GUWAHATI, Dec 7 � With the North-east and Assam in particular emerging as one of the biggest source area, transit route and destination for trafficking of children, even the Supreme Court has felt the need to support social movement against child trafficking.
Chief Justice of India, Justice Altamas Kabir will flag off the �March Against Child Labour and Trafficking� organized by Bachpan Bachao Andolan and Global March Against Child Labour on December 8 in Guwahati. Senior most judge of the apex court Justice DK Jain will also be part of the flagging off ceremony. The march will start from the campus of Rashtrabhasa Prachar Samity, Rupnagar.
This 300km march, which also has the support of the Government of Assam and Assam State Legal Services Authority, will pass through remote areas of Nalbari, Barpeta, Sorbhog, Bongaigaon, Chapar, Bilasipara and Dhubri, and sensitize the masses on the issue of child trafficking. Trafficking of children from these interior areas has been increasing of late due to multiple factors like extreme poverty, insurgency, illiteracy, natural calamities, etc.
Founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan Kailash Satyarthi, addressing media persons here today, said that children from the North-east States, especially girls are trafficked for forced labour as domestic helps in metropolitan cities.
�Girls trafficked from North-east, particularly Assam, are sold at brothels in the cities. Stakes are sky high. A procurer gets anywhere between Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh for each girl supplied depending upon her age,� said Satyarthi adding that boys as young as 8 or 9 from the region are trafficked to work in the garment manufacturing sector in the South.
It needs to be mentioned here that the objective of the march being held here is to create awareness about trafficking right at the source, that is the remote villages of Assam and building partnership with village defence parties and demanding concrete time bound action by the government to counter child labour and trafficking. Rescued children will lead the march and appeal to the people to give the children back their childhood.
Satyarthi said that placement agencies in New Delhi have been into organized crime like child trafficking, and around 40 of them are run by people from the North-east to lure children from the region. He regretted that though child trafficking has been on the rise in the State, prosecution and conviction rate was very poor.
