Manish Godha Updated: Sunday, July 14, 2024, 08:01 PM IST
Child rights activist Vijay Goyal said that legally, a child cannot be kept even after mutual consent.
Child Trading Scandal: Poverty In South Rajasthan Drives Sale Of Newborns And Children To Wealthy Families | UNICEF/Ashley Gilbertson
Poverty and lack of development has led to the trading of newborns and children in the tribal dominated areas of South Rajasthan. The children of the poor are being sold to the rich for huge sums of money. The issue was recently raised in the Rajasthan Assembly and the government has admitted registration of seven such cases in the last one year.
The southern part of Rajasthan with districts like Udaipur, Banswara, Dungarpur and Pratapgarhi is known for its scenic beauty and dense forests but the tribal community living in this area is still poor and deprived of basic amenities. These people are selling their children or sending them as child labour for patty amount with the brokers who are connected with IVF centers or factory owners of other states.
Udaipur's Savina police have busted one such case in January 2023 when a woman was arrested with a seven-month-old baby. The woman was identified as Rajkumari from a village of Udaipur.
The police had revealed that Rajkumari was working with an IVF center and bought the baby from a couple in Jhadol block for just Rs 70 thousand. She confessed that she was planning to sell the baby to a person in Delhi for Rs 2 lakh.
Recently a local media house conducted a sting operation regarding this and found out that trading of kids is still going on in the area. The sting operation revealed that a racket of brokers is active in tribal dominated areas and delivery of innocent children is taking place to childless couples of Delhi, Hyderabad and nearby states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
Brokers are buying newborn babies aged between 7 days to 1 month from tribal for Rs 20 to 40 thousand and selling them to childless couples for up to Rs 8 lakh.
After the media reports, the issue was raised in the assembly and MLAs expressed their concern over such cases. Congress MLA from Dungarpur Ganesh Ghoghra aid, "why are mothers being forced to sell their children? Children are being sold through brokers so that they can take care of other children. Ghoghra demanded an investigation into this entire matter.
The government in its reply in the assembly has admitted seven such cases in the last one year, but the sting operation claimed that 20 newborns were sold in a year from the tribal area of Udaipur. The government said that police have been alerted regarding such cases.
Former member of the Child Rights Commission of Rajasthan Shailendra Pandya who is from Udaipur said that many unauthorized orphanage centers are working here and there are viral reels that claim to provide children.
He said that most of such cases are taking place in Jhadol, Phalasiya, Gogunda and Kotra blocks of Udaipur and one can not deny the possibility of the same situation in other tribal dominated areas of other districts as the poverty is the basic problem in this community.
“Not only trading but trafficking of children for child labour is also a major issue in this area. The brokers contact the parents, give them petty cash and in the name of their consent send the children for child labour in nearby states of Gujarat and MP," said Pandya who rescued 134 children form Surat two years ago.
Child rights activist Vijay Goyal said that legally, a child cannot be kept even after mutual consent. To adopt a child, one has to register on the site of Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) and State Level Adoption Resource Authority (SARA). The District Child Welfare Committee and District Child Protection Unit together complete the adoption process.
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