SHILLONG, April 18 - The Centre has chalked out a four-pronged strategy to stop the dangerous trend of child and women trafficking in the Northeastern States which has become the epicentre of such trafficking, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said today.
As part of the strategy to combat trafficking, three railway stations in the Eastern-Northeastern region, out of 20 in the country � Guwahati, Sealdah and Jalpaiguri � were identified as major sources from where these children and women are being trafficked. One hundred more railway stations are being identified throughout the country where child and women trafficking is rampant.
�Railways are the main vehicles of such trafficking. So trains originating and passing through Guwahati, Sealdah and Jalpaiguri railway stations would be monitored,� the Union Minister said during a Regional Conference of Northeastern States on Child Adoption here today.
An estimated five lakh children and women are trafficked through trains annually throughout the country, Maneka informed.
Therefore, trains coming to and from Guwahati-Sealdah-Jalpaiguri stations would have posters where three phone numbers to contact railway police and childline would be available to report any suspicious movement of children and women.
Informing about the �enormous number of women and child being trafficked from the North East,� she said some of the victims were being trafficked to far-off countries such as Malaysia and Thailand, apart from Kerala,Tamil Nadu and other States within the country.
Exhorting Northeastern States to do more on the issue, she said the Centre would soon issue guidelines to all States to appoint one Woman Special Police Officer in each village.
The role of the woman official would be to keep a vigil on the village, in coordination with the police, and monitor children and women and report any missing cases or abuses.
The third strategy, the Centre has mooted, is to have �panic button� integrated in all mobile phones. Once the panic button is pressed, in times of impending threat, an SOS would be sent to the nearest police station and also ten people close to the potential victim.
�We are in talks with mobile companies and both new and old cell phones would soon be having these panic buttons,� she informed.
Finally, the Centre has also created a new website www.khoyapaya.gov.in where anyone can get to see all the missing children. She also stated anyone can upload picture of missing children or can also upload a picture of a child on the street or at any place if suspicion of trafficking is aroused.
�We can save a lot of children and women if these steps are properly implemented,� the Union Minister said.
