M A I N   N E W S

3 tribal girls sold for Rs 2,000 each
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

Nawanshahr, August 5
Like hundreds of others, three minor tribal girls from Jharkhand were allegedly sold for Rs 2000 each. But, unlike others, they were fortunate enough to escape from the clutches of influential agents to narrate their harrowing experience about how they were lured by ‘sub-agents’ and how they landed in two villages of the district where human trafficking has been going on unchecked for the past more than two decades right under the nose of the administration.

The girls, Sangeeta (13), Asnita (14) and Somi Badra (16), who belonged to tribal areas of Ranchi district of Jharkhand, were allegedly lured by Jharkhand-based sub-agents, who work on behalf of agents belonging to Bhin village (Nawanshahr) and Fatehpur (Hoshiarpur). The sub-agents promised them that they would get decent jobs in New Delhi and other big cities. But instead, they were pushed into the Tata-Moori Express train and, ultimately, they landed in the custody of a Bhin-based agent. The agent, who is known in the entire Doaba region for trafficking in girls and boys, put them under lock and key on the first floor of his dera along with others like them and appointed an old woman to keep an eye on them. However, three girls managed to escape from the custody of the agent, concealed themselves in cane fields and were rescued by either farmers or tribals working as farm labourers in the area.

Sangeeta said she was a resident of Gairi village in the tribal belt of Ranchi district and had been made to board the Tata-Moori Express along with 20 other girls and boys in mid-June from Bada Kana railway station in Ranchi district. “We were in a group but were asked to split into smaller groups of two or three by agents who took us to Bhin village. These agents had accompanied us from Ranchi where they pay commission to the local sub-agents for getting us. The sub-agents who met me while I had gone to the Ranchi bazaar promised that I would be given a job of about Rs 2,000 in New Delhi. Agents at Bhin village sold out my friend, Mariam, to somebody for Rs 2,000, a day before my escape. When I saw that she was being sold, I decided to try my luck and escape,” said Sangeeta.

Asnita, who was rescued by a driver of Karnana village from a cane field, belonged to Kutbo Kutu Toli village of Gumla district and maintained that she, like others, had not even informed her parents before leaving her village along with sub-agents. She was so frightened that she was barely able to speak. She whispered in the ears of Sangeeta and told her that she was “humiliated” by the son of the agent for the whole of the night after she landed at Bhin village.

“Kishan Kullu, an adivasi driver of the sarpanch of Karnana village, saw her while she was trying to conceal herself in a cane field. She narrated her tale to him and he brought her to me,” said Mr Tarlochan Singh, a farmer of Karnana village who handed over the girl to Mr Tarsem Peter, general secretary of the Pendu Mazdoor Union, Punjab, on June 25. Asnita said she had left her native village along with her friend Sisil who was also brought to Punjab by agents.

Narrating her tale and how she landed into the hands of sub-agents, Somi Badra said she had gone to purchase some clothes to the Ranchi bazaar where agents met her and promised her a ‘decent’ job. She said this was her second trip to Punjab as earlier, too, she was brought to Chandigarh by another agent.

Mr Peter, who made a written complaint to the Deputy Commissioner, maintained that after she escaped, agents led by Jagdish of Bhin village and his family tracked down Asnita in Karnana village and tried to resell her for Rs 5,000 but she was rescued by the sarpanch of the village. He maintained that the human trafficking had been going on in the two villages for more than two decades but nothing had been done to stop it by the police. He maintained that the police was not acting as the agents also supplied young domestic servants to top officials. He said the agents charged Rs 2,000 each for a girl or a boy from any person who bought them.

Mr Tarlochan Singh alleged that when he went to the police station, he was asked to forget the issue by the munshi.

Later, the girls were taken to the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Mr S.J.S. Sandhu, who maintained that he had come to know about the human trafficking this morning. Ms Neerja Voruvuru, Nawanshahr SSP, said a case of kidnapping had been registered against Jagdish, former sarpanch of Bhin village.