Assam will soon have fund for the rehabilitation and welfare of trafficked children.
Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi announced this on Tuesday after emerging from a meeting with Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi here. He said the fund will initially be set up with about Rs2 crore.
“I met Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today (Tuesday) and assured us all help regarding setting up of the fund to help the trafficked children. He has also assured to give Rs1 crore while we, on behalf of the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation, are going to manage another Rs1 crore by taking corporate help to set up the fund in Assam,” said the Nobel laureate.
“The fund will initially be used in Assam and can be replicated to other States of the northeastern region later. The fund will be used for generating awareness against child trafficking, help the victims and their rehabilitation etc,” Satyarthi said.
Expressing concern over the fact that the North-East region of India has become a hub for children trafficking, Satyarthi said that all the factors that leads to children trafficking — poverty, illiteracy, violence, natural calamities — are all present in the northeastern region.
He said that he has suggested the Assam Chief Minister to make an action plan to tackle the menace of children trafficking considering the magnitude of the problem in Assam and in other parts of the northeastern region, which are equally prone to the issue.
Satyarthi’s move assumes significance considering the fact that about 9,500 children went missing from different places in Assam between 2007 and June 2014. Police and different NGOs working for the children could, however, recover only 3,840 children during the period and the rest remained missing till date.
A recent study carried out by the Unicef identified seven Assam districts-Sonitpur, Dhemaji, lakhimpur, Baksa, Kokrajhar, Udalguri and Kamrup as the most vulnerable districts for human trafficking.
Many children belonging to poor families in Assam and Manipur have been rescued in the past from children home in States like Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. They are normally taken out of the State with the promise of good education and care but were many times found living in uncongenial atmosphere. Many children even faced physical, sexual and emotional harassment.