 3600 minor children from trains and stations in last five years

    Express News Service
    PATNA: After being chided by their parents for playing cricket, 13-year-old Sonu Kumar* and his brother Monu (12) decided to run away from their homes earlier this month on February 2. The siblings boarded a Patna-bound special MEMU train in Gaya. However, the railway protection force (RPF) personnel, who were deployed there, spotted and rescued them.

    On January 21, Munni Kumari (15) from Daltenganj district of Jharkhand decided to leave for Mumbai in a fit of rage after her mother scolded her. On the same day. another girl, Ashia Khatoon, aged 15, left her house after an altercation with her mother and boarded a Delhi-bound train. Karan and Krishna (aged 10 and 11 respectively) were spotted at Begusaraiby the RPF when they were loitering about after their mother slapped them for not staying in and studying their lessons. 

    These are just a handful of many cases that the RPF personnel have helped resolve. The forces have a long list of minor boys and girls who were recovered from trains and railway stations after they eloped from their houses over domestic issues such as poor performance at schools. 

    The RPF cops keep strict vigil around trains and railway stations to keep an eye out for such minors, says S Mayank, chief security commissioner-cum-IG at East Central Railway headquarters in Hajipur. “Whenever a minor boy or a girl is found loitering at train platforms or in any other suspicious circumstances, the cops make sure to conduct a thorough check on such children. They are then handed over to childline units of the concerned stations for their safety and other subsequent actions,” Mayank tells The New Indian Express. 

    “Since 2016 till January 2021, the RPF cops have recovered over 3,674 such girls and boys who had fled away from their homes and boarded ECR trains or were found at stations.” 

    The RPF rescued the maximum number of children in 2017.

    According to the official numbers, 364 children (310 boys and 54 girls) were rescued in 2016, followed by 1309 children (1128 boys and 181 girls) in 2017. While in 2018, 854 children were rescued, 2019 saw 830 recoveries. Last year, the RPF rescued 317 children even as the country was reeling under the coronavirus pandemic and train services were shut for a better part of 2020.

    Child Help Desks have been set up at Patna, Pt. Deendayal Upadhaya Junction, Gaya, Dhanbad, Hajipur, Muzaffarpur, Bapudham Motihari, Darbhanga, Raxaul and Samastipur railway stations. “The Unicef officials coordinate with the railway and other agencies for better managements for rescued children. The RPF cops always maintain strict vigil to check if children are being trafficked or are running away from their homes,” Mayank claimed.

    Besides this, he said that the RPF had provided food to destitute children, who were sheltering themselves at railway stations during the lockdown imposed due to COVID-19 as part of their social responsibility. 

    Sudhir Shukla, nodal director of Childline Help Desk at Hajipur says that stubbornness among growing children is one of the major reasons that prompt them to take such drastic steps. “Experts at the Childline helpdesk give proper counselling to children who are recovered and rescued,” says Shukla. 

    *Names have been changed to protect privacy