10 from Assam including minors rescued from human trafficking racket in Arunachal

The Assam Police rescued 10 people, including eight minors, all of whom were sold by their parents to traffickers in Arunachal Pradesh.

By Saraswat Kashyap: The Assam Police on Tuesday successfully rescued 10 people, including eight minors, from the upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh.

The rescue operation took place based on a complaint lodged by one of the neighbours of the trafficked children. Following the complaint, the Doomdooma Police, in close coordination with officials of the Talap police outpost in the border district of Assam, launched a probe.

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The Assam Police has arrested two people — 26-year-old Deep Jyoti Gogoi, a resident of Assam's North Lakhimpur district and Dipak Karmakar (30), hailing from Tinsukia district — who acted as intermediaries and facilitated the trafficking of the children from Assam to Arunachal Pradesh.

The Tinsukia Police has registered a case against the duo under Section 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave) of the IPC.

THE INVESTIGATION

During the investigation, police found that all those rescued came from very humble families and lived in the tea garden areas in Assam.

All 10 of them were handed over to the two middlemen by their parents in exchange for money.

While talking to the media, Tinsukia Superintendent of Police Gaurav Abhijit Dilip said, “Both the middlemen approached the families of the children and lured them with an offer of good jobs and money. They convinced the parents to hand over their wards to them. The accused have not revealed how much money they paid to the parents.”

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The accused then took the victims to the Upper Subansiri district in Arunachal Pradesh and sold them to a child trafficking racket. The children were then sold to wealthy families to work in their homes as domestic help.

THE RESCUE

After interrogating the middlemen, who confessed to having sold the victims to a trafficking racket in Arunachal Pradesh, the Assam Police got in touch with the Nacho Police and rescued the victims.

After being rescued, they were kept in a child care home for some time and post proper counseling, they were handed over to their respective families.

CHILD TRAFFICKING A MAJOR PROBLEM IN ASSAM

The Assam Police has launched a thorough investigation into the matter and are in constant touch with the Arunachal Pradesh Police to bust the child trafficking racket.

Reportedly, the most vulnerable districts for child trafficking are Assam's capital Guwahati, many districts in the northern part of the state, such as Sonitpur and Lakhimpur, Upper Assam's Tinsukia and Dibrugarh, and Baksa, Udalguri, Kokrajhar of Bodoland territorial region.

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While 481 children were trafficked from other parts of Assam between 2017 and 2022, maximum 77 children have been trafficked from Guwahati.

On the other hand, 59 child trafficking cases were reported from Lakhimpur, 44 from Udalguri, 43 from Sonirpur, 36 from Morigaon and 31 cases from Kokrajhar districts during this period.

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Altogether, 625 children were rescued by the state police, Government Railway Police (GRP) and the anti-human trafficking unit of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the state police force.

STEPS TAKEN BY GOVT, NGOs

Several NGOs are working day and night with the law-enforcement agencies to prevent child trafficking.

“Some of the reasons for child trafficking are natural disaster, poverty, lack of awareness, lack of vocational training. In recent times, alcohol addiction and substance abuse among parents are also reasons why children fall prey to trafficking. Parents should not allow their children to drop out of school, education gives them a sense of maturity and understanding,” Babita Saikia, state coordinator of Bachpan Bachao, told India Today.

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“Parents should inform the gram panchayat authorities and local police before sending their children for any kind of work. If possible, they should take advice from the district labour welfare department also,” said Saikia.

The Assam government has also taken various steps to curb the growing menace of child trafficking in the state.

The government has been filing cases under The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 and The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 to investigate trafficking cases.

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The state government has also formed an Anti-Human Trafficking Unit and the Special Juvenile Police in all districts to prevent such crimes.