Repeated incidents of child trafficking in H.D. Kote, Nanjangud regions worry Police

Mysore/Mysuru: Concerned over repeated incidents of child selling, the Mysuru District Police have commissioned a detailed survey to track the incidents and expose the racketeers thriving especially in areas of H.D. Kote, Nanjangud and Mysuru. The aim of the survey is to put an end to this trade.

The responsibility of the survey has been entrusted to H.D. Kote Inspector Basavaraj, who has immense experience in exposing such rackets and he will be assisted by Inspector Jeevan of Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, Nazarbad. The survey will be conducted in cooperation with Women and Child Development and the Health Departments.

What prompted the Police to take such an action is the recent incident in H.D. Kote where a woman sold her new-born baby girl to a couple in Channapatna village in Nanjangud taluk through a mediator. Following intervention of officials from Child Helpline and Women and Child Development Department, the baby was reunited with its mother. Though the mother and the couple who ‘adopted’ the baby claimed that money was not exchanged, a case has been registered at H.D. Kote Police Station. In July last year too, ASHA workers detected a child sale case where a mother, unable to raise the child, had sold it off to her relatives in Hassan. Later, the child was reunited with its mother and the two women — who were repeat offenders — were arrested.

“We want to get to the root of the problem and the survey has been commissioned in this regard to formulate long-term plans to curb the racket. The gangs thrive in rural and semi-urban areas and some of the hospitals and maternity homes are the breeding grounds for the deals to flourish. Though some arrests are made from time to time, repeated incidents of baby selling is a matter of concern,” Additional SP R. Shivakumar told Star of Mysore this morning.

Apart from the social angle where the circumstances that force certain women to sell their child and their socio-economic status will be identified and listed, the survey will include the Police angle also to identify the modus operandi of the racket, usual suspects, areas of child trafficking and prospective customers, he added.

The survey teams will collect the data of deliveries at hospitals including private, survival data, details of families supported by Aadhaar Card and other documents. “We will also find out other details like if there are deaths and desertions in the families that are forcing women to sell their babies, the role of middlemen in the sale, whether the sale is planned even before the child is born and if so, who paid the hospital bills, etc. Physical checks will also be conducted to check whether the babies are with their parents,” the Additional SP added.

Child selling and buying is illegal and all adoptions must be made through Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA). “The focus of the survey will be illegal adoption and human (child) trafficking. We will also focus on past incidents and the relatives of the children who were involved in the past. The survey team will collect data from Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Kodagu and Hassan as in the past, these places figured in the child sale rackets,” Shivakumar added.