VZCZCXRO1497
OO RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHNE #3015/01 3331150
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 281150Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4425
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI IMMEDIATE 2944

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NEW DELHI 003015 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
PLEASE PASS TO G/TIP OFFICE. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB IN KCOR KCRM KFRD KWMN PGOV PHUM SOCI
SUBJECT: NAGPUR'S SEX TRADE AND CHILD LABOR: CHALLENGES 
REMAIN DESPITE GOVERNMENT AND NGO EFFORTS 
 
NEW DELHI 00003015  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary. The Department's Office to Monitor and 
Combat Trafficking in Persons Gayatri Patel and poloffs met 
NGO workers, government officials, and trafficking victims in 
Nagpur, and found there is no consensus on the prevalence of 
trafficking in persons.  Law enforcement remains weak since 
police show little interest in tackling prostitution, which 
they view as involving women who are willing participants due 
to economic necessity.  The prosecutor's office reported 
little success in prosecuting cases, attributing this to many 
hurdles.  Nagpur lacks a robust organized civil society to 
address the trafficking issue.  Some organizations, however, 
seem to be making inroads into tackling child labor and sex 
trafficking. End Summary. 
 
Nagpur's Sex Trade and Child Labor: Police Lack Sensitivity 
------------- 
 
¶2. (U) During an October 14-15 visit to the eastern 
Maharashtra city of Nagpur, Gayatri Patel, of the Trafficking 
in Persons Office, the Embassy global affairs chief and 
congenoffs met police, prosecutors, and civil society groups 
to gauge the level of trafficking in persons in that part of 
the state.  Anup Kumar Sinh, Additional Commissioner of 
Police, Crime of the Nagpur police believed Nagpur's red 
light district, Ganga-Jamuna, has at most between 250-300 sex 
workers.  He said he had conversations with many sex workers, 
during a previous posting in Thane near Mumbai, and concluded 
that sex workers were willing participants in the trade for 
economic reasons. In his view, all big cities have women who 
willingly enter prostitution because of the lack of alternate 
livelihoods.  He said minors comprised only 10 percent of the 
trade.  Sinh believed there would always be demand for 
prostitutes and a willing supply of sex workers so long as 
there was poverty. In Nagpur, the trade is plied in massage 
parlors in the back of barber shops, in bus and railway 
stations, markets, truck stops, and in the red-light 
district.  The women included those from a caste whose 
traditional trade is prostitution, widows, wives forced out 
of their homes by their husbands, or recent arrivals from 
Mumbai when dance bars were closed down, according to Sinh. 
Sinh said organized crime is not involved, as evidenced by 
the fact that the madams or pimps do not live well. 
 
¶3. (U) Sinh stressed the police conduct raids.  However, he 
said Indian law does not differentiate between willing and 
unwilling sex workers, unless minor females are involved. 
When Patel pointed out the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act 
outlined the difference, Sinh replied it is the victim's 
responsibility to come to the police and tell them that they 
have been forced to engage in prostitution.  He emphasized, 
however, that he believed the women working in Ganga-Jamuna 
were all willing.  Sinh admitted trafficking crimes often 
become neglected because the police are spread thin.  In 
addition, witnesses frequently refuse to testify against 
traffickers.  No formal system for witness protection exists, 
although the police provide protection when requested.  Sinh 
said the government has been prosecuting eight cases, 
involving eight males and 42 females, as of September 2008 
under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act.  Ten percent 
of the victims are minors. 
 
Legal System Sensitized but Challenged 
------------ 
 
¶4. (U) P.K. Sathiaanathan, District Public Prosecutor in 
Nagpur showed greater interest in tackling the problem of 
trafficking. Since Nagpur is not a trafficking center, he 
said most prosecutions arise from the Ganga-Jamuna red-light 
district. Sathiaanathan acknowledged there were charges filed 
in only 16 trafficking cases in 2007, some of which may have 
been against the female sex worker.  Obtaining a conviction 
can take up to six years. In the 87 cases registered since 
2000, only five cases went to trial and none ended in 
conviction. (Note:  Media reported a mass raid in September 
2007 that supposedly rounded up 75 sex workers, at least 10 
of whom were minors.  No traffickers were reportedly arrested 
in that operation. End Note.) According to Sathiaanathan, 
prostitution cases are generally viewed as less important 
than other cases on the docket.  There are no organized crime 
cases in the prosecutor's office, consistent with Additional 
Commissioner Sinh's assessment that there is no organized 
crime involved in the sex trade in Nagpur. Sathiaanathan 
noted the accused, usually charged under Section 3 and 4 of 
Immoral Traffic Prevention Act, are entitled to bail as a 
matter of right and often abscond as soon as they are 
released.  He said the police fail to investigate cases 
quickly or examine whether an arrestee is a repeat offender. 
 
