Rise in sex trade feared ahead of Delhi Games

Social welfare agencies fear a rise in sex trafficking in New Delhi ahead of the Commonwealth Games set to be flagged off on October 3.

A news feature carried by Times of India gets into the spur in kidnapping of minor girls from villages who are pushed into the brothels of New Delhi.

It cites a case of a 16-year-old girl Sujata who was kidnapped from a village fair in South 24 Parganas in West Bengal.

Now rescued by the child Welfare Committee, the girl recounted her tragic story and said she only remembered two men giving her something to eat.

Knocked out, she was later transported to Delhi and pushed into one of the filthy old brothels of Delhi's notorious GB Road.

"The days I spent in the brothel were a nightmare. I was beaten up if I refused to entertain a customer," Sujata was quoted as saying. She is now lodged in a safehouse.

The report quotes child-rights groups to focus on rising number of advertisements in local media luring girls by so-called "placement agencies."

In a similar incident involving minor girls, 16-year-old Chhaya was rescued from one of the brothels in the same area.

She too was kidnapped from her village in West Bengal. "The madam at the brothel would force me to entertain customers for over 12 hours a day," she said.

A 13-year-old gang-rape victim, later rescued from Gurgoan, in neighbouring Haryana, recently delivered a baby. She was a sex slave locked up by two men. 

"We have seen a spurt in such cases over the past one month. The victims are mostly those who were promised work in Delhi ahead of the Commonwealth Games by placement agencies, but were instead sold off to pimps and forced into sex work," said Surinder Jeet Kaur, station house officer at Kamla Market police station.

It is well known that many of these minor girls are injected with a drug called Oxytocin to attain puberty before due.

Rishikant of a non-government organisation Shakti Vahini said most of the girls kidnapped are from West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand.

He blames the lack of coordination between relevant agencies for this mess.

"There is no exchange of information between the ministries. It must be ensured that such activities do not go unchecked in the garb of labour migration. The ministry for women and child, for labour and the railway ministry should work together."

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