SHILLONG: The issue of human trafficking appears to be unassuming on the surface but a closer look reveals that the human trafficking has reached a menacing proportion.
Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir, Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court and Patron-in-Chief, Meghalaya State Legal Services Authority (MSLSA) stated this while delivering the keynote address at the 2nd Regional Consultation on Child Right in the Context of Human Trafficking (sex & bonded labour) in North East India at Yojana Bhavan, Shillong on Saturday.
The consultation was organised by International Justice Mission (IJM) & North East for Child Rights under the aegis of the Nagaland State Legal Services Authority (NSLSA) and Meghalaya State Legal Services Authority (MSLSA).
Justice Mir further lamented that the North East had emerged as hub of human trafficking in India, where unemployment, poverty, migration for search of jobs are some of the reasons of human trafficking.
He said Assam with 1494 registered cases had the highest number of trafficking cases in the country.
The state (Assam) accounts for 22% of the total reported cases of trafficking as per report released by National Crime Records Bureau 2015. He noted that protracted insurgency problem coupled with recurrent flood, peculiar geographical setting had made Assam vulnerable to infiltration.
While lauding Mizoram for being the first state in NE to formulate the Victim of Crime Compensation Scheme, Justice Mir, however, said that in spite of these novel measures, human trafficking was still active in the state.
On Manipur scenario, Justice Mir said the state had emerged as the new source of cross border human trafficking in India and also being used as an easy transit route.
He also pointed out that Meghalaya had the largest number of child trafficking cases after Assam, he said that in the coal mines of Jaintia hills, Meghalaya thousands of children were working in hazardous conditions.
While highlighting these scenarios, Justice Mir said introspection was required to meet the challenge of human trafficking. He said collective responsibility of stakeholders, state legal services authority and police to take care of the rights of the children and save them from being exploited.
Delivering special address, Justice Arup Kumar Goswami, Chief Justice (Acting) Gauhati High Court and Patron-in-Chief, NSLSA said child rights and human trafficking are concepts which are at opposite poles as trafficking crushes the rights of a child.
He lamented whether enough had been done to identify the vulnerable sections, and whether data had been analyzed so that the legal services authority could penetrate into the vulnerable areas.
The one-day consultation was also graced by Justice S R Sen, the Executive Chairman of the MSLSA besides other resource persons.