Children are being preyed upon by men who sometimes pay as little as Rs.100 to have sex with a minor.

Rati (name changed), was only 14-years-old when she was given hormone injections so that she looks older. She was sometimes forced to have sex with 30 men in a day. These men came from different walks of life, from rickshaw pullers to office managers.

When the police raided the brothels, they arrested her and the brothel managers. But these horrible men, the customers, were left off with just a warning.  

Next day they were back in the brothels seeking young girls again.  

The Maharashtra government has made Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) which are proactively looking at rescue and rehabilitation of girls like Rati. But hardly any men who are paying for sex with children have been arrested.

In some cases, they are even made witnesses against the brothel owners. These men are happily living their lives without any fear of prosecution and they continue to exploit children as young as 10-years-old.

That’s why I have started this petition asking the Maharashtra CM to direct the state police, specially the AHTUs to make it their mandate to arrest these child predators.

Most of these men are living in residential colonies, amongst us, with their families and go completely unnoticed. And these are the men, the customers, who sustain the organised crime of pushing children into prostitution.

From red light areas to online portals and even private guest houses and apartments, the places where this exploitation takes place keep changing but what has remains constant is the demand.

As long as there is demands from the customers, this horrific illegal trade will continue.

I want these men to be arrested so that the society knows their true face and we can safeguard our children against these predators.

My state Maharashtra has been leading the efforts against Human Trafficking and I want to applaud all the good work done by our government.

The Maharashtra Anti Human Trafficking Unit police shut 78 brothels in 2011 where children were forced into the flesh trade. That number gives an idea about how big this problem is.

But just arresting the brothel owners and traffickers is not going to solve this problem. This is an organised crime. We have to curb the demand by arresting these customers under the strictest of laws, like MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) so that they can’t get bail and it acts as a deterrent for child predators.

Join me in this fight and let’s go after these child sex offenders in full force.