ASIA/INDIA-Every hour 11 children disappear in the country and are sold as slaves

New Delhi (Agenzia Fides) - In India 11 children disappear every hour, victims of human being trafficking, which is very widespread in the country. According to a report presented in the capital, New Delhi, by the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan and based on complaints filed by parents from 2008 to 2010, 117,480 children went missing, most from the big cities of Mumbai, Calcutta and New Delhi, where they are sold to rich families as domestics, industrial slaves and sex slaves, or to organizations that handle begging. As already reported by other groups that deal with the defense of human rights, the increase in economic welfare in the city has encouraged the proliferation of some social illnesses: the demand for "little slaves" for housework. The phenomenon is particularly serious in the Indian capital, where 1,442 children disappeared in 2011. According to the chief of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, there are still many cases of resistance to denounce the disappearances. The NGO is also devoted to the liberation of child workers exploited in the field of crafts in New Delhi. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 14/12/2011)