UDAIPUR: In a joint action by the police, Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and child right activists, 76 minor girls were rescued from a hotel on Rajnagar main road near Rajsamand city on Wednesday.All the girls reportedly in the age bracket of 12-17 years, hailing from different states were living in a hall situated on the third floor of the hotel with barest amenities, for two months, sources claim. Of the 76, a dozen hailed from Nepal.Volunteers of the NGO that hosted the minor girls made a sharp protest when the authorities held a sudden raid at the hotel in the afternoon and initiated the rescue process. The CWC ordered the rescued girls to be sent to Asra Vikas Sansthan, a government approved shelter home in the area while the hotel owner and the NGO volunteers were taken to the police station for enquiry.After the raid it was known that the girls were being kept by one Adhyatmik Gurukul Sansthan , a voluntary organization registered under the Society Act at Abu Road in Sirohi district. Police found some eight to10 women with the minors at the spot who worked for the organization while the main members of the institution are yet to be identified.“All the girls belonged from different places, including Nepal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Haryana, Assam, Delhi etc. All of them hail from very poor families, most of them are either orphans or have a single parent who is incapable to nurture them,” Bhojraj Padampura of Asra Vikas Santhan told TOI.Activists were tipped off about the minors being kept inside a hotel and so informers were pressed in to gather more information. The hotel’s third floor was covered from all sides by tin walls so that no one in the surroundings could see the minors. The terrace too was covered by tin shades where the volunteers cooked food for the inmates.“The girls were living in pathetic conditions with no proper toilets, hygiene and washing facilities. There were only 2-3 bathrooms shared by them and the girls told us that they were not sent to any schools and were not studying,” Bhojraj informed. “As per norms, any organization keeping minors should be registered under the JJ Act and the education department but this organization has flouted regulations, we have sent them to shelter home,” said Bhawna Paliwal, chairperson of the CWC.The authorities said they would speak to the parents of the rescued girls to know how they landed here from far-off places. None of the girls were from Rajasthan. Police have seized the register from the hotel owner and are quizzing him to get more details, while the volunteers too are being interrogated.

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