Manipur Alliance for Child Rights: Child Trafficking : Many rescued yet dozens of minor traceless since 2010

Friday, August 3, 2012

Child Trafficking : Many rescued yet dozens of minor traceless since 2010

- Part 1 -

James Khangenbam *

Human Trafficking : Many rescued yet dozens of minor traceless since 2010

Child Trafficking :: An illustration by Bunti Phurailatpam

The rescue of trafficked children was worthwhile as the kids must be playing football in green fields by now with no health issue and caring parents.

I came across a 12 year old child rescued from Tamil Nadu and brought to RIMS Psychiatric ward by CWC (Child Welfare Committee) Bishenpur way back in 2010. He stood naked before the doctors who were observing his skin thicken with overgrown chicken pox. Symptoms of malnutrition were vivid. He had acquired the health issue over a period of time and had overcome several traumas. He met such hardship in a wonder land with no love at a tender age depriving the joyful innocence of a normal childhood. To me, he stood as a testimony of deprived happiness in the trafficked destiny where children had to sleep with empty stomach and itchy skins and wake up for another unhappy day.

At any given point of time, the vulnerability of tender age should not be ignored, was the feeling I came across in my mind the moment I saw some other trafficked girls and boys laying on the hospital bed at the psychiatric ward of RIMS Lamphelpat. Upon enquiry, the CWC officials said that they will be taken back home after treatment by child psychologists and is a part of the rehabilitation programme.

However to our utmost dismay, 74 minor girls (7 - 12 years) from Manipur and Assam are traceless till date and the miserable life they would be leading are beyond our imagination. Way back in 2010, the Police personnel and Child Welfare Committee while interviewing 76 children rescued from Bedesta Blessing Home came to know about the missing kids.

Child Trafficking :: An illustration by Bunti Phurailatpam

According to DIG Kanyakumari, a native of Manipur named Paul brought 150 children from Manipur and Assam to Chennai in 2007. Boys numbering 76, were taken to a place on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram and then to Kanyakumari by a person called Saji and the remaining 74 girls were taken to Bangalore. Investigating officers informed that the girls were shifted to Bangalore before the raid. Rather 24 girls were traced to a home in Bangalore and the accused trafficker Saji was taken into custody at that time. But so far there is no report of rescuing the trafficked girls (news source: 13th Feb. 2010 Imphal Free Press, Sangai Express, Poknapham).

Trafficking Table 2010 source various local and national newspapers:-

Sl. No	Rescued children & time	Origins	Trafficked area & Rescue team	Remark
a)	93 kids Jan, 2010	Manipur	Rescued from a house in Sholinganallur by CWC Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, 3 children were reportedly hidden in a cupboard	1 girl was sexually assaulted. Police arrested 2 people from Manipur who brought the children to Chennai. The arrested persons were identified as Rakesh and Herojit.
b)	76 kids Jan 2010	Manipur & Assam	Rescued by CWC Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. The children were kept in an unregistered Orphanage called Bedesta Blessing Home located at Kanyakumari. 53 from Manipur 23 from Assam.	Arun Ram from Time of India reports that, "the rescue of 76 malnourished children, from Manipur and Assam, from a home at Kuzhithurai in Kanyakumari district this week is only the tip of a vast network, which receives crores of rupees from churches and agencies abroad by showing a large number of children under their care"
c)	3 kids Feb. 2010	Manipur Lamkang tribe of Chandel	Rescued by combine team of CWC Tamil Nadu and CWC Manipur.	Rescued from Tamil Nadu
d)	10 kids Mar. 2010	Manpur CCpur	Intercepted by Sekmai police while traveling in an inter-state bus heading for Guwahati. According to police 9 children held from CCpur & 1 from Mizoram.	The 10 trafficked children have been handed over to the Child Line of Social Welfare department-Manipur, by Sekmai Police 3 of them were girls
e)	27 kids Apr. 2010	Manipur 21 from Chandel district, 4 from CCpur 2 from Senapati	Rescued and brought back to Imphal from Chennai. Tamil Nadu Government rescued the 27 children from different unregistered children Homes based in Chennai and Kanyakumari	The children were between 9 to 15 years 9 of them were girls.
f)	1 + 3 kids Sep. 2010	Imphal West & Imphal East	1 rescued from a hotel in Paona Bazar. 3 rescued from ImphalAirport by Singjamei police	-
g)	11 girls above 18 yrs Oct. 2010	6 girls held from Nagaland while the rest from Mizoram	Goa police rescued them from a beauty parlour	The girls alleged that the owner tried to force them into the flesh trade

