Mother of tragedies: Kids sold for Rs 200

Desperate mothers in the flood-hit districts of Bihar are selling their children en masse to traffickers. Ram Dev Prasad, heading Bihar’s Child Labour Commission, pointed out that children in the districts of Supaul, Araria, Saharsa and Purnea were being sold for Rs 200 per child.

At present, nearly two lakh women and children are living cheek-by-jowl in 3,000 relief camps being run by the state government and NGOs. Most of the able-bodied men have migrated in search of jobs, leaving these women vulnerable to smooth-talking traffickers who promise their children will be provided a better life in the larger cities.

Just last week, 1,500 children being smuggled out of Bihar by human traffickers were caught at the railway stations of Patna, Hajipur and Khagaria. “While the older children were taken back to the relief camps, there were some kids who were so young that they could not recall the names of their parents or the village to which they belonged,” Mr Prasad pointed out.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.asianage.com

Shah Jahan's gold dagger is sold for £1.7m

Mughal emperor Shah Jahan's golden crusted dagger was sold on Thursday for £1,700,000 at Bonhams' Indian and Islamic sale in London.

However, the auction house did not reveal the identity of the buyer.

The 16-inch dagger, which was part of the Islamic and Indian art and artefact's owned by the late Belgian textile businessman Jacques Desenfans, was expected to sell for between £300,000 and £500,000, according to a pre-sale estimate.

The whole Desenfans collection finally sold for just under £3 million. Desenfans collected Islamic, Indian and Southeast Asian arms and armour, early pottery and works of art for over 50 years.

The inscription in nasta'liq script on the blade is the most detailed of all the inscriptions found on any of the known group of Shah Jahan's personal objects. It has the emperor's name, his title, and the place and date of the dagger's manufacture.

The blade also depicts the parasol, an emblem found on blades from the imperial army and those of princes, which signified the dome of heaven, and which when carried above the head of a ruler symbolised his exalted state and his role between God and more ordinary mortals.

To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.asianage.com