Guwahati, Aug. 10: The Tarun Gogoi government is banking on the old guard to tackle the relatively new trend of girls from rural Assam leaving their villages for the big cities with dreams in their eyes and disappearing into the black holes of prostitution.

Social welfare minister Ajanta Neog said today that her department would involve the traditional institution of gaonburas, or village heads, in saving girls from traffickers who trawl the rural belt in search of easy prey.

The decision is based on the Assam State Commission for Women’s recommendation that gaonburas, who are known to still wield clout in the villages, be trained along with police to prevent trafficking at the grassroots.

The chairperson of the commission, Mridula Saharia, said most girls who leave their homes are lured into prostitution with false promises of jobs, marriage or careers in showbiz. “Since gaonburas are known to influence even individual decisions, their involvement in the campaign could be an effective deterrent to the problem.”

Trafficking is one of the fastest growing illicit businesses, next only to drug peddling and gunrunning. Criminal syndicates manage their business in a co-ordinated manner, focusing on areas where the chance of finding gullible women is the highest.

Inspector-general (CID) D.K. Bora, who is also the nodal officer of the anti-trafficking unit of Assam police, said 250 women and 200 minor girls go missing from the state on an average every year.

The women’s commission has suggested that village headmen be trained to convince girls in their villages about the “lurking danger beneath the rosy picture” painted by traffickers and inform them of the economic opportunities available under government schemes tailormade for women’s empowerment.

“The idea is basically to evolve a mechanism for community vigilance,” Saharia said.

The women’s commission placed the proposal before the government on July 31 and it immediately found favour.

Neog said she would convene a meeting soon to work out the modalities for implementing the recommendation. “We will put the idea to practice after consultations with the commission.”

Apart from the involvement of village heads in the campaign, the women’s commission has made a case for a system of monitoring and evaluating whether the benefits of schemes for economic empowerment were percolating down to the rural belt.