Exercise for young learners (1)….
Alert woman helps rescue six girls being ‘trafficked’ to Delhi
(This news appeared in The Hindu dated June 3, 2024.)
ALISHA DUTTA
NEW DELHI
Six minor girls from Jharkhand who were being brought to the national capital on a train by alleged traffickers were rescued on May 29 after an alert co-passenger, who works as a counsellor at Jharkhand Bhavan in Delhi, notified the authorities.
Nirmala Khalko, who has worked closely with children trafficked from Jharkhand, said she called the authorities, who rescued the girls after the train reached Delhi, after noticing that the children sounded distressed while talking to their parents and spoke in an accent distinct from that of the alleged traffickers, who claimed to be their relatives.
The minors, aged 12 to 17, are presently with a Child Welfare Committee (CWC), and their statements are being recorded for further investigation, a senior police officer said. The girls belong to Gumla and Simdega districts of Jharkhand.
“The Sub Divisional Magistrate is the competent authority to deal with such cases. After the minors’ statements are recorded, the police will file an FIR,” an official said.
Chance encounter
Ms. Khalko said she, along with the minors and their alleged traffickers, had boarded the Jharkhand Swarna Jayanti Express from Ranchi on May 28. Soon after they took their seats — three minors with a woman in the seat opposite Ms. Khalko’s — in the sleeper coach, the Jharkhand Bawan official struck up a conversation with her fellow passengers.
“Minutes after we began talking, three minors told me they were travelling to Delhi for summer vacation. Two of them looked like twins,” Ms. Khalko said, adding that she noticed the minors spoke in a different accent from that of the woman travelling with them and claiming to be their ‘aunt’.
“Soon, I overheard one of the twins speaking to her mother in Kuruk [a language spoken mainly by members of the Oraon tribe], and asking her not to worry. I also noticed that all the minors had a different accent than that of the woman who was travelling with them and claimed to be their aunt,” she added.
Over the next couple of hours, the Jharkhand Bhavan official gathered information about the three minors and learnt that there were three more girls in the same compartment.
“When the ‘aunt’ left her seat to go to the washroom, I quickly informed our nodal officer at the Jharkhand Bhavan and the minors were rescued as soon as the train reached Anand Vihar railway station,” she added.
“In most trafficking cases from Jharkhand, the victims are told that they are being brought to work as house help. In this case, the girls had no clue what lay ahead of them in Delhi,” she added.
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Questions …
Q1. What is meant by ‘trafficking’ of human beings?
Q2. Why did Ms. Nirmala Khalko conclude that the minor girls were being taken to Delhi for some illegal purpose?
Q3. What did Ms. Khalko do to prevent the minor girls being forced to do some immoral things in Delhi?
Q4. Make sentences with these words.. Alert as adjective, Alert as noun, Alert as verb, Rescue as noun, Rescue as verb, Rescue as adjective, ‘Minor as adjective, Minor as noun, Counsel as noun, Counsel as verb, Counseller as noun, Sound as noun, Sound as verb, Distress as noun, Distressed as adjective, Accent as noun, Competent, Chance as noun, Chance as verb, Chance as adjective, Encounter as noun, Encounter as verb, Board as noun, Board as verb, Above board as a phrase, Overhear, Nodal,
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