Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04CALCUTTA427
2004-10-28 12:46:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Consulate Kolkata
Cable title:  

U.S.-FUNDED NGO TARGETED IN COURT

Tags:  PHUM PGOV KCRM KWMN EAID IN 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CALCUTTA 000427 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR G/TIP SALLY NEUMANN AND MARK TAYLOR
NEW DELHI FOR INL OFFICE AND USAID

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KCRM KWMN EAID IN
SUBJECT: U.S.-FUNDED NGO TARGETED IN COURT


UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CALCUTTA 000427

SIPDIS

STATE FOR G/TIP SALLY NEUMANN AND MARK TAYLOR
NEW DELHI FOR INL OFFICE AND USAID

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KCRM KWMN EAID IN
SUBJECT: U.S.-FUNDED NGO TARGETED IN COURT



1. SUMMARY. The Indian Supreme Court has issued a notice to
the West Bengal Government on a petition alleging that the NGO
Sanlaap, in collusion with the police, has been running a racket
to exploit minor girls as a means to obtain foreign donor
funding, according to an October 28 report in the Hindustan
Times. The USG has provided funding to Sanlaap for several
years to assist it with rescue and rehabilitation of victims of
trafficking. We have strong reason to believe that the case is
without merit and has been filed simply as a means to discredit
Sanlaap but, given the USG involvement, we will follow
developments closely as they develop. END SUMMARY.


2. The Calcutta edition of the October 28 Hindustan Times
supplement, "HT Kolkata Live," filed a report alleging
impropriety on the part of the anti-trafficking NGO, Sanlaap.
In discussion with ConGen FSN, the author admitted that he had
not researched the facts of the case but was only presenting the
allegations raised by the plaintiff in the court case. The case
alleges that Sanlaap has been collecting "only beautiful minor
girls" in collusion with the police who first accuse "poor and
illiterate women" of indulging in prostitution and then use this
to remove their daughters from them in order to hand the minor
girls over to Sanlaap's custody. The article alleges that
Sanlaap receives money from foreign donors based on the number
of girls it has in custody. Simla Singh filed the petition
claiming that she had been separated from her minor daughter
Juhi after the police arrested Singh allegedly in a false case
and handed Juhi over to Sanlaap. According to the petition, the
home was only intended to have temporary custody for one month,
but Juhi was kept at the Sanlaap for over a year in an "uncared"
condition and her education discontinued. Other Calcutta
dailies also carried the item in lesser detail.


3. According to press reports, and confirmed by the police and
Sanlaap, Simla Singh and Juhi were picked up from the Calcutta
red light district Sonagachi in 2003 by the city police's
immoral trafficking section and Simla was charged under Section
373 of the Indian Penal Code for keeping Juhi for the purpose of

prostitution. The two were produced before the Additional Chief
Metropolitan Magistrate who, in response to petition by Sanlaap,
gave the NGO custody of the child. In fact, according to
Sanlaap, the police specifically asked the NGO to file this
petition as Sanlaap runs a home under the government's "Swadhar"
scheme for rescued victims of trafficking. In July 2004, Singh
appealed against the order but her plea for restoration of the
daughter's custody to the mother (and reportedly that of another
woman claiming to be the girl's mother) was turned down. The
basis of the refusal was a 1997 Supreme Court ruling that there
should be no children in red light areas and that they should be
rescued and kept either in a state-run rescue center or in the
care of a well-established NGO, such as Sanlaap. Singh then
moved the case to the apex court.


4. Police contacts say the State Home Secretary, to whom the
notice was reportedly issued, has not yet approached them. The
Director of Sanlaap also said that she had not yet heard
anything directly from the legal authorities. Both said that
Singh was not a "simple housewife" as she claimed but rather a
married woman living in two rooms inside an "upmarket" brothel
(owned by someone else) and dealing in young girls. According
to Sanlaap, Singh belongs to the "Agrawali" community (from
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh) that culturally
practice prostitution. The recent trend, she said, is that they
buy almost newborn children and bring them up in their tradition
for supply to brothels. The Sanlaap Director acknowledged that
Juhi, who is ten years old, had probably not yet been
prostituted at the time of her rescue. Sanlaap also has three
Agrawali sisters in its care, one of which is the biological
daughter of the sex worker from whose premises the three were
rescued, while the other two were "adopted." Unlike in Delhi
and Mumbai, the Calcutta police never carry out random raids on
red light areas to look for minors, but only act with prior
information -- an approach that local antitrafficking NGOs,
including Sanlaap, have been trying to change.


5. COMMENT. The news item is an unresearched story sourced
only to the allegations made in the court case. Sanlaap is
Calcutta's lead NGO actively pursuing the rescue of minors in
the city's red light areas, thereby drawing the ire of those
whose income depends on the trafficking and sexual exploitation
of children. For these reasons, we believe that the court case
is probably without merit and the newspaper story yet another
attempt to inhibit and impede Sanlaap's activities. One
element, at least, is completely erroneous: USG funding for
Sanlaap has been project based and is not connected directly to
the number of girls in Sanlaap's custody. However, while
skeptical about the credibility of the allegations against
Sanlaap, Post cannot completely rule out the possibility that
some parts of the case may have merit, or that the Supreme Court
may eventually rule for the plaintiff. In Calcutta, as
elsewhere in India, the wheels of justice tend to turn slowly.
Given the USG involvement with this organization, we will
monitor the case closely and report accordingly.

SIBLEY