RANGIA: Fifteen people, including three minors, from Kumarikata village in Baksa district were stopped from being trafficked to Kerala after being lured for work and a better life. The incident was brought to light by Assam Centre for Rural Development (ACRD), an NGO working on child trafficking and child rights in Kamrup (M), Kamrup and Baksa.
According to the NGO’s team members who intervened in the case, one of the two suspects who had planned on trafficking the victims had returned from Kerala a week earlier. A local woman from the same village was asked to gather these victims and convince them to go for work in a factory in Kerala. The Railway Protection Force, Rangia, was informed about the case and the suspected traffickers, along with the victims were interrogated by the police, but their statements kept changing and the victims were sent back to their respective homes after being counseled.
“The trafficker knew about our family’s financial instability and convinced my parents that if I went to work in Kerala, they would pay me decently,” said one of the victims.
“Human trafficking is rampant in Assam. Most human trafficking cases go unreported due to a lack of proper information furnished by the victims. The victims are mostly from poor families, and the traffickers take advantage of their economic situation. Human trafficking has risen after the COVID-19 pandemic as people’s livelihoods have been severely affected. Therefore, intervention by agencies like us is the need of the hour,” said Executive Director of ACRD Prerna Changkakati.
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