Update on Mercy’s work

Update on Mercy’s work

Mercy was in Delhi recently (she visits cities, when and only if she has to). She had come with the father of a 15 year old tribal girl Anita, who was abducted and sold for marriage in Agra. We organized a press conference and a meeting with some lawyers to take the case forward and to raise awareness about it.

The actress hat that I wear does sometime help in getting media attention, but I was rather pained to see that while they came to the press conference, much of the English Daily didn’t bother to write enough about the issue.

The superficial engagements of the media sometimes angers and depresses me. But I guess, they are not from another planet and will only reflect what the society at large is preoccupied with.

There are many tribal girls in Madhya Pradesh (and I am sure many other places) who are being lured into materialistic temptations or threatened, hypnotized and then kidnapped and sold for marriage or prepared for prostitution. As there is a growing dearth of girls in many regions due to rampant female infanticide and foeticide, this becomes and easy way to procure girls for such regions. Much of this never even comes out as the police and administration has a nexus with the rich and powerful who are a part of this trafficking chain. If at all people like Mercy bring it out in the open, it is treated merely as a regional issue, which dies its natural death. How many more incidents like this need to take place for it to become a national issue or for that matter an international issue? After this issue of Anita came out, atleast 4 other cases within the same district were exposed. Of course no legal action has yet been taken, but let’s hope the court of law will protect these little girls and will punish the criminals.

And strangely, while such incidents occur around us, our lives will go on!