“Very serious matter,” says CJI; girls force employed in massage parlours: PIL

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday termed “very serious” the forced employment of minor girls in orchestras, mainly in Bihar and West Bengal, and massage parlours, in Delhi and Rajasthan, and their subsequent sexual exploitation and trafficking and sought comprehensive responses from the governments on steps to protect them.

Appearing for NGO ‘Just Rights for Children Alliance’, senior advocate H S Phoolka told a bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi that girls aged between 10-16 are force employed in orchestras, spas and massage parlours to settle debts of their parents and are subsequently sexually exploited and trafficked in blatant breach of Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, which prohibits their employment in hazardous industry.

To step around the law, several sectors – orchestra, dance bars, dance troupes, nautanki performances, massage parlours, spas and salons, which remain unlisted in the hazardous category - have evolved over the years to become organized industries of child trafficking, sexual exploitation and abuse, Phoolka said. The bench also issued notices to NCPR and NHRC.

The NGO said in the March-December period last year, over 200 minors were rescued from various locations in Bihar and West Bengal from the orchestra, dance troupe and nautanki groups, while a dozen more were rescued from massage parlours and spas in Delhi and Rajasthan.

“Children, often between 10 and 16 years of age, are lured and recruited from impoverished, tribal, and marginalized communities through deception and promises of employment, glamour, dance training, marriage, or economic upliftment,” it said.

“These children are trafficked across districts, states, and international borders, confined in overcrowded and insanitary conditions, deprived of education and freedom of movement, and coerced into forced labour, sexually explicit performances, and commercial sexual exploitation, constituting a blatant and brazen violation of their constitutional and fundamental rights,” it said.

The NGO said the orchestra and nautanki groups, originally conceived as indigenous cultural entertainment at weddings and social gatherings, now operate in a near-total regulatory vacuum, enabling organised criminal networks to flourish with effective impunity.

It said, “Minor girls, predominantly from impoverished, migrant, tribal, and marginalized communities, are systematically deceived and lured through false promises of employment, glamour, artistic exposure, or marriage. In numerous cases, families are themselves deceived or financially coerced into surrendering their children under conditions of acute economic distress and vulnerability.”

“Girls as young as 12 years of age are consequently trafficked, purchased for nominal sums, transported across district and state borders, and sold onward to orchestra operators, generating substantial criminal profits for traffickers and operators alike,” it said.

Narrating the plight of the entrapped girls, the NGO said these minors are subjected to forced performances in sexually provocative attires, compelled to dance to obscene music before intoxicated audiences, and exposed to extreme violence, including molestation, rape, intimidation, and, at times, violence using weapons.