NCW says girls being forced into prostitution in numerous districts of Rajasthan

Rajasthan had emerged both as a source and a destination for the trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation and prostitution, the NCW said in a report submitted by a two-member fact-finding committee

The National Commission for Women (NCW) on Friday said that young girls were being forced into prostitutions in numerous districts of Rajasthan like Bhilwara and Bharatpur and asked the Centre to constitute a Special Investigative Team (SIT) to investigate the matter further.

Rajasthan had emerged both as a source and a destination for the trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation and prostitution, the NCW said in a report submitted by a two-member fact-finding committee.

The fact-finding committee had been formed after the commission took cognizance of the media report that in the Rajasthan area of Bhilwara, conflicts over loan repayments were purportedly resolved by auctioning off young women on stamp papers.

It has been reported that in many settlements, girls are sold into prostitution on stamp paper. In some cases, their mothers are raped on the diktat of ‘khap’ (caste) panchayats for the settlement of disputes.

According to the report, there is enough evidence to conclude that young girls are being forced into prostitution in numerous districts of Rajasthan, including Sawai Madhopur, Bhilwara, and Bharatpur, with highway sides being the most common locations.

The NCW team also claimed that it has discovered that family registrations at Kanjar Basti and Pander villages in Bhilwara district, which were supposed to be updated, were deficient in key details about the families residing there. “Girls making up to be married off or residing with any distant relative were not on record,” said the report