In view of the fact that human trafficking cases are on the rise in the State, the police department is mulling to set up three more anti-human trafficking units. The Central Government has released Rs22 lakh for purchasing items like tables, chairs, computers and other necessary equipments by way of building infrastructure for the upcoming three human trafficking units in the State.
Uttarakhand already has four human trafficking cells and the number would reach seven with three being added, said State additional director general of police Ram Singh Meena.
Statistics related to human trafficking happening in various police stations of the State has revealed that there has been a rapid increase in cases of women and teen-aged girls going missing with possibility of being trafficked over the past many years.
A police officer said that the human trafficking menace is assuming alarming proportions in the State. Gullible locals are often lured away by lucrative job offers, landing them subsequently into the traps of the traffickers.
Women and teen-aged girls are being transported in other States like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, with the traffickers luring them with the offer of providing them with jobs or arranging for them marriages.
ADGP Meena said that training programme is being organised from time to time at the range levels and policemen are acquainted with the Centre’s guidelines on how to deal with human trafficking cases and the victims’ rehabilitation.
An instruction has been issued that the police will be assigned with the tasks and their performance at the cells they are deployed will be reviewed every week. Teams will be deployed in the villages where human trafficking cases have happened in the past.
They will interact with the pradhans and chowkidars to get the details of the missing persons and action will be taken accordingly, he added.
He said that anti-human trafficking units of the State police will launch a massive awareness drive with particular focus on the remote areas vulnerable to human trafficking in order to stop the people from being entrapped by the traffickers.
Villagers would be asked to be on their guard regarding offers of job or other offers, however lucrative, coming from well-off persons. “Through the drives, police will ask the locals that they should not entertain such offers coming from strangers since acceptance might land them into trouble. So, they had better spurn such offers and inform police immediately if they find any suspicious person loitering around in their areas,” he said.
He further said that the units would appeal to people to lodge complaint immediately after a child goes missing so that the trafficking units could get into their acts sharp after being informed.
“We would ensure fast action in each of the reported cases. Such awareness and cooperation would surely help the units to trap the traffickers and have their networks busted,” he said.
Observer opines that coordination among different agencies working to eliminate human trafficking, effective crackdown on traffickers and rehabilitation of the victims would go a long way in stamping out the menace.
“All concerned must work in tandem to eliminate the menace that is taking its toll in the mountainous parts of the under-developed State,” said an observer.
The Central and the State Governments have, however, taken several measures over the past few years to stop the practice of human trafficking. To boost anti-trafficking operation and the rehabilitation of the survivors, the government is engaged in strengthening women and child development departments as well as health department by providing them with required funds.
It is also seeking to give further teeth to the State Child Protection Scheme and Child Welfare Committee by empowering them more to help them play their role in the crucial task of freeing the society from the clutches of traffickers.