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Child trafficking case goes to social justice bench

Trivandrum - Trafficking by two orphanages in Kerala came to light after the railway police intercepted more than 500 children from the north and north eastern states.

The Supreme Court on Friday referred an appeal filed by two orphanages in Kerala against the high court verdict ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the child trafficking case to a social justice bench.
The bench was constituted by the apex court in December last year to consider cases concerning social issues, especially those pertaining to women and children and marginalised sections of the society.
The trafficking came to light after the railway police intercepted more than 500 children from the north and north eastern states at Palghat railway station more than a year ago.
The orphanages at Mukkam in Calicut and Vettathur in Malappuram district challenged the court order stating that it was issued without considering the explanations given by the governments of Jharkhand and West Bengal that the incident could not be termed child trafficking.
The appeal pointed out that the high court had not even considered the Kerala government's stand on the issue.
The petitioners said that the state government did not consider the transportation of children from other states as child trafficking and it was not in favour of handing over the probe to the federal agency. The high court had ordered the CBI probe in July this year on a batch of petitions filed by NGOs, who alleged that the children were brought by the orphanages without proper documents and in violation of the concerned laws.
They sought the intervention of the high court to stop such incidents in future.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan and AM Shaffique described child trafficking as a menace which has to be combated by all concerned and directed that no child homes or orphanages shall receive children from outside the state, except in accordance with law. Following the high court verdict, the CBI registered two cases against four persons for trafficking 579 children aged between five and 13 from Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal to Kerala. The children were detained at the Palghat railway station on May 24, 2014 and handed over to the child welfare committee.
The issue had snowballed into a major controversy in the state with Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second largest constituent of the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), objecting the treatment of the incident as a case of child trafficking.
Orphanages that mushroomed in Kerala in the wake of the surge in migration to foreign countries have been finding it difficult to get enough children from the state due to steady fall in fertility rates and the subsequent emergence of nuclear families.
According to government records, there are 1,387 destitute homes in Kerala. Of which only 87 are licensed. They have capacity to accommodate around 54,000 children. Most of the orphanages have been depending on children from other states to fill the seats.
The investigation by the State Crime Branch revealed that the children were brought from impoverished regions in the country to keep the flow of funds the orphanages getting from abroad, especially the Middle East. The probe showed that a well-organised racket was regularly supplying children to the orphanages in the state.
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