CWG faces flesh trade problem
90,000 foreigners are expected to visit Delhi
When the Delhi government is racing against time to provide facilities to host the Commonwealth Games (CWG), event organisers are facing a challenge from the flesh trade sector.
With reports emanating that thousands of girls are being brought to the national capital to woo a large number of tourists who may gather for the October 3-14 event, police here are gearing up to crack the network.
People involved in sex trade are active for the past couple of months as escort service agencies websites, advertisements are mushrooming.
The Delhi police have claimed that they have already cracked six such websites offering escort service to tourists in the city.
Police say these websites, started 15 to 20 days ago, contains photos and profiles of the escorts. The ads promise college girls, homemakers, airhostesses, supermodels, and celebrities. They are posted along with a rate card and the cellphone number of a contact person.
The police also say, girls mainly from former USSR countries like Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Uzbekistan are being brought to Delhi. Apart from them, girls from with in the country are also likely to land in national capital.
To hoodwink law enforcing authorities, agents involved in this trade have pasted posters, pamphlets and stickers on the walls of sub-ways, flyovers, foot over bridges and road dividers near traffic signal in the city offering English-speaking girls “services”.
Rajan Bhagat, a spokesperson for Delhi police, said teams have formed to crack down on such activity but was having trouble tracking down the offenders. “They have set up several websites but the server is outside India and that’s why it is very difficult to locate them,” he said.
Even the government is worried that imminent flesh trade would blemish the country image as 90,000 foreigners are expected to attend the 12-day event.
The Tourism Ministry, Delhi government and Home Ministry have already held several rounds of talks to take steps to keep a vigil on the activities of known pimps, traffickers and monitor movements of girls under suspicious circumstances.
Former Union Sport Minister and Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar had recently written to Tourism Minister Kumari Selja expressing concern over increase in “sex tourism” during the Games.
“The Home Ministry and Delhi Police have already taken up the matter and will formulate an integrated strategy to prevent such illegal activities,” Selja said.
The government has declared “zero tolerance” against illegal sexual activities before, during or after the Games with a clear warning of legal proceedings under various laws.
The External Affairs Ministry has been asked to print these instructions on the disembarkation card as well as the visa forms to make inbound tourists aware of the code. The code has also been included in the tourism ministry’s campaigns.
As a caution, the Delhi government is planning to install thousands of condom vending machines in game venues and games villages.