A child undergoing trauma for a long period during childhood, the time when they absorb knowledge to their unpainted canvas like the water to dry cottons absorb hardness in life and becomes numb. The natural spontaneity of creative thoughts and ideas to a child were side-lined by sufferings which is unproductive but has choking effects and the desire for freedom with no means and might to a helpless child becomes the only hope.

Rehabilitation with proper education, nutrition and care was the immediate thoughts among many people and CBOs when the trafficked children were brought to the State. Stigma and discrimination the children and their parents might face from the locality or people known to them are another big issue. There was a commitment call from the CWC in proper rehabilitation of the rescued children.

Tamenglong CBOs and student bodies organised a grand reception of the 52 rescued Zeliangrong Sudents from Tamenglong along with their parents and announced that they will punish any person who help in trafficking children from the region (2010).

All Manipur Christian Organization (AMCO) and El Shaddai, an NGO conducted a consultation meet on child trafficking. One hundred pastors from across the State took part. President of AMCO Rev Prim Vaiphei expressed that some self-styled Church functionaries are involved in human trafficking cases.

Following reports of rescuing 76 children from Assam and Manipur, being rescued from "homes" run by missionaries in Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court in the first week of April ordered a probe into a possible trafficking racket involving tribal children. On September 1st the Supreme Court passed an order that imposes a ban on sending out children below the age of 12 years or those in primary schools to other states to pursue education.

The main factor behind parents sending off their ward to other state is for better education at free of cost as promised by the traffickers who are mostly missionaries. Arun Ram from Time of India reports that, "the rescue of 76 mal-nourished children, from Manipur and Assam, from a home at Kuzhithurai in Kanyakumari district this week is only the tip of a vast network, which receives crores of rupees from churches and agencies abroad by showing a large number of children under their care".

The Court also directed Ministry of DoNER looking after the development affairs of the north east region to assess requirement in terms of educational infrastructure such as construction of school buildings, hostels and children's homes in consultations with the states of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya and submit a report to the Ministry of Human Resources Development for support.

Some few organisations who have been working in prevention of trafficking in the north east region are GOLD, EKTA, SOS Children Village and Snehalaya of Guwahati. Impulse NGO Shillong, Public monitoring committee, Tamenglong district, Fenry Reamei, Tamenglong based NGO, and Coalition on Children's Right to Protection, Manipur, Child Line and other government agencies and local bodies of the North Eastern States.

North East Support Centre and Helpline together with Pratigya - Anti-Human Trafficking Initiative of Operation Mercy India Foundation and other human rights agencies dealing with human trafficking took up certain initiatives in their efforts in combat the menace.

The kind of work these private organisations and volunteers had contributed are putting alerts on movement of large number of children in the railway Stations, awareness campaigns on trafficking, and organisation like Guwahati based GOLD trains volunteers on how to identify the traffickers. Besides Indian Red Cross Society took up their own methods in combating child trafficking.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) did a commendable work in studying the ground realities of the trafficking cases and the Supreme court entrusted them for the same mission after which the verdict on imposition of banning children who are 12 years and below inpursuingstudy outside their respective States of North East India was passed.

The Commission also convene meetings of the North-Eastern States and the destination States in working out a coordination plan for State to State mechanisms. G Satyabati, Director of Social Welfare Department officially announced that Anganwadi workers will be roped in a door to door survey to identify trafficked children who are yet to be rescued in the year 2010 but so far there has been no reports from the same department nor Anganwadi workers are seen surveying houses for the same cause.

A reliable source says that there are still thousands of children from Manipur trapped in illegal homes operating in the Country. The source also disclosed that he has seen them with his own eyes.

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THE CHILD RIGHTS MANIFESTO

Today, unseen, ignored, almost half of all Indian children under
the age of five are underweight, millions die each year of easily preventable
diseases and 8 million children do not go to school. In the 21st century, in
one of the world's fastest growing economies, this is unacceptable.

