NEW DELHI, July 30 - The Congress party today castigated the right-wing Sangh Parivar for its alleged involvement in trafficking of 31 young tribal girls from Assam to Punjab and Gujarat under the garb of better education. AICC spokespersons Priyanka Chaturvedi and Shobha Oza alleged in a statement that three Sangh Parivar affiliates � Rashtra Sevika Samiti, Vidya Bharti and Sewa Bharti � stand exposed.
They alleged that a detailed investigation and documentary evidence unflinchingly establishes as to how the Sangh Parivar-affiliates flouted Indian and international laws on child rights to traffic 31 young tribal girls from Assam to Punjab and Gujarat to �indoctrinate� them.
The AICC spokespersons were referring to an investigative piece published by CobraPost on trafficking of children belonging to the Adivasi and Bodo communities.
The AICC alleged that orders to return these children to Assam � including those from the Assam State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, the Child Welfare Committee, Kokrajhar, the State Child Protection Society, and Childline, Delhi and Patiala � were violated with impunity.
According to the AICC leaders, on June 9, 2015, altogether 31 tribal girls, aged between 3 and 11 years, from five border districts of Assam, including Kokrajhar, Goalpara, Dhubri, Chirang and Bongaigaon, were taken to Delhi on the Poorvottar Sampark Kranti Express. Two days later, on June 11, these 31 girls, travelling with Rashtra Sevika Samiti Pracharika, Sandhya, were rescued by Childline, Delhi. They are taken to the Paharganj Police Station. But the girls were still sent off to their eventual destinations allegedly on dubious orders.
The Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights termed it as �child trafficking� and in contravention of The Juvenile Justice Act, 2000. The Commission directed the Assam Police and others to bring back the 31 children to Assam.
On June 18, Member-Secretary, State Child Protection Society, Assam, Kumud Kalita, IAS, reportedly wrote to the CWC, Kokrajhar and Gossaigaon, informing them that although Childline, Delhi rescued the 31 girls with the help of police, some powerful organisation still managed to take them to the destinations in Gujarat and Punjab.
