US embassy cable - 05NEWDELHI9088

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 NEW DELHI 009088 
 
SIPDIS 
 
UNCLASSIFIED 
 
SIPDIS 
 
G/TIP FOR MARK TAYLOR AND SALLY NEUMANN; SA/INS FOR JENELLE 
KRISHNAMOORTHY; SA/RA FOR LINDA LEE; DRL/IL FOR JDEMARIA 
DEPT OF LABOR FOR ILAB - MARK MITTELHAUSER 
 
E.O. 12589: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM, PHUM, KWMN, SOCI, OTRA, PREL, SMIG, BG, Child Labor 
SUBJECT: TIP TIDBITS - CHILD LABOR, FEMALE FETICIDE, CHILD 
MARRIAGE & FAST TRACKED COURTS 
 
1. (U) The following describes a variety of news reports and 
GOI actions on child labor, female feticide and child 
marriage that we have been following over the past few 
weeks. 
 
LARGEST RAID IN DELHI HISTORY 
---------------------------- 
 
2. (U) On November 21, "The Hindu" reported in their morning 
paper that the Delhi State Labor Department, the Delhi 
Police and the NGO Pratham planned to undertake the "biggest 
ever operation against child labor."  The plan was to rescue 
hundreds of children working in zari (a type of embroidery 
common to Indian garments that threads fine gold or silver 
wire into fabrics) factories, and the government had short- 
stay facilities identified for 2,000 children just in case. 
Despite the fact that the newspaper had thereby warned every 
factory owner of the upcoming raid, the GOI still was able 
to rescue 477 children between the ages of five and fourteen 
from a variety of Delhi sweatshops.  The operation began 
around noon, and Ravi Kant from the NGO Shakti Vahini told 
post that the zari owners tipped off one another throughout 
the day and fled the scene.  In many cases the owners told 
the children to keep quiet and/or sent them home.  Ravi 
reported that, "A zari unit was operating from the first 
floor of a school building. The unit owner had school 
identity cards issued to the children to show them as 
students. In another unit we found that several children had 
been hidden under heaps of quilts, while scores were sent to 
parks in the area to evade detection." 
 
3. (U) According to M. Rajan, the managing trustee of 
Pratham, the children were rescued from horrible conditions. 
They worked in small, poorly ventilated and badly lit rooms. 
Most children worked for more than 10 hours a day.  Despite 
the poor conditions, the BBC reported that dozens of the 
children wanted to return to work and some of them tried to 
escape from the temporary shelters immediately after being 
rescued. One rescued child reported to the BBC that he 
worked eight hours every day and at the end of the month his 
manager sent 300 Rs (about $7) to his mother in Bihar. 
Other children reported working 15-hour days and getting 
paid 800 Rs (approximately $18) a month.  The minimum legal 
wage in New Delhi is 2,800 Rs (approximately $62) a month. 
 
4. (U) The "Express Newsline" reported that according to the 
Labor Commissioner Piyush Sharma: "We have been actively 
working on this matter since June 2005.  Working under the 
INDUS project, we sought and received cooperation from NGOs 
like Pratham and Prayas."  The INDUS project is the 40 
million dollars joint India-US project to combat child labor 
in 10 industries in 21 districts across five states.  The 
International Labor Organization (ILO) is implementing the 
project. 
 
5. (U) One week later, the rescues have received criticism 
from those who felt that Pratham and the Government did not 
do enough planning for post-raid rehabilitation.  While 180 
of those rescued have been put up in a rehabilitation center 
run by Prayas, the remaining children are now in Juvenile 
Homes -- the same homes that house juvenile delinquents -- 
rather than shelters. "The Pioneer" reports that there was 
neither a First Information Report (FIR) (an initial police 
report) for these children, nor for the employers.  These 
police reports are critical for the children to receive 
financial compensation from various government 
rehabilitation schemes; and these FIR reports are also 
necessary to file charges against the factory owners.  "The 
Pioneer" criticized raid organizers because they did not 
consult with the Labor Department Divisional Commissioner 
who is normally responsible for carrying out such raids. 
According to the "Times of India," The Department of Labor 
criticized the media for leaking the story and consequently 
the "raids were not as successful as the department had 
hoped." 
 
6. (U) Pratham released its volunteers responsible for the 
rescue operations after the fact, citing the subsequent bad 
press.  "The Pioneer" also reported that the "lure of UN 
funds" drove the NGO to rescue the kids rather than more 
properly focus on their well-being.  The Delhi Child Welfare 
Committee (CWC) will now determine where the children will 
go and it is expected that they will be turned over to their 
parents.  However, the victims will not qualify for 
rehabilitation under the Child Labor Act since the rescue 
did not follow proper procedures (such as filing an FIR). 
7.  (U) ILO's Indus Project Coordinator Surina Rajan told 
post that the original idea was to rehabilitate all the 
rescued children at shelters run by Prayas and Pratham. 
However, Pratham could not set up its shelter home and 
consequently the children had to be sent to the state run 
juvenile homes.  Rajan mentioned that there was intense 
pressure on the Delhi government from NGOs and the media to 
mount this operation and hence, it was quite possible that 
all the details were not worked out carefully.  Hinting at 
more such actions in the future, Rajan said that the INDUS 
would try and rope in other NGOs such as the M.V. Foundation 
to set up bridge camps/centers in Delhi to rehabilitate 
children rescued in future. 
 