CRY - Child Rights and You works to ensure lasting change in the
lives of underprivileged children and you can help - by making your vote
count. Get our leaders to do more for children. Create a vote bank big enough
for them to hear that we, the people. demand child rights - the rights to
education, safety, healthcare, and participation.

Pledge your support and wear the yellow ChildMark proudly on
your finger.

THE CHILD RIGHTS
MANIFESTO
16th General
Elections 2014
CRY - Child Rights and You calls on all political parties to
become campaigner of rights of all children in India.

India, with about 430 million children, has the world’s largest
child population with every sixth child in the world today referring to India
as ‘home’. Although children constitute over a third of India’s population,
they are accorded a low priority in national policy and governance decisions.
CRY urges political parties and governments in power to take heed and ‘Put children first’ and include the following commitment
suggestions that can impact over a third of this nation’s population, when
designing their own election agenda.
• Harmonize the age
definition for all child-related legislations in line with National Policy for
Children 2013 where child is any person below the age of eighteen years.
• Ensure Right to
Education is fully exercised as fundamental right and Amend and expand the
scope of Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 such that: All Children between 6-14 years
get enrolled, regularly attend Elementary
school and avail quality education. Also, all children from 0-6 years and 14-18 years should come under the purview of the Act.
• Strengthen
implementation of Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) such that all six services viz
Supplementary nutrition, Health Check-ups, Immunization, Nutrition & Health
Education, Pre-school non-formal education and referral services are
effectively functioning. Also ensure that there is an adequate investment
carried out in decentralized planning, universal coverage and trained
personnel.
• Reduce child mortality
and morbidity and ensure that no child remains malnourished through carrying out sustained efforts
towards complete immunization, regular health check-ups and growth monitoring,
proper nutritional support and health counselling of all children under 18
years.

• Declare access to
quality primary healthcare a Fundamental Right in the Constitution of India and strengthen Primary Health Care
systems and child health amongst the urban poor.
• Ensure Food security at
household level for all marginalized groups of people with proper implementation of the National
Food Security Act, 2013 and consider amendments (i) increasing the
protein/fat intake for pregnant mothers and children to 20-25 gms (according to
Supreme court order) instead of current provision of 18-20 gms (ii) including services such as immunization, health check-ups etc
which have been part of the ICDS as part of the Act (iii) making provision of supplementary
nutrition for children in the14-18 age group.
• Amend the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 2012: to abolish all forms of child labour by removing the distinction
between hazardous and non-hazardous categories of work for all children up to
18 years of age.
• Invest adequately in
ensuring protection for children by: (i) implementing policies and programme that protect children from
abuse, violence and exploitation; (ii) investing in
appropriate referral services for the recovery, rehabilitation and
reintegration of victims of abuse, violence and exploitation; investing in
creating a cadre of trained professional (iii) creating robust
monitoring of implementation of child protection mechanisms, schemes and
policies (iv) creating a proper database for child
trafficking, street children, missing children and ensuring a fully functional
newly developed child tracking system – ‘Track child’.
• Ensure Gender Parity,
Social Equity, and the rights of Children with disabilities with providing equal opportunities for all
social groups – SC, ST, Minority group and urban deprived groups. Become more responsive
to needs of girl children and children with disabilities.
• Allocate sufficient
Budget for Children (BfC) allocations by
increasing the allocation from 4.64% to at least 10% of total Union Budget. Also introduce a child budget component in the budget of all
allied Ministries and ensure effective National, State and District-level
management and utilization of outlays/ budgets.

The best interest of the child needs to be put at the centre of
all policy, legislation and practice affecting their young lives. India’s one
third population deserves demonstration of commitment as a nation. It calls for
action to express zero tolerance towards violation of children’s rights so that
every child attains happy, healthy and creative childhood.

MACR- Manipur Alliance for Child Rights- Charter of demand in Assembly elcetion, 2012

1. A strong political commitment to find out a political solution in place of repressive militarisation policy, to end the
long dawn armed conflict, that has been bringing out xtraordinary denial of the right to survival, development, and
protection of all the children in Manipur, including the children living with HIV/AIDS, by repealing the AFSPA which gives impunity extra judicial powers to the army.

2. A holistic state policy for ensuring safe and secured environment, where each and every individual could enjoy the equal opportunity for economic, social and cultural development.

