The Supreme Court on Monday termed the forced employment of minor girls in orchestras, primarily in Bihar and West Bengal, and massage parlours in Delhi and Rajasthan, along with their subsequent sexual exploitation and trafficking, as a 'very serious' issue. The court sought comprehensive responses from the governments on steps to protect these children.
NGO's Submission on Child Trafficking
Appearing for the NGO 'Just Rights for Children Alliance', senior advocate H S Phoolka informed a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi that girls aged between 10 and 16 are forcibly employed in orchestras, spas, and massage parlours to settle their parents' debts. These minors are subsequently sexually exploited and trafficked, in blatant violation of the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, which prohibits their employment in hazardous industries.
Phoolka highlighted that to circumvent the law, several sectors—including orchestras, dance bars, dance troupes, nautanki performances, massage parlours, spas, and salons—which remain unlisted in the hazardous category, have evolved over the years into organized industries of child trafficking, sexual exploitation, and abuse. The bench also issued notices to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPR) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
Rescue Operations and Scale of the Problem
The NGO stated that between March and December last year, over 200 minors were rescued from various locations in Bihar and West Bengal from orchestra, dance troupe, and nautanki groups, while a dozen more were rescued from massage parlours and spas in Delhi and Rajasthan. 'Children, often between 10 and 16 years of age, are lured and recruited from impoverished, tribal, and marginalized communities through deception and promises of employment, glamour, dance training, marriage, or economic upliftment,' the NGO said.
'These children are trafficked across districts, states, and international borders, confined in overcrowded and insanitary conditions, deprived of education and freedom of movement, and coerced into forced labour, sexually explicit performances, and commercial sexual exploitation, constituting a blatant and brazen violation of their constitutional and fundamental rights,' it added.
Regulatory Vacuum and Criminal Networks
The NGO noted that orchestra and nautanki groups, originally conceived as indigenous cultural entertainment at weddings and social gatherings, now operate in a near-total regulatory vacuum, enabling organized criminal networks to flourish with effective impunity. 'Minor girls, predominantly from impoverished, migrant, tribal, and marginalized communities, are systematically deceived and lured through false promises of employment, glamour, artistic exposure, or marriage. In numerous cases, families are themselves deceived or financially coerced into surrendering their children under conditions of acute economic distress and vulnerability,' the submission read.
'Girls as young as 12 years of age are consequently trafficked, purchased for nominal sums, transported across district and state borders, and sold onward to orchestra operators, generating substantial criminal profits for traffickers and operators alike,' it said.
Ordeal of Entrapped Girls
Narrating the plight of the entrapped girls, the NGO said these minors are subjected to forced performances in sexually provocative attire, compelled to dance to obscene music before intoxicated audiences, and exposed to extreme violence, including molestation, rape, intimidation, and, at times, violence using weapons.
