Ismat (name changed) with her son along with WB Police and SPID officials

New Delhi: A West Bengal woman, who was recently rescued from prostitution in one of the infamous ‘kothas’ or brothels on Garstin Bastian (GB) Road, has alleged that the government-funded care home, where she was aged 3 years was a son. Recorded during the course of work, a ‘maintenance fee’ at the rate of Rs 2,000 per month was charged from him.

The woman complainant was allegedly smuggled out of West Bengal by her lover Nurul Hasan, whom she took away, and later sold her to a broker for Rs 10,000. Hassan has since been arrested by the West Bengal Police.

The alleged smugglers took her to brothel number 56 of GB Road, known as ‘Maika’, where she was forced into prostitution. “Maika’s madam, Babita forced me to admit my child to a center run by the Society for Participatory Development (SPID) for her care and protection. I was told that all the women working in the brothel keep their children there,” the victim wrote in her complaint to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), Delhi.

Since then the ‘Masterji’ of the center had come every month to collect Rs 2000 as ‘Maintenance Fee’. “‘Masterji’ came to me and asked about the ‘maintenance fee’; I called Babita who gave her Rs 2000 along with food and clothes.

“I did sex work for nine months from September 2021 to May 2022 to bring up my child,” the complainant said.

the victim told first post They realized that the SPID Care Center had kept the children free of cost only after running away from the GB Road brothel. “When I came back to the police to get my son’s custody back, the SPID administration told me that they would hand over the child to me only after the child welfare committee orders it. After this I went to CWC where I was told that the Center is not allowed to take any money from me or any other woman.

woman told first post That she never got the act of sex act done by her. “Babita took all my money with her, I paid ‘Masterji’ seven times in nine months,” she said.

He said, “Babita suspected that I would run away so she put me in my son’s care home and never gave me money from sex work.”

Roop Sudesh Vimal, expert in Juvenile Justice Act and member of CWC, told first post“They (SPID officers) are authorized to receive a monthly grant of Rs 2000 per person to have up to 25 children and if the number increases they are allowed to receive donations from other NGOs as well. However, Taking money from the victim is not encouraged at all.”

Meanwhile, Virendra Singh, Director of Mission Mukti Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to the rescue of helpless women and minors in collaboration with NCPCR and the police played a key role in child detection and rescue. first post That the CWC could have helped the woman’s family to locate her and the child if they had followed the necessary checks to admit the child.

“When we went to the CWC to take custody of the child, we found that the CWC officials were also at fault, they had to prepare a Social Investigation Report (SIR) and Home Inquiry Report (HIR) immediately after admitting any child. There should be an order to classify the child in the form of sexual abuse, orphan or incapacitated parent,” he said.

Singh said if the CWC officials had conducted an inquiry, they would have easily come to know that the woman has been trafficked.

When asked about the procedures, Vimal said that the officers of the CWC are bound to both SIR and HIR of the children under Section 31 of the Juvenile Justice Act. “There is no fixed period to conduct both the investigations, but in fact it is mandatory to keep a record of every child,” he said, adding that the matter should be probed for vested interests.

When contacted for a comment, SPID vice-president Lalita S denied the allegations of taking money, saying that her organization does not promote prostitution, but works for the basic rights of sex workers. “Some people are trying to malign the image of our NGO, we have been working in this field for 30 years and we have got many badges of excellence,” he said. He said that the complainant had his Aadhaar card on the basis of which the SPID had placed his child and that too after informing the CWC.

The victim was rescued from a brothel in January 2021 after sending a selfie of her whereabouts and a selfie to her brother from the phone of one of her clients.

Later a complaint was lodged by the brother after which the women was located in brothel number 56. However, when the police raided the brothel, she was not found there.

Instead she was found in her hometown where she told the police that the broker kept her confined during the raid and later they boarded her on a train back to her hometown to sort things out with the police. “They asked me to come back for the child after sorting things out with the police,” she said, adding that with the help of the West Bengal Police and Mission Mukti volunteers, she got back in custody on Monday.

However, Dalal and Madam are absconding. Police is trying to catch them.

Despite multiple calls and text messages, the CWC president did not respond first post Question.