Women group demands action on child trafficking

IMPHAL, March 26: The Women Action For Development (WAD) an organization working in the field of gender and women empowerment in the state along with its counterpart NGOs and other civil based organizations and people based organizations of the state have submitted a strongly worded communique to the Chief Minister and the Director General of Police of the state over the lack of action over cases of child trafficking in the state.

The communique pointed out that crimes against women and girls in the state of Manipur are increasing day by day with almost every single day bringing in news reports of the  brutal killings of women and girls after incidents of rape and molestation, cases of suicide of young married women due to agonizing torture by husbands or in-laws, trafficking etc. It mentioned that the total number of cases related to the violation of the rights of children in the state, recorded so far for  2013 till date is 56 out of which 4 cases are of rape, 2 cases of rape and murder, 2 cases of assault, 2 case of rape attempt, 1 case of suicide, 1 case of molestation, 1 case of sodomy, 3 cases of Kidnapping, 4 cases of child soldiers, 30 cases of children rescued from trafficking, 4 cases of children going missing and 2 cases of abandonment.

Highlighting that Child trafficking, an organized crime by which under privileged and abandoned children from remote areas are lured by the traffickers with false promises and opportunities to provide free education, residential accommodations, job securities, etc has become one of the most serious issue in the state, the communique by WAD pointed out that there have been many instances earlier where children from Manipur have been rescued from illegal children homes located in different parts of the country and even from abroad. "There were earlier reports of five children being rescued from such illegal children homes in 2007; 12 children in 2008; 41 children in 2009; 169 in 2010; 55 in 2011 and 81 in 2012. For the running year, 30 children have rescued so far," it said.

It further went on to point out there has been no effort from the concerned state authority so far to address the issue of trafficking nor has there been any convictions of people involved in trafficking cases except for brief spells in jail followed by bail. It added that despite 21 children of the state being found trafficked to Jaipur, the lack of any concerted action to bring back the rescued children and begin the process for their repatriation and rehabilitation is a serious matter and questioned the role, responsibility and actions being undertaken by the state anti trafficking unit till date.

Saying that there was every reason for fearing for the safety and the well being of the children being held in Jaipur, the WAD communique pointed out that there is an urgent need for the concerned authority to get in touch with their counterparts in Rajasthan to initiate the process of rescue and repatriation of the trafficked children. "We urge the Government machineries, particularly the Social Welfare Department Home Department and the Manipur State Commission for Protection of Child Rights to take due and immediate action, failing which WAD will send out official notifications and communication over the same on a national and international basis, it said. According to sources, the communique will also be handed over to the State Governor as also the Social Welfare Minister and the Home Minister with memorandums to be sent to the notice of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the UN reporting channels.