Girls auctioned for debt repay: NHRC issues notice, Rajasthan govt denies reports

Jaipur, Oct 28: Reacting to National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)'s notice over reports on the 'auctioning of girls' to settle financial disputes, Rajasthan minister Pratap Khachariyawas on Friday said that the selling of girls doesn't happen in the state and a probe will be ordered to know the truth.

"It's a matter of investigation. When such information comes out, we can't know the truth until there is a probe. NHRC should've spoken to the Rajasthan police first about this. Selling of girls doesn't happen in the state," Khachariyawas was quoted as saying by ANI.

"We will investigate. On November 7, I will visit the village affected by trafficking, meet affected families and try to know who all are involved in this nexus. We will see that nexus gets banned and accused is punished," said NCPCR chairman P Kanoongo.

"Today we will serve notice. It's clear that govt officials and politicians are involved. Without political and administrative support, child trafficking of this kind cannot happen in an organised way," he added.

Taking suo motu cognisance of reports that girls are being "sold on stamp papers" in Rajasthan, the NHRC has asked for a detailed report in the matter and measures taken by the government.

Reportedly, whenever there is a dispute between the two parties particularly involving financial transactions and loans etc, the girls aged between 8-18 are auctioned to recover money. These girls are being sent to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai, Delhi and even foreign countries and subjected to physical abuse, torture and sexual assault in slavery. The media reports have documented the ordeal of many victims of such horrendous crimes.

"The news report further reveals that in order to pay off Rs. 15 lakh dept a Caste Panchayat force a man to sell his sister first and even after this when the debt was not cleared, he was forced to sell his 12 year old daughter. The buyer purchased the girl for Rs. 8 lakh. Thereafter, all the five sisters became slave but still their father could not pay off his debt. In another incident a man was forced to sell his house and further take a loan of Rs. 6 lakh for the treatment of his wife, who later died. Then he took Rs. 6 lakh more for the treatment of his mother. In order to settle the loan, he sold his small daughter for Rs. 6 lakh to some people, who took her to Agra. She was sold three times and became pregnant four times," NHRC said in a statement.

The Commission has observed that the contents of the media report, if true, amount to human rights violations of the victims of the such abominable practice. Accordingly, it has issued a notice to the Chief Secretary of Rajasthan calling for a detailed report in the matter, along with an action taken report, qua measures already taken and if not, proposed to be taken to prevent such gory incidents.

"A notice has also been issued to the Director General of Police, Rajasthan to submit a detailed report mentioning the initiation of criminal prosecution against the perpetrators of such crime and their abettors or sympathisers. It must also contain the status of cases, including the registration of FIRs, charge-sheet, arrest, if any, in such incidents and the mechanism initiated to apprehend the people involved in such systematic crimes of flesh trade in the State. The report must also mention steps being taken or proposed to be taken against the public servant(s), who purported to have neglected perpetually prevention of such incidents. The response from both the Chief Secretary and DGP is excepted within four weeks, it added.