Trapping lonely, aimless children

By Rasheed Kappan

BANGALORE, JUNE 18. Trapping young, runaway children for cheap hotel labour is big business on the crowded streets of Bangalore's Gandhinagar, the city's gateway, and its surroundings. A well-networked racket of commission agents, hotel owners and informers has turned the ultimate killer of childhood dreams, hundreds falling prey every month.

The whole racket is well planned, executed to near perfection. At daybreak, the brokers - there are, at least, 50 of them - fan out from Tulasi Park, their meeting point, to catch the lonely, aimless children roaming around the City railway station, the Central bus station and the nearby streets. Promising these kids a place to stay, money to spend and food forever, the children in their early teens and below are lured away. The dreams don't take long to die.

Enquiries by TheHindu revealed that the going rate (commission) for each child was Rs. 50 to Rs. 60. This cost is usually borne by the needy hotel and restaurant owners spread over the city. However, a few small-time hotel owners themselves frequent the railway and bus stations to catch the children soon after their arrival. ``Many of these brokers and owners have vehicles, some of them even cars,'' a social worker at the railway station said.

The City police, however, claimed that the hotel broker menace had been wiped out after a crackdown on them in mid-1998. ``There are no active brokers now,'' said Mr. Nissar Ahmed, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West). ``But there may be some tussle for children among the various voluntary agencies working for rehabilitation.''

Mr. Ahmed recalled the 1998 operation, when about 25 children were rescued from hotels, their parents traced and reunited with their long lost wards. Yet, the ground reality tells a different tale. The racket apparently thrives. Over the years, the brokers' network has mastered the art of smooth talk and duplicity. ``These men,'' explained Ramesh Babu, a street contact person, ``come to the railway platform as passengers or visitors. The children, particularly the new ones, who land up for the first time, are usually hungry and dazed. They fall easy victims to the lure of job and money.'' Once caught, the endless ordeal shatters the child. ``The children are made to work for hours together for about three to four months. Salaries are rarely paid. Torture tactics such as pouring hot water on their body and physical assaults are frequent,'' said Babu. The more enterprising ones manage to run away for a life back on the streets. The freedom beckons them.

Eleven-year-old Dastagiri has seen it all since he arrived in Gandhinagar eight years ago. Long used to the tough life on the street, the articulate teenager explained: ``The brokers make tall promises. I was once approached with an offer of Rs. 800 as monthly salary. But, I know, all of them are lying. They just trap you for months and dump you when your hands turn grimy and swollen doing all that cleaning job.''

With the setting up of two child rescue booths, one at the KSRTC bus stand and the other at the railway platform 5, it was hoped the brokers would make a hasty retreat. But the brokers knew better.However, the booth staff had their tales of success. ``Three weeks ago, a broker was hurrying to a hotel with four children. A booth staff intercepted them and managed to rescue all the kids,'' recalled Fr. Varghese Koottungal from Bosco. Such success stories, though rare, had dented the brokers' pride. But they knew they could compensate the very next day with more children.

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