Trafficking of women and children spreads to interiors of Meghalaya

The criminals engaging in trafficking of women and children have spread  their net work  to states like Meghalaya, the experts said while taking part in the concluding day of international conclave on human trafficking here organised by reputed NGO Shakti Vahini in collaboration with the US Counsel, Kolkata here on Saturday.
 
The conclave highlighted dangers posed by the vulnerable women in Meghalaya and the rest of Northeast.
 
While addressing the gathering, the senior BJP M.P. Ramen Deka said that perennial floods coupled with the twin problems of insurgency and infiltration from across the border have resulted in an increase of trafficking of girls and children from the North East.
 
“The region faces floods at least four times a year and this devastates the already shattering economy
of lakhs of poor persons of North East,” he said.
 
Without work and food the poor parents often unwillingly send their children to metropolitan cities and North Indian states like Punjab and Haryana for a livelihood which often ends of up trafficking, he said.
 
Continued insurgency in some states has also forced the parents to send their children outside the affected states for education or shelter where at times they ended up in wrong hands, Deka who was party in charge of Meghalaya earlier said.
 
Mushrooming placement agencies in Delhi dupe these women and children by making them virtual slaves as domestic helps, he said.
 
Many women and girls also end up in Haryana, Punjab and partly Uttar Pradesh as brides to older people or they are just sexually exploited, the BJP M.P. said.
 
The recent earthquake in Nepal and continued drought in the tea gardens have aggravated the spate in human trafficking from this region including most vulnerable North East, Deka said.
 
Vast and open border with Bangladesh and Nepal has also resulted in human trafficking from these two poor countries to India and even abroad, he said.
 
The state Governments should come up with economic upliftment of the marginal section of the population in the region so that poor boys, girls and women need not migrate to other states or metropolis, he added.
 
Anti-trafficking experts and government officials from the country, besides Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, UK and Germany met here for the Fifth Trafficking in Persons Conclave. Siliguri which is called chicken neck linking the North East which is part of a  major transit route for trafficking due to its proximity to the Nepal border.
 
Going by the figures of NCRB of the Ministry of Home Affairs, more than hundred cases of trafficking from the region were detected which is only a tip of the ice berg since many cases are not reported.
 
There are reports of huge increase in human trafficking from Nepal because of the devastating earthquake and continued cold conditions there.
 
“The traffickers are even going deep into the hinterlands of Assam and spreading their nets to states like Meghalaya”, according to an expert who took part in the conclave.
 
The helpless girls and their poor parents are lured with good job offers and at times marriage in decent families.
 
“We have found out that two trains, the Avadh Assam and the North East Express, are frequently used by traffickers to transport the victims,” he said.
 
Underlining the need to probe the placement agencies, the NGO activists also stressed the need to launch a crackdown on the identified human traffickers by the local police. In Delhi alone, there are 1,200 placement agencies and all of them are illegal.
 
While children are engaged as domestic servants, girls above the age of 18 years are engaged in massage  parlours, sold to brothels or sold as brides in States like Haryana and Rajasthan, the experts said stressing  the need for proper rehabilitation of the rescued children and girls.