IMPHAL December 12: The District ICDS Cell of Imphal west district, Social Welfare department, government of Manipur in association with the Human Rights Law Network, Manipur organized a one day awareness programme on trafficking at EEMA conference hall at Keishampat junction today.
S. Radhapyari Devi, secretary of Economic and Environment Management Association (EEMA) and Wahengbam Joykumar, deputy ombudsman (NREGA), Imphal east graced the function as the president and chief guest respectively.
At the programme, Thokchom Premlata Devi, advocate and assistant director of Human Rights Law Network read papers on the topic “Possible legal intervention against Human Trafficking”. Manoharmayum Ranjana Devi, programme officer, District ICDS Cell, Imphal west district also facilitated the programme on the topic “Problems of trafficking in Manipur”.
Premlata Devi stated that human trafficking, especially in women, and children has become a matter of serious national and international concern. Women and children have been exposed to unprecedented vulnerabilities; commercial exploitation of these vulnerabilities has become a massive organized crime and a multimillion dollar business.
Nations are attempting to combat this trade in human misery through legislative, executive, judicial and social action. Trafficking of children is a worldwide phenomenon affecting large number of boys and girls every day. Children and their families are often lured with the promise of better employment and a more prosperous life far from their homes, others are kidnapped and sold, she said.
Further, trafficking violates a child’s right to grow up in a family environment and exposes the child to a range of dangers, including violence and sexual abuse. In India too, over the last decade, the volume of human trafficking has increased though the exact numbers are not known, it is one of the most lucrative criminal trades, next to arms and drug smuggling undertaken by highly organized criminals, she added.
Unless a public opinion is built and laws are effectively designed and implemented, the situation is constantly monitored and the nexus of traffickers is exposed, children will continue to be trafficked.
Coordinated efforts are required to stop and prevent child trafficking, she mentioned.
Premlata further lamented that although India has a fairly wide framework of laws enacted by the Parliament as well as some state legislatures, apart from provisions of the Constitution which is the basic law of the country, the menace of human trafficking has been increasing without any break.