Brahmapur has now turned an epicentre of human trafficking in the State. The reasons include city’s strategic location on Howarah-Chennai NH with good rail and road link, proximity with tribal dominated regions like Kandhamal, Gajapati, Phulbani, Mohana and Bhanjanagar, lack of strict vigil by police, besides poverty of the region.
According to a NGO activist, the human traffickers have now shifted their attention from the weaker sections to school students and half-literate young boys and girls who easily become soft targets on attractive offers like employment and marriage by the brokers. More particularly, the railway station of Brahmapur has become the most effective transit point for human trafficking.
According to information available, around 270 children were rescued from being trafficked to other States in last one and a half years by the joint efforts of Child line activists and Government Railway Police (GRP) from the railway station here. Out of 270, there are 114 girls between the age of 18 and 20 years which is quite alarming.
Most of the children rescued since 2014 are teenage girls who hail from Kandhamal, Gajapati and Ganjam districts, said NGO ISRD-Childline director Sudhir Sabat. He said child rights campaigners with the help of GRP personnel have been raiding trains and railway stations to foil trafficking bid, while in some cases, the traffickers manage to escape from the spot.
Giving details about some operations, he said that the campaigners rescued 16 teenagers on May 20. Five of them were from Kandhamal, while others were from Cuttack and Dhenkanal districts respectively. Similarly, the GRP arrested four persons, including three women, for trafficking the girls to Samalkot and Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh promising them jobs in different firms, said Childline Brahmapur coordinator Prabhu Prasad Patra.
Similarly on June 6, police rescued four children from a bus stand at Daringibadi in Kandhamal district while they were waiting for a bus to come to Brahmapur railway station from where they would have taken a train to Mumbai. In the case, a person from Jharkhand was arrested. Two children belonging to Kandhamal were rescued after being trafficked to Tamil Nadu, while three others of Gajapati district had been rescued from Goa, said the Childline activists.
More shockingly, Brahmapur railway station has emerged as a major transit point because it has good road connectivity with Gajapati and Khandamal districts. They come here in buses to catch trains of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Andhra Pradesh, the campaigners said. There is growing public perception in favour of establishing an anti-human trafficking unit at Brahmapur railway station to crack down on child traffickers.
At present, one unit is operating in the police headquarters of the district which is not able to meet the growing menace, sources said.
Parents also need to be more sensitive and conscious about the increasing trend of human trafficking in the district. Most of the children who become soft victims are from remote areas of Ganjam, Gajapati, Phulbani, Mohana, Darinigibadi and Surada, sources said.
It may be noted that on May 20 last, 16 minor children were rescued from the Brahmapur railway station through a raid jointly undertaken by the GRP and the Child line, sources said. Out of 20 rescued, five were from Kandhamal while the remaining children were from Cuttack and Dhenkanal. GRP had arrested three female and one male human trafficker on the issue.
There are several instances of physical and mental torture including engaging the female children in flesh trade in metros causing serious concern for the State machinery. Though a two-day-long workshop was held in the recent past in the office of the DIG (SR) to sensitize the IICs of different police stations of south Odisha to make the anti-human trafficking units more effective and responsive, yet it has not shown any results.
However, according to Brahmapur SP Dr Sarthak Sadangi, the special anti-human trafficking unit in district police headquarters is already functioning well. It is headed by two officers of DSP and ASI rank, who make effective raids immediately after they get any complaint on the issue.
Till date, 12-15 cases have already been registered and investigations are on to book the culprits. Since the unit has been newly started, there is no sufficient manpower and fund to cope with the emerging workload which will be looked into in due course of time to make the unit more vibrant, he added. Even though IAHTU (Integrated Anti Human Trafficking Unit) has started functioning in every district police headquarters of the State over last two years exclusively to investigate and combat trafficking, kidnapping, forcible marriage, sexual abuse and exploitation of women and children in the State, but children and women trafficking continues unabated, said a social activist.