Tribal girls used to breed infants for adoption, and in India's national Capital New Delhi

Maid to suffer in absence of law3 Sep 2007 NEW DELHI: The TV expose of a baby-selling racket run by a placement agency in northwest Delhi has once again revealed the vulnerability of young women who come to Delhi in search of their livelihood as domestic maids and end up being exploited. The agency was getting women from Jharkhand and West Bengal — many of them minors — and forcing them to conceive, thereafter selling the babies to childless couples. There are efforts in various quarters to give these women some semblance of rights to prevent such incidents from happening but social activists and women's organisations feel that in the absence of set guidelines for dealing with such crimes, the efforts often go waste. The National Commission for Women has finally woken up to the problem and claims to be drafting a set of recommendations for the purpose. ''Next week we will be presenting our recommendations for a special law for domestic workers in Delhi,'' said NCW law officer Yogesh Mehta. The law would take its own time in coming and till then the sheer bizarreness of such crimes may leave the enforcement agencies at a disadvantage. The placement agency owners have been charged with kidnapping, unlawful restraining and rape. Calling the incident an instance of the worst kind of exploitation, Christian Human Rights activist Dr. John Dayal, said: ''This is as bizarre as 'puppy farming'. Young girls being made to breed human beings for sale is a horrific thought. Where does one draw the line?'' Most of these girls are young and uneducated. They are at complete mercy of the placement agents who get them to the city from their villages or ''take charge'' right from the time these women get down from trains only to find agents waiting at the station to pounce on them. In search of a living to get away from the poverty, the girls get caught in the net and with constant fear of being further victimised if they talk about their travails, theirs become cursed existences. Dayal stresses, ''Domestic workers should be included under the unorganised labour Act. Apart from just 'verification', police should also take responsibility for the safety of people who come to work as domestic helps and the government should form a body that pays regular visits to the placement agencies and compiles a database on women who are being placed as domestic helps.''
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