Girls auctioned, mothers raped to recover private loans in Rajasthan;

NHRC sends notice to state

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has served a notice to Rajasthan Government over reports that girls, aged between eight and 18, are auctioned on stamp paper in half a dozen districts of the state. The auctions are to recover the money owed by the families of the girls to money lenders.

The NHRC has alleged that if the auctions are refused, their mothers are subjected to rape, as a part of dispute settlement, on the diktats of the local caste panchayats.

Rajasthan Government has been given four weeks to file its reply to the notice.

According to NHRC, it took suo motu cognisance of a media report in this regard that claimed “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 abroad and subjected to physical abuse, torture and sexual assault. Media reports have documented the ordeal of many victims of such crimes, adding that if true they amount to their human rights violations, NHRC said.

The notice to Rajasthan Government has been served through State Chief Secretary seeking a detailed report in the matter, along with an action taken report, measures already taken and if not, proposed to be taken to prevent such crimes.

The commission has stated that the report must also contain how the state government is ensuring the functions of the gram panchayat, as per the constitutional provisions or Panchayati Raj Law to eradicate the caste-based system impinging the human rights and the right to dignity of girls and women in the state.

A similar notice has been sent to Rajasthan's Director General of Police, who has also been asked to submit a detailed report mentioning the initiation of criminal prosecution against the perpetrators of such crime and their abettors/sympathisers.

“It must also contain the status of cases, including the registration of FIRs, chargesheets, arrests, 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.”

NHRC special rapporteur Umesh Kumar Sharma has been asked to visit and inspect the areas in Rajasthan where such crimes are taking place and submit a comprehensive report in not more than three months.

Citing a media report that was carried on October 26, the commission said in Bhilwada, whenever there is any dispute between two parties, they approach the caste panchayat instead of going to police for settlement of issues. “It becomes the starting point of making the girls slave, if they are not sold, their mothers are ordered to be raped.”

The report further stated that in order to pay off a debt of ₹15 lakh, a panchayat forced 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 ₹8 lakh. Thereafter, all the five sisters became slave but still their father could not pay off his debt.”

NHRC quote another incident, in which a man was forced to sell his house and further took a loan of ₹6 lakh for the treatment of his wife, who later died. He reportedly took another loan of ₹6 lakh for the treatment of his mother. “In order to settle the loan, he sold his small daughter for ₹6 lakh to some people, who took her to Agra. She was sold three times and became pregnant four times.”