Girls lured to Delhi CWG for work being sold to brothels

NEW DELHI - Under aged girls are being lured to Delhi for work at the Commonwealth Games, only to be sold to brothels.

According to The Australian, the Indian Government has issued an alert, after receiving numerous reports that girls from the country’s poor tribal states are being exploited by sex-traffickers.

The advisory by India’s Home Ministry says: “The victims are mostly those who are promised work in Delhi ahead of the Commonwealth Games by fraudulent placement agencies but instead are likely to be trafficked.”

It adds: “Minor girls are the main target. Strict action is urgently required against those involved in such trafficking, both in the source, transit and destination areas.”

Hundreds of young girls from poverty-stricken rural states have been successfully trafficked into the city’s burgeoning number of brothels, massage parlours and escort agencies.

Kailash Pathak, from rural West Bengal, fears his 13-year-old daughter, Khushbu, is among them.

The Australian accompanied Pathak this week as he searched seedy Delhi’s red-light-district for any sign of her.

He said he had tracked down a man he claims stole his daughter and reported him to police.

“I rang him and said, ‘Have you taken my girl?’ And he said, ‘What if I have? What can you do about it?’”

The man, Pappu Bagel, confessed to The Australian from a police cell that he led Khushbu away from her home but denied it had been against her will.

According to the paper, Delhi’s illegal but thriving prostitution racket has been gearing up for several months for the Commonwealth Games. Several establishments have reportedly been running basic English classes for their workers and renovating premises for foreign visitors.

Delhi police have raided a number of brothels in the city’s red-light district in recent weeks.

A police superintendent from one inner-city district said about 80 young girls had been seized from brothels and traffickers in the past six months. (ANI)