Seven women charged by the police in the alleged child sex racket in Yadadri town have approached the High Court seeking permission to meet the children who were forcibly removed from their custody, claiming that the children were their own or wards kept in their custody by relatives and friends.
The petitioners included a man too whose sister’s daughter has been taken away, and wife sent to jail.
A total of 26 women were arrested in July this year on the charges of child trafficking, child rape and others, and 33 children in their care were sent to the State-run shelter home in Nalgonda and Prajwala home for the trafficking survivors in Amangal.
In a lengthy petition submitted to the High Court, the petitioners, all from ‘Dommera’ nomadic caste and represented by Kamsani Rajeswari, explained the circumstances in which they resorted to sex work, and how they came to be the custodians of the said children.
Sexually exploited
Traditionally performing rope tricks, the Dommera women have been sexually exploited by the upper caste and wealthy men in the temple town, which has led to sex work becoming their mainstay for generations, the petition said. Subsequently, they became the target of exploitation by pilgrims to the temple town, and others.
During the last 20 years, many women and men have fallen victim to HIV/AIDS, leaving many orphaned children in the custody of relatives and occasionally, in custody of any concerned friend/stranger. Flesh trade has come down owing to HIV scare and the women have made transition to other occupations, yet are being subject to the social stigma associated with the caste, the petition said.
During the police swoop down in July this year, the petitioners said they pleaded with the police trying to explain, but all in vain. They were made to sign the confession statements and the children, all of whom were at schools, were shifted to shelters. Their houses were seized sending their families helter skelter.
Four months later, the women obtained bail and sought to visit the children at Shishu Vihar of Nalgonda, and Prajwala shelter home at Amangal.
While the visits were allowed at the former, the petitioners alleged, they had not been allowed at Prajwala home.
Asked to move court
Detailing case by case about how the children came to be in their custody, the petitioners said even where biological motherhood was proven, the police refused to hand over the child, asking the mother to seek permission from court. Even birth certificates, wherever produced, were torn by the police, they alleged. According to the petition, in most cases where the child in question was not the custodian’s own, she belonged to a relative who died of or suffered from HIV/AIDS. In some cases, the children were reportedly handed over to them by other sex workers also suffering from the disease.
The petitioners also sought to implead them in the ongoing case. Photographs and Aadhar details of the children were appended to the petition.