Girls 'Auctioned' In Rajasthan? National Commission For Women Forms Fact-Finding Team For Probe

Following media reports of alleged sale and purchase of females in Rajasthan, the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Friday formed a fact-finding committee for an investigation. 

The NCW formed a two-member fact-finding team to look into allegations of auctioning off of females for loan repayment in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district.

"NCW's fact finding team headed by under secretary will be reaching Bhilwara today evening to enquire into this matter," said NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma on Twitter with a clipping of the media report.

In a separate tweet, the NCW said it has written to top Rajasthan officials, asking them to look into the case. 

"NCW has taken cognizance of the matter. Chairperson Rekha Sharma has written to Chief Secretary, Rajasthan to take urgent action. NCW has also written to Director General of Police of Rajasthan to immediately invoke relevant provisions in the FIR and to arrest all the accused at the earliest," said NCW.

The NCW proceedings stem from a Dainik Bhaskar report claiming that girls and women are auctioned, sometimes on stamp paper, in Rajasthan with approval of rural caste-based panchayats. The report also included testimonies from females sold and purchased under the practice. 

The NCW said it had come across several media reports about girls being auctioned off to settle disputes over loan repayments in Rajasthan's Bhilwara. 

It has been reported that in many settlements, girls are sold into prostitution on stamp paper. In some cases, their mothers are raped on the diktat of 'khap' (caste) panchayats for the settlement of disputes, it said. In its statement, the NCW called the reported crimes "extremely appalling and traumatising" and said it had constituted a two member fact-finding team to look into the matter. 

Priyank Kanoongo, Chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, will also visit Bhilwara on November 7 to conduct a detailed probe into the allegations. He said he would look into the nexus of people involved and the number of villages affected.

Commenting on the matter, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chairperson Swati Maliwal criticised Rajasthan's Ashok Gehlot-led government for being in a political tug of war at a time when "little girls are being auctioned on stamp paper". 

"Little girls are being auctioned in half a dozen districts of Rajasthan and state's leaders are engaged in a political tug of war. Daughters aged 8-18 are being auctioned in markets. Ashok Gehlot ji, act at the earliest. How long will this go on?" said Maliwal in a tweet in Hindi.

The Bhaskar had reported that girls aged 8-18 are being sold in Rajasthan to people in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai, Delhi, and even abroad. It reported the following areas where the practice is on: Pander, Jahajpura, Mandalgarh.

"One girl harassed by the caste panchayat recalled that she was 21 when she was held hostage, and, when she was caught whenenver she tried to escape. Once after a failed escape attempt, she was gangraped until she fell unconscious," reported Bhaskar in Hindi. 

The reason for this practice of selling females is financial distress, according to the report.

In Bhilwara's Pander, agents in several settlements buy girls of poor families on stamp paper and sell them, according to Bhaskar's report.

The report mentions testimonies of two girls in Hindi. 

In the first case, a girl alleged that she, her aunt, and three older sisters were sold by her father over debt of Rs 15 lakh. She was 12 when she was sold for 15 years. 

In the second case, a 12-year-old girl alleged to the paper that she was sold and taken to Agra and Jaipur after her family came under debt following cost of treatment of her diseased mother. She further said that she was sold for the third time in Delhi and, during these sales, she got pregnant four times. 

(With PTI inputs)