Though Uttarakhand is considered a comparatively safer State, in recent years cases of trafficking of women and minors are also coming to light. According to data from the police, there were 18 registered cases of women and three cases of children trafficked and rescued in 2016 with the number of such cases increasing to 12 women and seven girls rescued in the first four months of this year. The maximum trafficking victims were rescued from Haridwar, Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar districts.
According to the data from police headquarters between 2016 and April 2018, there has been a rise in the number of cases pertaining to trafficking of women. In 2016, a total of 18 women were identified as trafficking victims and rescued from different districts of the state. In the same year, two girls and one boy were also rescued. Two men were also rescued. In the year 2017, 22 women were identified and rescued apart from 10 girls, five boys and two men rescued. In the year 2018 till April, 12 women and seven girls were rescued from different districts of the state. The maximum cases of trafficking in these three years are from Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar districts.
In the year 2016, 13 women were rescued from Dehradun, two each from Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts and one from Champawat district. Two girls were rescued from Udham Singh Nagar and one boy from Pithoragarh district apart from two men from Dehradun district.
The number of trafficked persons rescued rose in 2017 with the highest number of women-12 being rescued from Haridwar district, six from Udham Singh Nagar district, three from Dehradun and one from Uttarkashi.
During the same year, five girls were rescued from Haridwar, three from Dehradun and one each from Champawat and Pithoragarh districts whereas four boys were rescued from Haridwar and one from Dehradun district. Two men were also rescued from Dehradun district.
In the year 2018 (till April) 12 women were rescued with nine of them in Dehradun. Seven girls were also rescued from various parts of the State.
Talking about the issue of women trafficking, secretary of state women commission Kamini Gupta said, “In my opinion we should create a proper system to spot the trafficking areas which will help us to rescue more women forced into trafficking. Also, educating women living in every part is important from school level along with the information on varied help provided by women commision, police, various helplines and others. This way we can rescue more women and girls in future.”
Talking to The Pioneer chairperson of State Commission for protection of child rights (SCPCR) Usha Negi said, “Trafficking of minors is done mostly to force children into beggary, child labour or molestation especially with the girls. To tackle this we have formed a task force in every district that monitors trafficking cases and also spots the child labourers.”
She further said, “To be more effective in rescuing these children and giving them good environment, we have sent a letter to the chief secretary asking to allow us to use the vacant school buildings as shelter homes for such deprived kids in various districts. We are also forming a system of keeping a record of missing children from various districts which will help identifying them among rescued children.”
She also stressed on the need for coordinated efforts by both government departments and non governmental organisations to tackle this issue more effectively.