Domestic help placement firms flout norms, despite directive

The survey was conducted in Delhi over a year and findings reveal that these placement agencies are running illegally and without required certification from the Delhi Labour Department.

According to data provided by the Delhi Labour Department, only 200 placement agencies in Delhi have been registered till date, despite the High Court's 2010 directive of registering all domestic help placement agencies in the city. In October 2011, the High Court had asked the Labour Department to justify their negligence towards the directive.

“The Court had also asked the Delhi police to give reasons for their ignorance towards anti-trafficking measures. But no information has been provided by the police or the Labour Department so far,” said Bhuvan Ribhu, Lawyer and member Bachpan Bachao Aandolan (BBA). Officials from Delhi Labour Department declined to comment on the issue.

“Ill-treatment, sexual and physical abuse, mental torture are prominent forms of abuse,” said Rajesh Shukla BBA activist. But there is no statutary definition of here is no statutory definition of “trafficking” warning them against trafficking of children and women.

Thus the agencies are able to successfully evade penalties and punishment for their crimes. Findings further reveal that placement agencies continue with their malpractices Ravi Kant, president of Shakti Vahini an NGO and an advocate with the Supreme Court believes that the issue of trafficking minors from Ranchi, Bihar, Kolkata, Bangladesh, Nepal and other places is still prevalent as the verification and registration of agencies has been performed only in some pockets of Delhi. “The conservative estimates for children working as domestic helpers is above two lakhs, as per the rescues and the number of records seized from different placement agencies,” he said.

The National Human Rights Commission and BBA, raided a placement agency few days ago where they recovered 13 minor girls from the agency and derived information about more than 200 girls and women who were trafficked from small cities to Delhi.

To rectify the issue, lawyers working for child rights groups have filed a petition in the Jharkhand High Court in October against increasing number of child trafficking cases.