A State Level Round-Table Discussion on World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, which is marked annually on 30 July, was conducted by Save the Children in collaboration with the Rural Management Programme of Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Ranchi here on Thursday. This year's theme for the day is "Use and Abuse of Technology," and a number of distinguished speakers were invited to talk on the topic to raise awareness about the condition of human trafficking victims, as well as to promote and safeguard their rights.
Dr Pradeep Kerketta, Assistant Director, XISS, Ranchi, talked about the core factors of trafficking as well as the impact that technology has played in enabling traffickers to spread further into rural and interior regions through enhanced communication and transportation systems. Further discussing child trafficking with an emphasis on Jharkhand, Mahadev Hansda from Save the Children appealed human trafficking is a massive violation of human rights and should not be tolerated.
Asunta Lakra, National Hockey player and former National Captain, spoke on the different social dynamics that support human trafficking and the necessity for awareness to stop it. It is very important that the family environment in every house should be safe and every girl needs to be protected and should be given the chance to dream big.
The programme followed with a panel discussion, which was chaired by Dr Anant Kumar, Head of Programme (HoP), Rural Management Programme. The panellists were Dr Rajshree Verma, Assistant Professor, RM, XISS along with Nidhi Dwivedi, IPS, SP, CID; Priti Srivastava, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF, Jharkhand.
Several topics subjects concerning the social, legal, and gender dimensions of human trafficking were also covered during the program. During the programme, the role of technology in both aspects, the dark side, which promotes trafficking, and the bright side, which can be used to control it, was discussed in detail. The Valedictory session was coordinated by Soumi Halder, Manager-Campaigns & Communication, Save the Children.