Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 26:
Taking serious note of the rising trend of human trafficking in the North East region, DGP AK Parashar today assured that the State police will leave no stone unturned to check such practices and stressed that laws on human trafficking should be made mandatory in the course of police training.
Speaking at the one day programme on "State consultations on rights based anti-trafficking programming, Manipur," at the banquet hall of 1st MR today, the DGP said that the State police have registered some cases of child trafficking and investigation is underway.
On child trafficking, the DGP said that the police will take it as a moral and social duty "as if the children are our own children.
This will also be ingrained in the minds of the police officers." Informing that the provisions of Juvenile Justice Act and other related laws of trafficking are quite something new to the police, Parashar stressed on the need to sensitise the police force to these laws.
The laws should be made mandatory in the training of police officers, he said and hoped that the Social Welfare Department will extend its support to this endeavour.
Though cases of women trafficking are not heard in Manipur, the practice is found in other parts of the country and the North East region.
The women are trafficked not only for sexual exploitation and prostitution but also for forced marriages, he added.
Poverty, ignorance, lack of education and knowledge are the main factors for the rising trend of human trafficking, said the police chief and assured that in collaboration with NGOs the State police will put in its best efforts to check such social menace.
Project Co-ordinator of the United Nations Officer on Drugs and Crime, Ajit Roy said that human trafficking is the third most dangerous organised crime in the world after drugs and arms.
This should be dealt by both the law enforcing agencies as well as the NGOs he observed.
The programme was organised by Shillong based Impulse NGO Network and supported by the UNODC.
Hasina Khirbhih, president of Impulse NGO Network said that the objectives of the programme include sharing information of rescued people, methodologies used by Impulse NGO Network on combating human trafficking, solution seeking through experience-State specific needs, cross regional networking to aid easier repatriation of the rescued people etc.
Till date Impulse NGO Network has detected 300 cases of human trafficking in the entire country, she informed.
Hasina also disclosed that a large number of trafficked persons are untraceable and added that a Manipuri girl is one of them.
The Manipuri girl along with nine others were sold to a brothel at Mumbai and they were kept at the custody of a lawyer, she informed.
The lawyer then sold the girls to a pimp in the area.
When the matter came to light one of the girls was rescued but the rest are yet to be located.
The lawyer's license was also cancelled by a Court following a Public Interest Litigation filed, Hasina who is also the vice-chairperson of the Meghalaya State Women Commission said.