Jaipur: Teenaged girls have been going “missing” from Banswara. Local custom has come to be complicit in a form of child sexual trafficking, says Nirmal Gorana, Delhi-based activist who has worked for the release of bonded labourers and trafficked children. The monthly crime report for the state shows that for June this year, the latest month for which data is available, 456 cases of kidnapping/abduction were reported across the state.

“There is a practice that in local parlance is called “bagera” – the girl might be taken away. Days later, she might be found, but her parents might no longer want her back. There is local sanction for the practice of just letting her stay with the youth she has run away with. Sometimes, a sum of money might even be offered to the parents in return for the child,” Gorana told TOI.

SP Kalu Ram Rawat, however, said, “In this tribal belt, a girl might marry early and then go off and marry someone else. Parents of the girl then come under pressure and want her to stay with her earlier husband, but find they are helpless. The best they can do is approach Police. It is not true, in my knowledge, that parents accept money in lieu of an abducted child. The cases lodged might seem large, but that is because we are forced by law to file every case, and we do that even when child labourers are rescued.”

On July 1 this year, a 22-year-old youth called Jagmal approached police in Navakheda of Banswara saying his younger sister, Usha, had gone off to work as a labourer in Gujarat. She returned, but then went missing while attending the fair at Abapura Village nearby. Jagmal, in his police complaint, said he suspected a youth called Mithun from the neighbourhood who had grown friendly with his sister and was also for a while working in Gujarat with her. Jagmal said he suspected that Mithun had kidnapped his sister so he could pass her on as a bride for a man called Huka in Datkia village of the district.

In their report, police said they had investigated but could find no trace of the girl.

In another case, Shantilal of Borkiapada village of Banswara took a complaint to police saying his 15-year-old daughter Sheela had gone to dance the Dandiya at the village on the day of Holi. She returned and went to sleep, but when they looked for her the next morning, she was nowhere to be found. Shantilal said he knew straightaway that she was probably with a boy called Sindhu, with whom she had grown friendly. “The parents of the boy told us to desist from taking the matter to police and assured us that the girl would return. We trusted them, but it became apparent later that they were just buying time,” the father said in his complaint.

Police were able to trace the girl, and found that she was seven months pregnant. A case has been registered against the man who abducted the minor girl, under provisions of POCSO. However, the girl has said that she was living with him of her own choice, and that they lived like they were married.

Gorana has sought the intervention of police in tracing 13-year-old Meena, daughter of Bapu Bheel, resident of Bhadwael village near Bheel Kuan. He suspects the girl has fallen victim to the practice of ‘bhagera”. “I was approached in the matter, but later told that things have been resolved between the family of the girl and the ones who abducted her. I sniff something fishy here, and it is quite likely money has been exchanged. Gorana, in his complaint to the SP, said the girl must be immediately traced and the abductors punished. “This is necessary so local people know that the long arms of the law will catch up with them. Children must be allowed a safe childhood,” he said.