NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Centre, child rights body NCPCR and National Human Rights Commission on a PIL seeking an absolute ban on employment of children and adolescents in orchestras, dance troupes, massage parlors and spas.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalia Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi took note of the submissions of senior advocate HS Phoolka, who appeared in the child rights group Fair Rights for Children Alliance, and issued notices to the union ministries of labor, law and justice.
Volka said that underage girls between the ages of 10 and 11 work in orchestras and dance bars. “For spas and massage parlors, some states have set rules setting 18 as the minimum age,” he said.
The court described the situation as “serious” and also issued notices to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the National Human Rights Commission regarding the PIL.
“Issuing an appropriate injunction or directions directing the Central Government… to exercise its powers under Section 4 of the Child and Adolescent Employment Act, 1986, to include the employment or performance of children under the age of 18 years in orchestras, dance bars, dance troupes, natanki shows, massage parlors, spas, salons or any similar establishments depicting children in an obscene or exploitative manner in Part A of the CALPRA Schedule,” the petition said, “and thus categorically prohibits such Employment.
The petition alleged that these sectors have evolved into “clandestine fronts” for organized trafficking, sexual exploitation and forced labor of underage girls across the country.
The petition, filed by the JRCA through advocate Sonali Jain, highlighted the critical “implementation void” in the Child and Adolescent Employment Act 1986.
Under the law, “hazardous” occupations in which teenage employment is strictly prohibited are included under Part A of the CALPRA Schedule.
However, massage parlors and spas currently fall under Part B, meaning hiring teens is merely “regulated” and not prohibited.
Moreover, the ‘orchestras’ and ‘dance troupes’ sectors, prevalent in states like Bihar and West Bengal, remain not included at all.
Traffickers exploit this legal ambiguity to disguise commercial sexual exploitation of children as a “legal act” in the entertainment and wellness industries, the PIL said.
Providing data from rescue operations conducted between March 2025 and May 2026, she said 212 minors were rescued from orchestras and dance groups in Bihar and West Bengal. She added that 12 minors were rescued from massage parlors and spas in Delhi and Rajasthan.
She added that the victims, some as young as 12 years old, were lured from poor communities with false promises of “magic,” dance training or film roles.
In fact, many of them have been sold to operators for amounts ranging from $10,000 to $50,000, forced into debt slavery, and forced to perform in “sexually provocative clothing” in front of a drunken audience.
The petition cited a 2023 report by the Bharatiya Research and Development Institute, which found that 44.04 percent of all identified trafficking victims in India are minors, and that spas are frequently used as fronts for “disguised sexual exploitation.”
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