SHILLONG: The issue of human trafficking appears to be unassuming on the surface but a closer look reveals that it is a cause for concern, Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir has said.
Addressing a gathering at the 2nd Regional Consultation on Child Rights in the Context of Human Trafficking (sex and bonded labour) in North East India at Yojana Bhavan in the city on Saturday, Mir, who is also Patron-in-Chief of Meghalaya State Legal Services Authority (MSLSA), said the North East has emerged as hub of human trafficking in India, where unemployment, poverty, migration for search of jobs are some of the reasons of human trafficking.
Pointing out that Meghalaya has the largest number of child trafficking after Assam, Mir said in the coal mines of Jaintia Hills, thousands of children are working in hazardous conditions. Assam has the highest number of trafficking cases in the country with 1494 cases. The state accounts for 22 per cent of the total reported cases of trafficking as per report released by the National Crime Records Bureau in 2015.
He noted that Assam with protracted insurgency problem coupled with recurrent flood, peculiar geographical setting has made it 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 is still active in the state. On Manipur scenario, Justice Mir said the state has emerged as the new source of cross border human trafficking in India and also being used as an easy transit route. Justice Mir said introspection is 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.
The consultation was organised by International Justice Mission and North East for Child Rights under the aegis of the Nagaland State Legal Services Authority and MSLSA.
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 opposite pole as trafficking crushes the rights of a child. He lamented whether enough has been done to identify the vulnerable sections, and whether data has been analyzed so that the legal services authority can penetrate into the vulnerable areas.
The one day consultation was also graced by Justice S.R.Sen, the Executive Chairman of the MSLSA, besides resource persons.
Member Secretaries of SLSAs of NE region also released Shillong declaration of child right in the context of human trafficking.
About 230 members from the eight north east states represented by State Legal Services Authorities, District Legal Services Authorities, Child Welfare Committee, Police Department, CHILDLINE, Social Welfare and students from Shillong law college and NEHU attended the consultation.
