US embassy cable - 04CALCUTTA427

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, Human Rights 
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