 
NEW DELHI 00003015  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶5. (U) Witnesses are often reluctant to testify often because 
they are bribed or fear for their safety, making convictions 
even more difficult to obtain.  Sathiaanathan acknowledged 
pimps often send agents posing as "parents" to post bail for 
the women so that they can be pressured not to testify or 
moved to where the court cannot find them.  No specific 
witness protection system exists, but police give protection 
in very serious crimes.  Asked for recommendations to improve 
the conviction rate, Sathiaanathan suggested creating 
anti-trafficking units within police forces, special 
"fast-track" courts to handle trafficking cases, raising 
punishments, making trafficking offenses non-bailable, 
expanding the number of police officers who with the 
authority to initiate raids, and developing a witness/victim 
protection program.  He further emphasized that NGO 
involvement and support was often critical to successful 
convictions. 
 
The Department of Women and Children's Development's 
Commendable Efforts 
--------------- 
 
¶6. (U) Other government officials showed admirable efforts in 
combating trafficking.  The U.S. team spoke with Ravi Patil, 
an official with the Department of Women and Children's 
Development (DWCD).  Patil stated Nagpur, unlike Mumbai, 
largely serves as a transit point because of its central 
location.  He estimated about 25,000 established sex workers 
in the Nagpur area.  Surveying the number of sex workers is 
difficult because venues, apart from the historic red light 
district, shift.  Patil explained massage parlors often serve 
as conduits for prostitution.  The parlors give legitimate 
massages, but a customer who likes a particular woman can go 
to another location where the sex takes place.  Patil said 
many women from Nepal and Bangladesh transit through the 
district.  In Nagpur there are no reports of prostitutes 
being addicted to illegal narcotics, although some become 
addicted to chewing tobacco. 
 
¶7. (U) Patil emphasized the greater challenges Nagpur faces 
of accommodating and rehabilitating victims after rescue 
efforts since the city lacks the scope and expertise of NGOs 
that exist in larger cities like Mumbai.  Opening a home or 
shelter, Patil stated, requires certificates from both the 
central and state governments. There are also other rules to 
comply with such as minimum space per occupant.  An NGO that 
takes custody of an individual must obtain authorization from 
the government.  Officials at the district-level and local 
co-management committees conduct regular inspections of 
shelters.  Patil underscored the greatest challenge in 
effectively combating trafficking is sensitizing all 
stakeholders. 
 
¶8. (U) The DWCD runs a short-term shelter for victims of 
trafficking. Due to lack of funds, the shelter is combined 
with a home for severely mentally handicapped women.  The 
home, technically for adults, was sheltering four minors, 
each of whom said they started in the sex trade at the age of 
¶13. Although they stated they were 15 to 17 years old, they 
looked younger.  The shelter works to repatriate girls to 
their villages wherever feasible, but often it would not be 
safe for them to return home since their parents are the ones 
who sold them into the sex trade.  The girls were members of 
the particular clan/caste which sees prostitution as the 
profession of the women in the caste. They were rescued 
during a raid on Ganga Jamuna brothels.  Nagpur does not have 
a shelter specifically for minor girls rescued from sex work, 
who are usually sent to other parts of the state for 
continued care.  According to Mrs. Sarupam, the 
superintendent of the DWCD home, the temporary shelter 
receives nine to ten girls per month, but on average has only 
five or six on any given day.  Admissions to shelters have 
increased since 2003, and there is more focus on counseling. 
 
¶9. (U) Lamenting the insufficient funds for rehabilitation 
programs, Patil stressed the danger of re-trafficking in the 
absence of genuine rehabilitation.  He noted that, with four 
different overseeing organizations, it is difficult for any 
organization to qualify to open a new shelter. 
Rehabilitation is made more arduous because many of the girls 
who have never had any education do not see how studying 
would ever benefit them.  They recognize the sex trade pays 
better than other jobs they are qualified to fill (100-200 
rupees per day). The State of Maharashtra is expecting to 
implement a new plan on anti-trafficking in February 2009. 
The state also plans to establish eight additional shelters 
within the next eighteen months. 
 
