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Saturday December 18, 2010

Desperate mum tries to sell daughters

Other news & views
Compiled by A. Raman

A MOTHER from Karur village in the Salem district of India’s Tamil Nadu state attempted to sell off her two school going daughters as bonded child labourers due to extreme poverty, Makkal Osai reported. The children, aged 12 and nine, were allegedly threatened by their mother and paternal grandmother of dire consequences if they did not join a rope twisting unit as workers.

The primary school girls, had resisted the move. Police said that the two women and an accomplice had planned to sell the children for Rs 5 lakhs (RM35,000) to an unidentified person who had agreed to pay Rs50,000 (RM3, 500) as advance and the balance within two days of getting the children.

Last Sunday, the accomplice allegedly took the sisters to see the buyer but he purportedly delayed the settlement. Meanwhile, the villagers who realised the children had gone missing questioned the two women who, under threat, confessed. The police arrested the accomplice and returned the two sisters to the village.