INDIA: Child prostitution beside police outpost in Allahabad

Dear friends, 

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Guria, a local human rights organisation working against women trafficking in Uttar Pradesh, regarding the case of child prostitution beside a police outpost in Allahabad. It is reported that under the jurisdiction of Kotwali Police Outpost, Meerganj red-light area of Allahabad, minors are forced into prostitution, while the police officers look on. 

CASE DETAILS: 

Guria is a human rights organisation based in Uttar Pradesh state working against human trafficking. Guria, in the course of its work received information that child trafficking and prostitution is continuing unabated in Meerganj red-light area in Allahabad city. Guria gathered information through its investigative visits to the place and through information gathered by volunteers and other first-hand sources. In the process of gathering the information, Guria also came to know that some police officers in Kotwali Police Outpost and some of their superiors in the District police were aware about child prostitution and were in fact conniving with the criminals. 

On 6 March, Guria filed an application at the office of the District Magistrate (DM), Allahabad seeking the Magistrate’s order for assistance from the district administration as well as the police, to rescue the children from forced prostitution. Since the District Magistrate was not in office on the day, the application was filed at the office of the Additional District Magistrate (ADM), Allahabad. 

At about 10.30 am Indian standard time, the ADM issued an order, allowing the application filed by Mr. Ajeet Singh on behalf of Guria and further directing the police to rescue children as identified by Guria from brothels and houses within the Meerganj red-light area. The order also directed the presence of the City Magistrate to be present during the operation. 

The order was immediately communicated to the Superintendent of Police, Allahabad, and his subordinate officers and requesting for police assistance in compliance with the ADM’s order. On receipt of the communication, the police refused to cooperate and informed Guria that the police could not provide such assistance immediately as requested. The police posed excused like ‘there is no fuel in police vehicles, there are no enough personnel’ and so on. The police also informed Guria and the City Magistrate that they could only provide the assistance required by about 6pm on the same day or probably the next day morning. Guria continued to pursue the police requesting immediate compliance with the order of the ADM, as it was aware that the police is trying to give time to the brothel keepers and the criminals to remove the children from the brothels and houses where they are kept in the red-light area. As the persuasion continued, the City Magistrate and Guria’s volunteers waited for the police to arrive. At the same time, Guria had arranged for its volunteers to be stationed outside the brothels and houses where the children were kept, to observe whether the children were being removed from these places after receiving information from the police officers who connive with the criminals. When Guria contacted the AHRC about this waiting game played by the police, the AHRC issued an Open Letter calling for the immediate intervention of the state administration to resolve the issue. The letter could be viewed here. 

The wait for the police to act continued until about 6pm until the police arrived. When they arrived and houses were searched with police assistance, about 20 children were recovered from the custody of criminals. However, according to Guria’s information there are about 70 children. By the time 20 children were rescued, it was 7pm, and the police informed that they cannot continue with the search to continue the search after 7pm, they required special permission and informed Guria and the City Magistrate that, if required, the search could continue the following day. This was an intentional act by some police officers to help the criminals so that they could escape and along with them shift the children under their custody to other locations to avoid detection. The fact that about 70 children are forced into prostitution in the area has been video documented by Guria, which the AHRC will be making available in its website soon. 

The police then took 17 out of the 20 children rescued to the Kotwali Police Outpost along with Mr. Ajeet Singh of Guria. The police in the meanwhile let three children to be taken away by the criminals from police custody. Inside the outpost, the police threatened and harassed Guria and Mr. Ajeet Singh, accusing them of interfering with police work. The Police initially refused to register a crime against the brothel keepers and the criminals. The police further used abusive language against Guria and Mr. Ajeet Singh in particular, and further threatened that they would register a fabricated case against Ajeet, take him into custody, by the night take him out of the outpost, and shoot him, faking an encounter. 

Frustrated, outraged, and threatened, Ajeet contacted the AHRC as well as the Frontline [International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders] in Ireland. The AHRC as well as the Frontline contacted the Assistant Superintendent of Police Mr. Akash, informing him that the AHRC as well as the Frontline is monitoring the situation and further requesting the officer to ensure Ajeet’s safety. The officer informed the AHRC as well as the Frontline that no fabricated case would be registered against Ajeet and that he would be safe. The officer however expressed his opinion that unless Ajeet files a complaint to the police, the police would not register a case against the criminals, reiterating further that the police are not willing to cooperate in the entire action. The Guria, Frontline, and the AHRC insisted that the police must proceed according to the law and further ensure that the criminals are not allowed to escape and that Ajeet remains safe. The letter can be viewed here. 