 
NEW DELHI 00003015  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶10. (U) The team also observed proceedings conducted by the 
Child Welfare Committee, a semi-judicial body constituted 
under the Juvenile Justice Act 2000.  The six-member 
committee included a doctor, attorneys, and concerned 
citizens. Members methodically examined files and people to 
determine the best decision for a child. 
 
As Are Those of Other NGO Efforts 
------------- 
 
¶11. (U) Rajiv Thorat runs an NGO called Indian Social Service 
Unity of Education (ISSUE), which tackles children's welfare 
issues from various angles. ISSUE has 35 staff members and 
two field offices.  Working with Save the Children of Canada, 
ISSUE has attacked child labor in one slum pocket of north 
Nagpur, going house-to-house finding children involved in the 
making of incense sticks and encouraging the parents to send 
the children to school, helping to pay for books and uniforms 
for the children, providing tutoring to help the children 
catch up to their age appropriate level, offering preschools 
to keep toddlers away from the coal dust and other toxic 
chemicals used by the mothers in their home-based piece work. 
 ISSUE also teaches school children in 7th-9th grade about 
child labor and how to identify where it is occurring.  In 
the past three years, ISSUE has supported 124 children. 
 
¶12. (U) In spite the government's efforts, Thorat said child 
labor persists in construction, agriculture, rag picking, 
roadside mechanic shops, domestic work, and roadside 
eateries. Thorat criticized the GOI's 2006 law against 
domestic child labor as ineffective because it was seriously 
under funded.  According to him, children are working in 
stone crushing operations in the mines, often placing 
explosives in the tiny holes drilled into the rock to break 
it loose.  Some children have been seriously injured and died 
from explosions.   Although state roadway contracts require 
contractors not to use child labor, site supervisors look the 
other way, according to Thorat. He also said mothers often 
take girls as young as 10 years old to join them in work as 
domestics.  He believes the police are not sensitized to the 
issue of child labor, while New Delhi does not believe the 
Vidarbha region (of which Nagpur belongs) has a serious child 
labor problem.  He noted that Nagpur and its environs do not 
suffer from bonded labor.  The child labor found at quarries 
is connected to entire families who live there and work on 
contracts.  Thorat said he was not aware of any trafficking 
of children for the sex trade but reported that many children 
who run away from home may end up in brothels when they go to 
big cities. 
 
¶13. (U) Daniel and Lila Yeso run an NGO called Sharansthan, 
which means "place of refuge" in the Ganga-Jamuna, Nagpur's 
red-light district. They shelter as many as 85 children of 
prostitutes, helping them with their studies and encouraging 
them to aspire beyond their mothers' profession as 
prostitutes.  The Yesos estimated Ganga Jamuna area to 
consist of 2500-3000 women, many of whom were born to 
prostitutes and were either sold to traffickers by their 
parents or were claimed as property of the pimps who control 
their mothers.  The couple report girls as young as 12 years 
old are sold by their parents for as much as 60,000 rupees 
($1,265 USD) and thaT the trafficker who purchases the girl 
could auction her virginity off to a client for up to 40,000 
rupees.  All types of people-doctors, lawyers, 
pilots-patronize the red-light district.  Although Additional 
Commissioner of Police Sinh claimed only ten percent of 
Nagpur's sex trade involved minors, the Yesos' believed that 
almost all of the prostitutes started when they were minors. 
The Yesos obtain good cooperation from high-level police 
officers but note the majority of the police force remain 
corrupt and involved in prostitution--i.e., sell girls back, 
tip-off brothel owners before raids, catch and release 
traffickers.  The Yesos, funded by a US Church Assemblies of 
God, report a constant struggle to identify funding to 
continue their efforts. 
 
Comment 
--------- 
 
¶14. (SBU) There is no consensus on the prevalence of 
trafficking in persons in Nagpur, Maharashtra.  Estimates 
ranged from 250 to 25,000 girls and women involved in the sex 
trade in the city of two million people.  Police showed 
little interest in tackling the problem, finding the women 
involved in the trade willing participants due to economic 
necessity.  The prosecutor's office reports very little 
success in prosecuting cases, with a back log that grows 
annually.  Though Mumbai has made great strides in tackling 
 
NEW DELHI 00003015  004 OF 004 
 
 
the trafficking challenge, Nagpur lacks a robust organized 
civil society to address the issue.  Nevertheless, some 
organizations seem to be making inroads into tackling child 
labor and sex trafficking. 
 
¶15. (U) This cable was drafted by Consulate General Mumbai 
and cleared with Ms. Patel. 
WHITE