NGOs demand policy to protect girl children
DH News Service Hyderabad:
Trafficking of girls from the Lambada and Dalit communities in the state to
brothels across the country has increased.
The government of Andhra Pradesh should immediately formulate a comprehensive
policy for the protection and development of girls so that abuses such as sale
of baby girls and pushing adolescents into sex trade are effectively curbed. The
demand came from more than a dozen voluntary organisations across the state that
are working among girl children.
A meeting organised by the Gramya Resource Centre for Women and Campagin Against
Child Labour here also demanded the withdrawal of the case against IAS officer
Shalini Mishra filed by the Rangareddy district police. Ms Mishra had busted a
racket involved in buying and selling of Lambada baby girls. Anita Sen, wife of
Director General of Police Swaranjit, is one of the accused in the child
trafficking.
The meeting regretted that the controversy had diverted the attention away from
the real problem of the girl child in the state. Trafficking of girls mostly
from impoverished communities of Lambadas and Dalits to brothels across the
country has increased rapidly.
Several women shared their experiences of abuse. Ratna, a dalit woman said that
after being deserted by her husband, she was pushed into the flesh trade by his
sister. Years later on returning home she was not accepted either by her parents
or the society.
Venkamma, an activist from Khammam, revealed that girl inmates of government
hostels are sexually abused by officials, politicians and other men in the
neighbourhood.
Sheela, a Lambada woman, revealed how she resisted a broker who offered her
money to sell her baby girl. She took the help of a local NGO and a loan of Rs
5000 with which she bought goats, which now provides succour to her and her
family.
However another Lambada woman, Lakshmi, asked how she could raise her daughter
and get her daughter married with a huge dowry when she could not even afford to
feed her one meal a day. “You ask us not to sell our daughters. Will you give
dowry for her marriage? You ask us to send our children to school. Who will pay
the fees? Who will give them books?” she asked.
The meeting demanded that the government should introduce measures to protect
the girl child by making registration of all births compulsory. It asked to
cover all Lambada hamlets and villages with anganwadi centres to ensure at least
one meal, provide auxiliary nurse-midwives (ANMs) at all remote locations, women
doctors in areas with predominant tribal and dalit population, bring back
working children to school, increase the number of hostels for girls and crack
down on child marriages.
[Deccan Herald , Thursday, April 28, 2005]