The police, with much reluctance, registered a case regarding child prostitution and let Ajeet leave the police outpost along with his lawyer. The entire operation was reported in the local media the following day, exposing the pathetic state of policing and their inability and reluctance to take action against criminals in the locality. Subsequently, the police also issued a media release, accusing Guria that the police were misled by Guria, which has resulted in the miscarriage of justice. However, Guria is certain that most of the girls and women are from Nepal. 

In the meanwhile anticipating that the police, under the influence of their criminal associates in the child trafficking racket, would endanger Ajeet’s safety, the AHRC issued a letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders calling for an intervention with the Government of India to guarantee the safety of Ajeet and other members of Guria. The issue will also be brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children during an interactive session to be held with the Rapporteur today during the UN Human Rights Council Session. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: 

This is not the first instance where Guria has faced stiff resistance from the local police whenever they tried to intervene in cases of forced prostitution, human trafficking, and child prostitution. Each time when Guria tried to rescue women and children from forced prostitution in India, the some police officers with the connivance of the criminal elements in the human trafficking racket tried to circumvent the efforts of Guria and its volunteers from exposing the sex-trade that flourishes in some parts of Uttar Pradesh state. For further information regarding these cases please see: UA-190-2005; UP-131-2005; UP-035-2006; UP-036-2007; AHRC-UAU-005-2008; AHRC-UAU-050-2008 and AHRC-UAC-202-2008. 

Human trafficking, particularly in girls, is a crime in India that receives open and clandestine support from corrupt politicians and police officers. Girls are the most vulnerable to kidnapping and exploitation by criminal gangs who see forced prostitution and the selling of pornographic films as a lucrative business option. A number of factors have allowed trafficking and child sexual exploitation to flourish in India. This includes: corruption and the failure of the justice systems in India, the police, prosecution and the judiciary in particular; widespread poverty; inequitable socio-economic and political structures resulting from the caste system and vast economic disparity; risk faced by female headed households; lack of education and awareness on human trafficking and forced prostitution; gender discrimination that views women as less important than men and saleable commodities; demand that is maintained by a social and cultural acceptance of prostitution stemming from a patriarchal and caste-based society. 
This ‘demand factor’ that ensures the profitability of the sexual exploitation of children is often overlooked, or brushed away as being an inevitable part of mankind, existing since the beginning of time to meet men’s ‘needs’. Whether men (and women) turn ‘a blind eye’ to the circumstances within which girls are kidnapped, sold and brought, then enslaved and subjected to forced rape is uncertain due to a lack of research and knowledge on the customers. Traditionally from a legal perspective, it has not been possible to successfully charge and prosecute a customer, as it might also happen in this case. 

The Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 includes a number of prohibiting Sections: 359 (kidnapping), 366A (procreation of minor girl), 367 (kidnapping or abducting in order to subject person to grievous hurt, slavery etc.), 368 (wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement, kidnapped or abducted person), 372 (selling minor for purposes of prostitution), 373 (buying minor for purposes of prostitution), 374 (unlawful compulsory labour), 375 (rape) and so on. Yet, despite the wide range of laws broken by the perpetrators, the police have failed to investigate this criminal group under any of these charges. The system of police administration and law has instead denied Maya the possibility of even registering a complaint. Police have failed to record a statement, often a very difficult task for such an abused victim, or take any investigation. 

The Immoral Traffic Prevention (ITP) Act, 1956 is yet another law in India that facilitates the prosecution and punishment of criminals engaged in human trafficking. In addition to the inherent lacunas in the law, for instance of viewing the victim as well as the criminal forcing a woman into forced prostitution as criminals of equal status, the law still have enough tooth and nail to punish the perpetrators of a crime. Unfortunately, this requires the active and intelligent support from the police as well as the judiciary. This aspect of law enforcement is lacking in India, which perpetuates human trafficking, particularly of children a ‘profitable business’ in India. 

The problem of human trafficking in children and accompanying sexual exploitation has grown to such a level internationally that the United Nations has appointed a Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography. It has also had implications for the spread of HIV/AIDS both within India and globally. However, the Special Rapporteur has not received responses to his communications sent to the government of India. Further international measures include the Convention on the Rights of the Child, particularly Article 34–protection of children from all sexual exploitation and abuse; and Article 37–no child shall be subject to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. India acceded this in December 1992. 

SUGGESTED ACTION: 
Please write to the officials listed below urging them to act in accordance with the ITP Act and provided the appropriate assistance, protection and rehabilitation for the rescued girls. Furthermore, the act of intentional non-cooperation of the local police to assist Guria and the City Magistrate in carrying out a successful rescue of children forced into prostitution in Meerganj red-light area must be investigated. 

The AHRC is writing a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children calling for intervention in this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER