Cary Friday B Block
Women In India: Feature
Child trafficking is becoming a large issue in modern India, and the fight against these criminal acts is only just beginning. Recently, more people are reporting child trafficking; and the numbers are shocking. “More than 90,000 children are officially reported missing every year, according to data compiled and released late last year by leading children's rights group.”1 This large number of children is only thought to make up a small percentage of the many accounts of child trafficking. This is because many cases commonly go unreported when young girls are given away, “sometimes in return for cash,” from poor families in need of income. 2 Despite the many people who give away their children knowingly, not all child trafficking is accounted for by parents. Recently, footage was found, “…showing infants being brazenly snatched from train stations and hospital lobbies as parents slept nearby.” 3 Some girls are being sold and forced into prostitution and child labor at extremely young ages, often before they can speak or walk. This would be the fate for the twomonth-old girl who was found in New Delhi, if the police did not luckily save her earlier this May. A man named Sumit Sharma and a woman named Niharika were arrested after trying to sell a two month old girl. There was a special unit of police forces in India who were lead to believe that a gang was involved in child trafficking, and decided to investigate. A, “decoy customer,” was sent into a restaurant, where the alleged gang members were waiting to meet with him.4 This fake customer paid Sumit and Niharika Rs three lakh, equivalent to about 6,000 dollars. After doing so, they handed over the little girl, and the others in the police force were signaled. After entering the restaurant, Sumit and Niharika were arrested and later questioned. Despite sharing information about the gang they worked with, still, only little can be done in order to help the poor two month old baby, and other girls who will be in the same situation as her. Sumit and Niharika both admitted to trafficking children multiple times before they gave the baby to the fraud customer, but nothing is being done to help those children, and very little really can be done. Once a child is sold, it becomes nearly impossible to find each one individually, so the police are not able to even try and find them. They are trying to help find the leader of the group Sumit and Niharika are in, who confessed to working with others in child trafficking. They also admitted that this leader of their group is named Deena Nath, who works at a hospital in Ghazibad. Police still are working to find this person, and must find out whether Sumit and Niharika are telling the truth. What is so horrible about child trafficking for 1
Simon, Denver, "India Grapples with Child Trafficking," The Washington Post, Sep 23, 2012. A.1, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1057757144?accountid=12012. 2 ibid. 3 ibid. 4 “Two-month old rescued from human traffickers A decoy customer settled the deal with a nursing home owner and paid him Rs 3 lakh,” Tribune News Service, May 02, 2013, accessed May 19, 2013 http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130503/delhi.htm
the police is that no matter how much people try to fight against it, many people are involved in these organized gangs. Because of this, trafficking still continues at extreme rates even after some members are captured. Not only is it hard to help find these other kids who have been sold, but even once they are saved, there is only so much the police can achieve. Despite the police finding this baby girl, they cannot even be sure if her parents are willing to take her back. If her parents sold her, she would not be reported as missing, which would make it virtually impossible to find them. If they did report her missing, it will take large amounts of time to find her true family from the many others who are looking for their kids. Despite being saved from trafficking, if this girl is unable to find her family, she will hopefully be adopted or put in a shelter, but without a bright future guaranteed, she still may face many hardships.