JAIPUR: The National Women’s Commission on Friday dispatched a team to Rajasthan’s Bhilwara to look into a news report that highlighted the practice of young girls being sold in the district following formal agreements on stamped papers and women raped on diktats of village caste councils to settle disputes.
The move comes a day after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took notice of the report published on Wednesday and called for a response from the state government.
The Rajasthan State Women’s Commission has also issued notice to the government and sought a factual report. ”We have come to know that girls are being sold… what could be a more heinous crime than this. We promise to take swift action in this matter and justice will be delivered,” said the commission chairperson Rehana Riyaz.
NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma said the women rights body has asked the state chief secretary and police chief to file a first information report and arrest the accused. She added that the NCW team led by an under secretary-rank official will reach Bhilwara later on Friday evening
The Bhilwara district administration has responded to the outrage over the news reports, saying the specific instances cited by the news report were about three years old. “A factual report is being sent by the SP (superintendent of police). It is an old issue of 2019, where around two dozen people were arrested,” Bhilwara district collector Ashish Modi said. He did not comment on the practice or the status of the 2019 case.
A report in Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar said people in places such as Bhilwara approach the caste councils to settle their disputes instead of going to the police. It added often girls are sold or their mothers are ordered to be raped. It added that a caste council forced a man to sell his sister first and then his 12-year-old daughter to settle a ₹15 lakh debt.
