It is curious that the man was first picked up for child-trafficking a misnomer surely, for we are really talking about infants here two years ago. How he got away then, only to return to the notice of the law, is a mystery. But his getting away the first time is unlikely to have occurred without a deal being struck with unscrupulous elements in the government. It is said that the Lambadi tribals, driven by extreme poverty, sell infants for a few hundred rupees. Pregnant women are targeted by touts, and deals are struck.
Female babies are easier to buy as their families want to avoid paying dowries.
The homes are cheaply run and are shoddy parking places for the infants before they can be disposed of, often to foreigners. Perhaps the state government should seek central assistance in conducting a nationwide probe. Unless the state is sensitive, they may well end up in another set of welfare homes for adolescents or destitute women, which, experience suggests, is often an indirect route to prostitution. Sledging off the field FOR ALL her straight talking, Uma Bharti is a bundle of contradictions. The minister of sports has taken umbrage at the comments made by BCCI president A.C. Muthiah and lashed out against the sporting body meddling in the government s business.