Hindu Kids for sale: 9 yr olds@Rs 8,000

03-29-2006, 06:38 PM

Hindu Kids up for sale: 9 yr olds@Rs 8,000
Pawan Bali
CNN-IBN

Posted Tuesday , March 28, 2006 at 13:19
Updated Tuesday , March 28, 2006 at 15:14

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WHAT AM I WORTH?: Kids are being sold in Talwara migrant camp (J&K ) by their
poverty stricken parents.

Talwara (J& K): Rs 8,000 for a nine year old, Rs 10,000 for a 13 year old
and if you can afford a little more money, you might just be able to strike a
deal at Rs 15,000 for a grown-up teenager.

These are the prices parents in the Talwara migrant camp in Jammu and Kashmir
are demanding for their children.

Krishna Devi has sold her three daughters for Rs 20,000. The girls are now
working as labourers and household maids. When we asked her what made her take
the step, she says it was poverty.

"I have sold my daughters. What could have I done? We needed money. It’s been
eight years now and we have not been able to repay that money and get our
children back. My husband works as a labourer, but the money he earns is hardly
enough to feed my other two children," a resident of the Talwara migrant camp,
Krishna Devi, says

The Talwara camp comprises of over 640 families who have migrated from Doda,
Poonch-Rajouri because of militant attacks. Those already staying in the camp
say over 200 children from the camp have either been sold or mortgaged for a few
thousand rupees. Some of those who were taken outside the state have not even
returned.

"It was a deal of Rs 8,000, but we never got the money after working for a
month and seven days. My son’s dead body was found as they had killed him,"
another camp resident, Tichoo Devi, who had also sold her son, adds.

When the CNN-IBN team questioned local officials about the issue of the
children being sold, they denied such a situation. But the ground reality as was
witnessed by the team was very different and never near to the situation
projected by the offficials.

The children in these migrant camps have a difficult option, but it is even
more difficult for their parents. To bring up one child, the other has to be
sold. And it is the cruel curse of poverty that's putting the young lives at
stake.

Saving children only to sell them

Statesman News Service

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.new...ss=1&id=111080

Jammu, March 28. — Hundreds of Hindu migrants who ran away to towns in Jammu
from various parts of terrorist-infested Doda and Udhampur are now selling their
children to make both ends meet.

In the past few years, hundreds of villagers left the hills of Udhampur and Doda
Districts to fetch up in such towns as Reasi and Talwara to avoid being
victimised by terrorists who had unleashed a reign of terror in the area. They
savagely killed innocent people living in remote areas, forcing others into
fleeing their homes. Many of the migrants who later found themselves in
Talwara’s colony in Reasi tehsil of Udhampur District were now said to be
reduced to penury as government assistance was conspicuous by its absence.

Talwara’s camp houses more than 640 families who say that 200 children who had
been living there were either sold or hired out for a few thousand rupees. Some
children taken outside the state have not returned.
It was the Jammu and Kashmir Panthers Party legislator, Mr Balwant Singh
Mankotia, representing Udhampur, who made the sensational charge yesterday,
giving the Assembly a list of 14 sold-off children. The House was in an uproar
today as well, the Panthers demanding a statement by the government.

In the camp, Kiso Devi said that she had sold her 12-year-old son Joginder for
only Rs 8,000. Joginder died two months after that. Karam Chand, a physically
challenged labourer, sold his son for only Rs 1,000. He regrets having done so
but makes it clear that he had no options. Krishna Devi sold her three daughters
— labourers and domestics now — for Rs 20,000.
Her husband works all right but is, euphemistically speaking, paid
inadequately. In Reasi alone, there are more than 5,000 migrants. Till 2004,
they used to get their food from the state government. Now, to avoid having to
starve, they sell their children.

The Assembly Speaker today directed Udhampur’s deputy commissioner to visit
Talwara for an assessment which the House would hear.

About Kashmiri Pandits
http://www.kashmiri-pandit.org
http://www.panunkashmir.org
http://www.koausa.org
http://www.hinduhumanrights.org

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