Assam tops the list of having maximum number of Human Trafficking cases

Guwahati, November 8: Human Trafficking is the monster that is stuck over the corners of India. It’s saddening that Assam topped the list in having the maximum number of human trafficking cases in 2015-16 while on another side Assam also received the best award in 2017 for rescuing as many as 194 trafficked persons. 

Human trafficking in Assam has diverse shades for diverse purposes. Trafficking may be through threat, use of force, abduction, fraud and abuse of power, including giving or receiving payments of benefits. Likewise, traffic may be for physical and sexual exploitation and removal of organs that come under Section 370 of IPC. Human trafficking has assumed the status of a fast-growing crime in Assam and its investigation is challenging.

State DIG (CID) Raunak Ali Hazarika said “The victims are mostly from poor families. The agents of a trafficking network are also, in most of the cases, known to the persons being trafficked. This is essentially a business of ‘reposing trust and breaching it’. The agents convince family members that their daughters or sons will be placed in jobs in the metropolitan cities. Trains, buses and waterways are the most used modes of transportation by traffickers.

Factors responsible for such a fast growth of crimes are poverty, lack of awareness among guardians as well as wards, lack of education, geographical remoteness of Assam and the huge demand of manpower, especially girls, in the metropolitan cities of the country. Communal and ethnic clashes in the State, besides insurgency, also add to the menace. Trafficked girls from Assam are generally sent to North India and South Western India.”

Revealing information from National Criminal Record Bureau (NCRB), the DIG said “In 2016-17 Sonitpur district topped the list in the number of trafficking cases in the State. It was followed by Morigaon with 21 cases, Kamrup with 17 cases, Nagoan with 17 cases, Tinsukia with 15 cases, Kamrup(M) with 14 cases and Dhubri with 13 cases. In 2015-16, the State topped the list in the nation on human trafficking with as many as 1,494 cases registered. There might be more cases that were not registered. In some communities, gaonburhas settle such cases and they don’t allow victims or their families to register cases. Such cases are mostly found in Nagaland and Manipur.”