The ‘India Eastern Territory Anti-Human Trafficking Project’, which is part of the Salvation Army’s global operation, was today inaugurated at the Aizawl Temple’s Booth’s conference hall here by state transport minister P C Zoramsangliana.
Anti-human trafficking programme was started in Mizoram by the Salvation Army in 2005, and the project launched today was a reinforcement of its ongoing programme.
The project is a joint venture of the Salvation Army of the United Kingdom and Mizoram and will cover senstitive areas in the India’s North East such as Moreh (near Manipur-Myanmar border), Imphal, Churachandpur, Shillong, Guwahati, Siliguri, Fatapukur, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Namchi.
(Picture: Mizoram Supermodels Photo)
The areas of operation may be extended as necessary in due course.
Raising awareness of human trafficking, and particularly human sex trafficking through the delivery of seminars and presentations to various groups within and outside of The Salvation Army; trainings to take place in social service units that are most likely to come into contact with trafficked persons so that they are able to recognize a trafficked victim and know what to do in this case; developing partnerships with local law enforcement on the issue as well as with other like-minded groups and organizations; developing intentional ministry specific to commercially sexually exploited adults and youths are one of the major modes of operation.
The Salvation Army’s organ Community Health Action Network (CHAN), which is undertaking the operation, has received a number of cases related to human trafficking.
Human trafficking has gone on to become one of the most serious issues plaguing the country in general, and the north-east in particular.
Police and activists have raised an alarm that human traffickers are increasingly turning to India’s poor and insurgency-wracked northeastern states in their search for young girls to work in big city brothels.
According to sources, more than 300 women and children are trafficked cross border in the state of Meghalaya alone.
Over the past five years there has been a rise in reports of missing girls from the remote region of the eight states, an increase which authorities believe is due to trafficking. Police say at least 700 girls from the region have been reported missing over the last five years, 300 of whom disappeared in 2005 alone. But activists estimate thousands of northeastern girls disappear every year – most of whom are not reported by families due to the stigma associated with being part of the sex trade.
Traffickers are mostly women, often well-known in their respective villages, who promise poor, rural families good jobs for their daughters, most of whom are between 12 and 16.
But in reality, they sell the girls to brothel owners in towns and cities like New Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata, earning between Rs 20,000 – Rs 40,000 for each girl. Police estimate that around 20 percent of the girls in India’s big city brothels come from the northeast. At least one million Indian girls and women work in
India’s sex industry which is estimated to be worth around Rs 400 billion annually, according to the UNODC.
The rise in the number of girls disappearing from states like Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh is partly due to tighter surveillance on India’s northeastern border with Nepal, where most girls were being trafficked from before.
Authorities say increased security along the border to curb Maoist insurgencies in both countries has deterred many traffickers, and the number of Nepali girls being brought into India annually has halved from around 10,000 three or four years ago.
Police, who are more used to fighting rebels in the troubled region, are now receiving training on issues ranging from dealing with traumatised victims to the legal complexities of investigating the crime.
“The police were not aware of such things earlier, they are still a little raw in dealing in dealing with such cases,” said T Pachuau, director of the Northeast Police Academy. “We are training them to get better and investigate with full authority.”