GUWAHATI, Nov 26 - Police today rescued seven minors, including three girls, from Rangiya while they were being trafficked to Southern India.
The two traffickers involved in the exercise were also arrested by the police and would be produced before the local court tomorrow.
The minors, according to police, were from Sonitpur and Bhalukpong (Arunachal) and were being taken to Chennai, promising lucrative jobs.
Activists of the State chapter of Bachhpan Bachao Andolan also rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation and provided counselling to the children.
�The children were kept in a house to avoid suspicion. They would now be produced before the child welfare committee and thereafter would be handed over to their family members,� sources said.
Sources informed that the children were to be handed over to a placement agency in Chennai, which had promised to pay all the expenses and an additional amount of commission to the traffickers.
Southern India, according to Rakesh Senger, director of victim assistance and campaign (BBA), has emerged as the new destination of child trafficking in India where children from across the country, especially the remote areas, are being trafficked only to be exploited as cheap labour and in massage parlours.
�Places like Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad have witnessed alarming increase in the number of unisex salons and massage centres, which in recent times have been caught on the wrong foot. There is no law to monitor these centres and illegal activities continue to thrive. Girls from the Northeast are pushed into this business. In the last couple of years massage corners and parlours in Southern India have increased by nearly five times,� Senger said.
