MINOR MADE TO WORK AS DOMESTIC HELP RESCUED FROM NANDED CITY

By Archana More, Pune Mirror | Updated: Nov 7, 2017, 09.51 AM IST

Minor made to work as domestic help rescued from Nanded City

12-year-old girl from Solapur forced into labour for a year by man claiming to be advisor to one Bachpan Bachav Samiti; cops have booked Deshmukh after activists took the child away

Child labour flourishing under the name of 'domestic help' has come to the fore in the city, this time, ironically, at the home of an advisor to a group that claims to advocate against this very crime. In the latest development, a 12-year-old girl was rescued from a home in Nanded City, Sinhagad Road, after city-based activists received a tipoff that a minor had been working for many days at the Lalit building.

On Sunday, members of NGO Sakhee laid a trap and rescued the girl from the house in question, which belongs to an advisor on the Bachpan Bachav Samiti, Abhijitraje Deshmukh, who also happens to be state president of the All India Anti-Corruption Committee (AIACC). According to Sakhee, this is the first case in which a minor being used as domestic help has been rescued in Pune city.

Deshmukh has been booked by Haveli police under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 370 (trafficking) and 374 (unlawful compulsory labour), as well as relevant sections of the Child Labour - Prohibition and Regulation Act, 1986. Rescuers found the girl crying just outside the building, and were told she had been made to work at Deshmukh's house since May 2016.

On June 20, Sakhee director advocate Anjali Pawar first received a tip-off about a minor working at a flat in Nanded City. The NGO twice tried to lay a trap to rescue her, but she was not at home. Another resident was enlisted to keep an eye on the flat and inform activists when the girl was around. Finally, around 11.30 pm on Sunday, they got a call from society members, saying the child was at the spot.

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Soon after, Sakhee members Sachin Shirke and Shriya Awari rushed to the Lalit building and saw that the girl had already run out of the house, and was in the next building, crying. She revealed that she is from Barshi in Solapur district, and was brought to Pune forcefully by Deshmukh. The girl was rescued and produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), and sent for a medical test.

Pawar told Mirror, "The minor was forcefully brought here and kept to do house work. It is a case of pure slavery. When police officers were interrogating the accused, he said he had called the father of the girl, asked him to return money he owed Deshmukh, and then take the daughter to home. The Deshmukh family has absconded now. We have told police to book every member of the family in this case. If the father of the girl is found guilty, he should also be booked."

Society members Mirror spoke to said that they had always spotted the girl working in the balcony of the flat, washing clothes or dishes, and cleaning the house. She sometimes cooked and also dropped two children from the house to their school van, carrying their heavy school bags for them. She used to often be seen crying and reportedly, the family used to shout at her a lot, too.

Ironically, Abhijitraje Deshmukh is not just an AIACC leader and on the Bachpan Bachav Samiti; he is also a commissioner with the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights, national vice-president of the Malalaxmi Kalyan Kendra, district president of the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Raj Sanghatan, and a member of the Police Mitra Mahasangh and Youth Press Club.