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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cops under fire for ignoring child rights by Santosh K Kiro

Cops under fire for ignoring child rights by Santosh K Kiro

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published Published on Feb 25, 2012   modified Modified on Feb 25, 2012

Lax policemen made Jharkhand’s borders porous and helped child trafficking, a shocked National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) found on its second day of public hearing here today.

In the cases that came to the commission for hearing, it was revealed that the police sat idle and deaf to frantic pleas of people whose minor children went missing. The members of the commission rebuked the state police for being lax.

“We have got numerous complaints from parents who said that the police did not register FIRs or make efforts to recover the child. We find total laxity on the part of the police in controlling child trafficking,” said a no-holds-barred NCPCR chairperson Shantha Sinha after listening to a few alleged cases of trafficking.

Jagannathpur resident Ayanti Toppo said her minor son was trafficked by middlemen on October 17 last year and put to work in Ghaziabad. “Ranchi district police have simply done nothing,” the mother said, alleging three boys, including her son, were trafficked and put to work in a sugar mill.

“Two of them escaped, my son couldn’t. After repeated requests, when the police stayed mum, we made the trip to Ghaziabad. My son was so frightened that he refused to recognise us. We were chased away by the sugar mill men. It was horrific,” Ayanti narrated in front of the NCPCR panel, unable to hold back tears.

The panel asked deputy SP Charo Lakra about the status of the case.

“Why haven’t you gone to Ghaziabad till date? Tell us when you will go there,” asked Justice (retired) B.S. Reddy, panel member and former Andhra Pradesh Human Rights Commission chairman.

Lakra replied that he needed the permission of the DIG (Ranchi) to make the trip. The panel asked him to get it immediately, go to Ghaziabad and rescue the child in a week.

“When parents are giving the address of the trafficked child, why should the police not act?” said the NCPCR chairperson.

In another case, the parents of a 16-year-old girl of Theropakalmer village, Bero, who was lured by a middleman on December 28,2010, pleaded with the panel for the safe return of her daughter, who, they claimed, was in Kanpur.

“We lodged an FIR with Bero police station, but to no avail,” wept mother Milan Devi as father Suraj Dev Mahto looked on.

In all, the panel — Sinha, Reddy, fellow member Dipa Dixit, member secretary Luv Verma and senior journalist Mahuya Choudhuri — heard as many as 13 cases as planned, plus two more cases taking suo motu cognisance, from Ranchi, Gumla, Jamtara, Simdega and East Singhbhum districts. Of the 15, six cases pertained to trafficking of minors.

As the commission saw junior policemen fumble, it called in inspector-general (organised crime) Anurag Gupta, also nodal officer, anti-trafficking cell, who spoke on the challenges.

“Children are taken away to metros by so-called uncles and aunts. Then, these middlemen place the children with households as domestic servants. On the train, police can’t take action against middlemen because children start calling them uncles and aunts,” Gupta said.

In response, the panel asked Gupta to impose the Juvenile Justice Act, which says that the minors could be held back if they seem to be going to cities for child labour and “uncles” and “aunts” arrested.

But Gupta had another poser. “What does one do with rescued children? The state does not have any plan for care,” he said.

Trafficking apart, the panel heard cases on lack of anganwadi centres, directing the state social welfare department officials to rectify problems.

After the hearing from 10am to 1.30pm, the panel met chief secretary S.K. Choudhary at the state secretariat at 3pm, along with secretaries of departments of health, home and HRD, among others.

On being asked what Jharkhand was doing to enforce Right to Education Act and prevent trafficking, the chief secretary said efforts were on to address both.

“We are appointing more teachers. To curb child trafficking, unlike earlier when police and social welfare officials acted separately, we are now drawing up a concerted long-term action plan where all departments will work in tandem to weed out this menace,” said Choudhary.

The Telegraph, 25 February, 2012, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120225/jsp/frontpage/story_15177443.jsp


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