New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday termed as “very serious” the forced recruitment of minor girls in orchestras mainly in Bihar and West Bengal and massage parlors in Delhi and Rajasthan and their subsequent sexual exploitation and trafficking and sought a comprehensive response from governments on steps for their safety.Senior advocate HS Phulka, appearing for NGO ‘Just Rights for Children Alliance’, told a bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi that girls aged 10-16 years are forcibly employed in orchestras, spas and massage parlors to repay the debts of their parents and subsequently under the Child and Adolescent Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, They are sexually exploited and trafficked in clear violation of the 1986 Act, which bans their employment. Hazardous industries.To get around the law, Phulka said, many sectors – orchestras, dance bars, dance troupes, gimmick performances, massage parlours, spas and salons, which are not listed in the hazardous category – have evolved over the years to become organized industries of child trafficking, sexual exploitation and abuse. The bench also issued notice to NCPR and NHRC.The NGO said that in the March-December period last year, more than 200 minors were rescued from orchestras, dance troupes and nautanki groups from various places in Bihar and West Bengal, while more than a dozen were rescued from massage parlors and spas in Delhi and Rajasthan.“Children often aged between 10 and 16 are lured and recruited from poor, tribal and marginalized communities through deception and promises of employment, glamour, dance training, marriage or economic upliftment,” it said.“These children are trafficked across districts, states and international borders, confined in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, deprived of education and freedom of movement, and forced into forced labour, explicit sexual performance and commercial sexual exploitation, in gross and flagrant violation of their constitutional and fundamental rights.”The NGO said orchestras and gimmick groups, which were originally conceived as indigenous cultural entertainment at weddings and social gatherings, now operate in an almost complete regulatory vacuum, enabling organized criminal networks to flourish with effective impunity.“Minor girls, mainly from poor, migrant, tribal and marginalized communities, are systematically deceived and lured through false promises of employment, glamour, artistic performance or marriage,” it said. In many cases, the families themselves are duped or financially forced to surrender their children in conditions of severe economic distress and insecurity.”“As a result, girls under the age of 12 are trafficked, bought for nominal sums, transported across district and state borders, and sold to orchestra conductors, generating substantial criminal profits for traffickers and conductors alike,” it said.Describing the plight of the trapped girls, the NGO said these minors are forced to perform in sexually provocative attire, are forced to dance to obscene music in front of an intoxicated audience, and face extreme violence including molestation, rape, threats and sometimes violence using weapons.