Kokrajhar, Dec. 4: Nedan Foundation, a Kokrajhar-based NGO, today carried out a wall-poster campaign in various public places of the district as part of its drive against child trafficking.
The campaign coincides with the 16 Days of Activism on Violence Against Women and Girls, which is held from November 25 to December 10.
Every8Minutes and Missing Girls, in collaboration with 10 NGOs across India, had launched a national campaign on child trafficking on November 25. Launched by iPartner India, Every8Minutes is the first campaign of its kind that aims to curb child trafficking.
Using art for activism, NGOs working on child trafficking and education in different cities are carrying out paint silhouettes of young girls using the #Every8minutes and #missingirls on public walls in vulnerable areas across India. The campaign will raise awareness and provide solutions about how hundreds of girls and young women go missing everyday in India, said Digambar Narzary, chairman of Nedan Foundation.
Through the campaign, local communities are provided with child helpline numbers and contact details of local NGOs working on child trafficking so that if they see any child in danger or a child missing, they may immediately contact them and seek help.
"The campaign is crucial at a time where 55 per cent of those missing are girls and 45 per cent of all missing children have remained untraceable till now, raising fears of them having been either killed or pushed into begging or prostitution rackets," he said. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, every eight minutes a child goes missing in India, of which 40 per cent have not been found.
Narzary said since 2004, the NGO has rescued over 500 victims; mostly minors and young women and helped police arrest and imprison 14 traffickers. Of the rescued, 146 were minors and 352 adults.
He said the reasons for trafficking being rampant in Assam have mainly been poverty, unemployment, forced migration, insurgency, communal clashes, demographic displacement and false promises of marriage. A recent study has highlighted Assam as the country's second highest trafficking zone, while a study by Unicef has identified seven districts - Udalguri, Kokrajhar, Baksa, Sonitpur, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur and Kamrup - as the most vulnerable to trafficking.
According to data available with the CID, Assam police have rescued 422 victims of human trafficking, mostly minors, and arrested 281 offenders between July 2011 and April 2014.
Official records show that among the 93 victims rescued from trafficking in 2011, 36 were minors of whom 28 were girls. The number of victims went up to 188 in 2013 and 94 were found to be below 18 years.
The anti-child trafficking campaign will be implemented in eight cities across India. Every8Minutes and Missing is collaborating with other organisations in the eight cities for the campaign.
like Association for the Promotion of Social Change in Bangalore, Pardada Pardadi Educational Society in Anupshar, Uttar Pradesh, Jamghat in Delhi, Rapid Action For Human Advancement Tradition in Kishanganj, Bihar, Vatsalya in Jaipur, Prerna in Mumbai, Udayan Care and STOP - Trafficking of Women and Girls in Delhi and Humari Muskan in Calcutta to run the campaign in their local communities.