Four years since we published 'Operation BabyLift/Operation BethiUthao', an in-depth investigation on how three RSS affiliated organizations trafficked 31 Adivasi girls from 5 districts of Assam.

This 3-month-long investigation traced how the Sangh Parivar outfits took away these girls from the parents on the pretext of providing them free education and sent them to Punjab and Gujarat.

Once, they left, the parents could not only not get in touch with their daughters for over a year but had to also give away all documents and photos that could prove that they even had these daughters in the first place.

Pointing out violation of all Juvenile Justice laws, Supreme Court Orders & International laws, Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights sent a letter to authorities to return the girls, calling it child trafficking but no Central or State govt authority paid heed

I traced 20 girls in the Surendranagar district of Gujarat and 11 in the Patiala district of Punjab where the girls were given bhajan and sanskaar classes instead of any formal education.

They were also not allowed to converse in their indigenous language, eat nonvegetarian food, and were being trained to fight Muslim and Christian 'invaders.'

Four years since the publication of this story, activists worked had on the ground and 24 girls have been repatriated with their families.

In 2017, Justin Trudeau apologized for a similar treatment of indigenous children in Canada who, over the course of 100 years, were sent to 'residential schools' to isolate them from their indigenous culture and indoctrinate them into the dominant Christian way of life.

According to a CB-CID report, least 5000 children are missing from Assam. Will it take 100 years for India too to apologize and acknowledge the trafficking of adivasi children for the purpose of indoctrination into the Hindutva idealogy?

Read the full story here: https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/operation-betiuthao/297626