State readies to bring back girls
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 11 2011:
Officials of the State Social Welfare and Police Departments are set to take up the necessary processes to bring back ten girls from Manipur who were reportedly rescued from a prostitution racket in Mumbai.
The incident has forced the officials concerned as well as hordes of women and civil activists of the State to be on the alert and check the rising trend of women trafficking.
Acting on specific information Mumbai police on December 9 night raided a bungalow at Oshiwara and reportedly rescued the ten girls .The racket was being run in the guise of a massage parlour.
"We received the information from the media but we are yet to receive any official intimation from our Maharashtra counterparts.
Nevertheless, we will talk to them and do the needful to bring back the girls after confirming the report.
Hence our first approach is confirm the report ," a Social Welfare Department official said.
A senior police official too said the State Police Department is yet to receive any official report on the matter from their Maharastra counterparts.
There have been reports of large number of women from Manipur being rescued from different parts of the country and even abroad including Singapore in the last few years.
Most of them were taken by 'agents' of prostitution rackets after making false promises of providing them free education and jobs, said a women and child rights activist.
"Poverty, ignorance and lack of information are the main factors of these innocent girls being cheated into the flesh trade and the Government machineries should keep a sharp vigil to check this menace," she said while appealing to the people specially parents not to fall for any false promises made by anyone.
Official sources said over 200 children from Manipur, mostly minor girls have been rescued from various unregistered homes of the country since the last three years.
To combat the menace, the State Social Welfare Department had already issued a notification asking all concerned to obtain prior approval of the department as well as the Chid Welfare Committees (CWCs) concerned if children were to be taken outside the State for one reason or another.
Mala Lisham, member of (CWC) Thoubal who also works actively on women's rights said the rising trend of tranferring the children illegally without authorization from the CWCs concerned and put into unregistered homes where cases of forced labor, sexual abuse and ill-treatment have emerged regularly should be fought collectively.
There have been numerous such cases earlier.