GOOD NEWS ON FEMALE FETICIDE 
---------------------------- 
 
8. (U) On September 21, the Indian Express reported that the 
Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) decided to 
waive fees and provide scholarships to all girls from single- 
child families until the post-graduation level.  The 
scholarship will be available for all families with a single 
girl child, irrespective of income groups.  If a family has 
two girls, then the scholarship will only be available for 
one child.  The scholarship money ranges from 800 Rs ($18) 
for high school studies to 2000 Rs ($45) for postgraduate 
studies.  The MHRD hopes to help correct the male-female sex 
ratio by reducing the financial burden on families with 
girls through these scholarships. 
 
9. (U) On September 20, the Asian Age reported that the sex 
ratio in the state of Haryana saw a slight but significant 
improvement from 819 to 833 CSR (Child Sex Ratio as measured 
by number of girls per 1000 boys ages 0-6).  The Haryana 
government is pleased with the news but states the 
improvement could be attributed to a recent administrative 
change whereby the registration of births and deaths is done 
in health care centers and not police stations, resulting in 
more births being registered.  In one district, Sonepat, the 
CSR jumped from in one year from 706 to 772 (girls per 1,000 
boys). However, this is still 22% below the biological norm. 
 
10. (U) In August, Parliament passed the Hindu Succession 
(Amendment) Bill.  The bill gives daughters and sons equal 
rights to claims on inheritance of property.  The Law and 
Justice Minister is now directing the States to amend 
current state laws on the subject to bring all laws related 
to inheritance into conformity with this bill.  In 
September, Prime Minister Singh traveled to the Punjab and 
called for a social campaign to end female feticide, and 
drew attention to the alarmingly low CSR in the Punjab (876 
girls per 1,000 boys). 
 
CHILD MARRIAGE CASES 
-------------------- 
 
11. (U) On August 26 the Indian Express reported that a 20- 
year-old woman, Savita Chaudhary, is fighting her own 
community related to her illegal marriage at the age of 
three years old.  Her supposed in-laws are demanding money 
to annul the wedding and the panchayat (local government) 
chief has gone on record as saying, "She's an immature girl. 
Our culture accepts child marriage and she'll have to accept 
whatever the community decides."  In a separate case, on 
October 8 the Delhi High Court ruled that the otherwise 
illegal marriage of a 15-year-old girl was valid since it 
was of her own free will. (The Child Marriage Restraint Act 
sets 18 as the minimum age for a woman to marry and 21 for a 
man.)  National Commission for Women (NCW) chairwoman Dr. 
Girija Vyas expressed significant disappointment with the 
decision, saying, "There should definitely be a rethink on 
this court order and the government should appeal against 
the decision."  The Indian Express reported in a related 
story that the Governments of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh 
(MP) are trying to raise the average age of marriage to 
reduce infant and maternal mortality.  According to the 
paper, "more than half of the girls in MP and Rajasthan are 
married off before they turn 15." 
FOCUS ON JAINS 
-------------- 
 
12. (U) On October 23 the Indian newsmagazine "The Week" did 
a story on traffickers taking tribal girls from Madhya 
Pradesh and selling them to Jain families under the false 
pretense that they were also from Jain families. 
Traffickers dress the women in traditional Jain clothes and 
teach them Jain prayers and customs.  The women are also 
forced to sleep with some of their prospective husbands. 
Families pay as much as 50,000 Rs ($1,150) to the 
traffickers in exchange for the victims.  The traffickers 
claim innocence, stating, "There are many instances where 
husbands know the real caste of their wives but other family 
members do not. If the girls are happy, it's fine."  The 
article concludes that trafficking has been on the rise due 
to the low CSR (870 girls per 1,000 boys) for Jain families. 
 
13. (U) On October 11, the Hindustan Times reported on 
"Jains on female feticide blacklist."  The Health Minister, 
Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, stated, "Banning pre-natal sex 
determination through law is obviously not enough.  It's a 
social problem and we need to change the mindset of the 
people through people who can influence their thinking, such 
as religious leaders." Some state and local governments are 
taking innovative actions.  For example, the Hyderabad 
government posts a nurse outside of clinics to count the 
number of pregnant women who walk in and then tallies the 
total against the clinic's medical records to ensure 
compliance with the law. 
 
FAST TRACKING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CASES 
------------------------------------- 
 
14. (U) On November 26, "The Hindu" reported that the Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court, Y.K. Sabharwal, proposed that 
domestic violence cases be fast tracked.  The Chief Justice 
acknowledged the backlog of cases, but stated that domestic 
violence cases need to be redressed immediately, and that 
the outcome of these cases should be publicized.  At the 
same Women's Legal Aid Summit, the Law Minister H.R. 
Bhardwaj said that he was prepared to increase the Supreme 
Court by five seats if more women judges could be included 
(currently there is only one sitting female Supreme Court 
judge). 
 
15. (U) COMMENT.  There has been a noticeable increase in 
the number of news stories on trafficking and related issues 
over the past year.  Further, unlike before, the stories are 
drawing links between various interrelated issues such as 
feticide, child marriage, child labor, and trafficking. 
This is an important new trend because it is not only 
representative of evolving opinions in society, but the 
increasing press coverage of gender issues (including 
trafficking) could serve to help shape public opinion as 
well.  END COMMENT. 
 
MULFORD