Child sex trade rising, but police records clean

KOCHI: Sex slavery and forced prostitution are nothing new in the state. Despite being the most literate state, children have always been the easy target of flesh trade, prove recent incidents.Ironically, the records available with the police show that no such    incidents of trading children for money have been reported in the state for the last three years.In the figures published by the Kerala police on crime against children, the cases of children sold for prostitution during the last three years is given  as ‘nil’. Even when atrocities against children have increased substantially  over the years, the police have not filed any case for trading children for  money.There is enough evidence to prove that children are forced into prostitution just for money.In a few cases reported after June this year, girls were directly sold to the agents. A minor girl was sexually abused by a number of people for over one year with the support of her father at Kothamangalam. In another case, a minor girl was allegedly sold by her parents to an agent, Shobha John, reportedly in exchange of Rs 1 lakh at Varapuzha near here."There are several such cases. In many cases, it is the parents who force  their children into prostitution. These cases are not reported anywhere. We have rescued such children after conducting counselling in the schools. The atrocities against children are on the rise and some action must be initiated in this regard,” Mahila Samakaya assistant director Ramadevi said.However, state police chief Jacob Punnoose said the figure was given as ‘nil’ in the statistics because the police had not reported any case in  which a girl was directly sold for prostitution. “We have exposed many cases, but in most of them the girls were not directly sold by parents for prostitution,” he said.Giving a divergent view, Kerala Vanitha Commission chairperson D Sreedevi claimed that the Commission had handled more than five cases every month in  which girls were sold for prostitution. “We go through many such cases.  Recently, we got a case in which a father was found forcing two minor girls into prostitution. It is horrible that such cases are not reported by the police,”  Sreedevi said.