3. A mass employment policy for youths, providing employment opportunity within the state, not merely in state security forces but in welfare and other allied sectors.

4. Setting up of State Commission for Protection of Child Rights with the full strength of the members, free from any political interference, where independence of the commission members while providing justice to the aggrieved children is upheld.

5. A comprehensive State Children’s Policy, under which children are provided with all the entitled rights of survival,
development, protection and participation without any discrimination.

6. A commitment to announce the education institutions as completely free zone, free from any political interference, corruption, military occupation, economic hindrance, while
ensuring meaningful free and compulsory education to children.

7. A commitment for providing adequate budget for schools’ infrastructural development, with special provisions for accessing to barrier free for children with disability, creating an enabling environment, so- that teachers could attend the schools without any hindrance, adequate support and monitoring mechanism for complete implementation of Mid Day Meal scheme in Government Schools and Aided Private Schools in the state.

8. A commitment for adequate budget support for nfrastructural improvement of health institutions at Panchayat, Block and District level, accessible provisions
for institutional delivery in the PHCs with proper pre and ante natal care facilities.

9. A commitment to make all ICDS centres, accessible and functional, ensuring additional nutritional support to the Children Living with HIV/AIDS by linking with the existing
ICDS centres.

10. Commitment for timely disbursement of fund to the
Government sponsored children homes, proper implementation of Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS). Opening of Girls Shelter homes and Girls Children Homes
in the state on priority basis.

11. To set up Integrated Trauma Counselling cum Life skill Centres in all districts, for victims of child trafficking, rape,
conflict inflicted children, and other Child in Need of Care and
Protection and Juvenile in Conflict with
Law.

12. A commitment to ensure regular supply of safe
drinking water and uninterrupted power supply to every village and household, by acknowledging that without regular water and electricity supply, realisation of basic rights including right to life, right to education, right to health and development are not possible.

CRY- CHILD RIGHTS and YOU appeals to the people of Manipur on the event of Assembly election

1. Political and social stability in the state where people can be engaged in peaceful social and cultural life. Each and every individual, especially children could feel secure and protected. There must be ample opportunity for children and the youth to enjoy a happy and healthy life.
2. Children should be completely immunised at the community level. Government health services must reach every community so that each and every child can access basic Government health services.
3. Children below 6 years must be enrolled in ICDS centres and must get a midday meal along with additional food nutrient support. ICDS centres must be opened everyday for the children.
4. HIV positive children must get additional nutritional support, regular health check ups and ART treatment. Families of HIV positive children must get additional economic support from the state.
5. All children must get free and compulsory education at the community level. Government schools must be easily accessible and should have properly trained and qualified teachers.
6. Children must not be trafficked; it is the responsibility of the state to be alert on the issue of child trafficking, and ensure the protection of children at the community level.
7. All efforts must be made to rescue and rehabilitate trafficked children into society and through Government sponsored homes/institutions.
8. Children who are engaged as child labourers or as domestic workers must be rescued by the state and rehabilitated through proper legal actions by the state authority.

CRY- Child Rights & You Charter of demand on the occassion of 10th ManipurAssemble election

1. All political parties should commit to ensuring a safe and secured social environment, where each and every individual, especially children can enjoy a peaceful and healthy life; all individuals must get equal opportunity for economic, social and cultural development.
2. All political parties should commit to setting up a State Commission for Child Rights to protect the rights of children in the state. The Commission should be kept free from any political interference.
3. All political parties should commit to drawing up a clear-cut policy for children at the state level, where children will be provided with the rights to survival, development, protection and participation.
4. All political parties should commit to announce all educational institutions as zones free from political unrest, and ensure free and compulsory education to all the children.
5. All political parties should commit to allocate adequate budgetary provisions for building basic infrastructure for schools, with special provisions for disabled children.
6. All political parties should commit to make provisions for adequate budget support to develop infrastructure of health institutions at Panchayat, Block and District level. They must ensure that all children in the state can avail of free Government health services.
7. Long-term conflict has resulted in the unprecedented denial of the right to health, survival and development for all children in Manipur, including HIV positive children. The government should push for a permanent end to the armed conflict as it is one of the major reasons behind the poor access to healthcare.