Women Trafficking & Arms Trafficking in India’s Northeast Region

On Tuesday, 25th November 2008, Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network and Control Arms Foundation of India hosted a talk in India’s capital New Delhi by Ms Hasina Kharbhih, Ashoka Fellow and Team Leader of Impulse NGO Network on the topic “Human Trafficking in India’s North East region”. Her lecture was followed by an intervention by Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, Secretary General, CAFI and Founder of Manipur Women Gun Survivor Network on linkages of human trafficking and arms trafficking. Other participants who spoke on the occasion constituted of Ms Monisha Behal Chairperson of Northeast Network, Ms Hnunpui, Advocate and Ms Lian, Lecturer of Political Science at Delhi University, along with several others.

India’s North East especially Meghalaya as a State has become a supply zone for trafficking in the flesh trade. There are a number of reasons for this. One is the international boundary the region shares with Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Conflict situations result in major displacement. This adds to the already prevalent phenomena of economic impoverishment and forces people to migrate. It also increases the vulnerability of women and children. A number of highways turn into a dubious network for trafficking. Thus, by viewing North Eastern India from this perspective, one can presume that young girls of this region are vulnerable to this problem, as the region has been for quite a while now witnessing ethnic and armed conflict which is known to result in major displacement of the people.

It is with this background that Ms Hasina spoke on 25th November 2008 in New Delhi. She pointed out various factors which have a cumulative effect and manifest in problems like trafficking of children and young women. The Supreme Court of India ‘s order of banning the felling of timber in Meghalaya no doubt was a commendable step in attempting to protect the larger environment but it took shape as a serious problem as there was no alternative given by the Government to the rural population  whose means of livelihood dependent on the timber.

Thus, it led to pushing rural populations to migrate to urban areas looking for employment and better standards of living. Prostitution as another problem arises due to such larger issues of socio-economic conditions. Proximity to the infamous Golden triangle, which facilitated the free flow of narcotics, arms and so on through the region. Also, extremely porous international boundary also adds to the problem. She talked about how illegal arms trade was done in name of flesh trade across the borders. She quoted one example where few of the Burmese girls were caught with arms during trafficking in Mizoram.

She shared various facts on how some recruiting agencies in the name of offering “jobs like airhostess, free education in US/UK, free food and lodging facilities” have trapped many children and young women from North Eastern region.

Further, Ms Hasina talked about the strategy for campaigning about the issue of human trafficking. It involved the media as a partner in disseminating information and spreading awareness among the community at large. Impulse NGO Network partnering with other organizations such as INGON, a child rights organization organized series of meetings, called press conferences for sensitizing the issue. Some of the issues addressed included the legal procedures involved, various convention and laws and what would be the role of the concerned citizens. According to Ms Hasina, “Human trafficking is a crime and cannot be solved by an NGO alone but by collective efforts”.

Following Ms Hasina’s talk, Ms Binalaksmi Nepram  pointed out that due to decades of armed violence which is happening in India’s North East Region, many children have been left orphaned and thousands internally displaced within and the North East India region. Due to the ongoing conflict, many young people from the region have migrated to metropolitan cities in India such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and others in search of education and job.

The armed conflict situation in India’s North East has and can continue to be used to traffic children and young women from the region and civil society and governments need to stay vigilant over this. She also pointed that many of the routes where women are trafficked in India’s North East region are also the routes where small arms and narcotic drugs are also trafficked. Its time that we do something about it.

According to Ms Monisha Behal, Chairperson of North East Network, “As a step in spreading awareness among the nation to curb the stereotypical notions upon the North East people, school and college curriculum can play an important role. If India starts putting in-depth information on the culture, tradition on North eastern region, it would be of a great help”.

The meeting ended with a call to vigilant civil society and concerned citizens to work in solidarity with one another to bring the problem to an end. In doing so, keeping a strict vigilant of the recruitment agencies is a must. There is a need to start a sensitizing movement to curb this problem and to bring about a respect for livelihood, human rights, semblance of peace and justice. The meeting also called upon government of India to act with responsibility and commitment to bring the problem of human and illegal arms trafficking to an end.

For pictures of the event, please click HERE