One of the 34 traffickers of tribal kids operating in the slavery
belt – some of the remotest and backward areas of Jharkhand – is Nirmal
Mahto. He was arrested from Ranchi station on a train to Delhi
with four minor girls in 2012. However, in 2013, when he was produced
in court, the absence of a public prosecutor helped him secure bail.
Since then he has been untraceable.
Similarly, in yet another bizarre incident, the Delhi police
raided the premises of several traffickers in Shakurpur on the night of
December 25, 2012. Among those who were raided included two master
traffickers in the police blacklist – Krishan Kumar Sahu and Manoranjan
Sahu. While K K Sahu had human trafficking
cases against him in Simdega and West Singhbhum, Manoranjan Sahu was
being actively sought by anti-human trafficking unit in Khunti. 54 minor
tribal girls and eight boys were found at their placement agencies in
Delhi. The Delhi police and Ranchi CID Diya Seva Sansthan
rescued the kids and sent them home. The traffickers were not arrested
nor was an FIR filed at the local police station in Delhi. The two of
them are still at large.
Master trafficker Panna Lal Mahto has also revealed the name of a
dubious godman by the name of Baba Bamdev. Baba Bamdev is a politically
connected godman who is currently behind bars for raping his own rape
victim again. He is considered a master trafficker operating in both
Delhi and Ranchi in the guise of a godman. He was earlier arrested on
rape charges by the Delhi police in 2011 but managed to get bail. Along
with Mahto, he established an umbrella organisation for all of their
fake placement agencies, titled National Adivasi Seva Sthan.
Bamdev, who even attended sittings of the Vidhan Sabha in tow with
former Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLA and known 'extortionist' Paulus Surin,
has admitted to using Surin's clout to run his trafficking net in
Khunti district. Panna Lal Mahto confesses to having formed a union of
placement agencies along with Baba Bamdev, bringing Jharkhand
traffickers under an umbrella organisation called the National Adivasi
Seva Sthan. This organisation holds a massive gathering of domestic
maids and placement agents in Delhi's Punjabi Bagh area on Christmas day
every year. In photographs seized from Mahto's residence, many of
Jharkhand's most wanted traffickers are seen in attendance along with
hundreds of young tribal boys and girls from across Delhi.
Jharkhand's slave traders
Sundar Munda : Janakpuri-based agent. FIRs against him at PS Namkum,
Ranchi. One of the most active traffickers in Ranchi, Gumla and Simdega
districts.
Nirmal Mahto: Runs Prabhu Enterprises, based in Moti Nagar and
Shakurpur. FIRs against him in PS Chutiya, Ranchi. Also a known member
of extortionist outfit Swantatra Nyaya Manch
Mohd Nizamuddin Ahmad: Simdega-based agent, suspected to be the point person of Baba Bamdev
Gayatri Devi: Shakurpur-based agent; currently behind bars. During a
raid a database of close to 1,200 girls was recovered along with
addresses of the homes in Delhi they are working in
Mahendra Sahu: Shakurpur-based agent, active in Khunti, Simdega and
Lohardaga. Local police suspect him to be behind the disappearance of
many girls in remote villages of the belt.
India's very own 'Slavery Express'
dna spent some days and nights at the Ranchi railway stations,
monitoring various trains from the state capital to Delhi. On Mondays
and Thursdays after 7 pm, the Ranchi railway station sees a trickle of
groups of young girls and boys. The trickle becomes a stream by 9 pm. As
dna found out, most traffickers prefer to use one train in particular.
Unofficially, the Jharkhand Sampark Kranti Express, that departs from
Ranchi at 11:40 pm twice a week, is India's very own 'Slavery Express'.
Most agents buy general compartment tickets and shepherd their
groups to grab a seat. Some will convert the general tickets to sleeper
class by paying the travelling ticket examiner (TTE). It is not baffling
to see why this particular super fast train has become India's 'Slavery
Express'. It leaves Ranchi in the dead of the night when policing at
most stations is usually lax. In its 1,306-km journey to Delhi, the
train stops at only seven stations, five of which are during the same
night. That makes police interception even more difficult. The first
stop of the train after sunrise is at Mughal Sarai Junction at around 9
am. From there the train speeds to Delhi covering 800 km with only one
halt at Kanpur. It reaches New Delhi after dark at 8:50 pm. The nature
of the journey significantly reduces the threat of interception at the
station of origin, halts and arrival.
The Railway Protection Force or the local police in either Delhi or
Ranchi mostly don't inspect 'Slavery Express'. "Even if we suspect
someone they say they are going with their relatives. How can we prove
that it is a case of trafficking?" asks an RPF officer at Ranchi.
Once they arrive in Delhi, the trafficked kids are sent to placement
agencies. Most of the 240 placement agencies under the scanner of the
state police are based in the locality of Shakurpur in Outer Delhi. The
locality is a maddening maze of three- or four-storeyed brick houses.
They are packed together with barely any space to walk or for sunlight
to trickle in. Law enforcement agencies have often found it hard to
penetrate this maze to carry out an investigation and join the dots to
bust the bigger network of traffickers. The Jharkhand CID has been
planning to conduct a joint operation with the Delhi police for over a
year now. But none of their plans have yet seen the light of the day.
dna accompanied Delhi and Chhattisgarh
police during a joint raid in November. On expected lines, the owner of
the placement agency escaped before the police managed to locate the
house. Inside, the police recovered four minors, all tribal kids from
Jharkhand.
The Global Slavery Index 2013, released by the UN, estimates that
half of the world's 30 million slaves are in India. Nations like Gambia,
Gabon and Ivory Coast have fewer slaves in proportion to their
population, compared with India. The report notes, "Information is not
available about the Indian Government's total budget allocation to
responding to modern slavery. The Ministry of Home Affairs, along with
UNODC, developed standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the
identification of victims of traffic king, in 2009. State governments
were advised to implement them, but as of March 2013 no evaluation of
the implementation of the SOPs has been conducted."
Most of the modern day slaves in India continue to be tribals and
dalits with little knowledge of the world beyond their hamlets. In
India's 'slavery belt' every village bears testimony to this trade in
humans. The 'Slavery Express' might help young tribals escape a life of
grinding poverty in their villages. But little do they know that hell
starts where the train terminates.