Human trafficking on Indo-Nepal border causes concern

PRASHANT ACHARYA, EOI, SILIGURI, 13 Feb 2015: A spurt in human trafficking along the India-Nepal border has created great concern for people living below poverty line mostly in villages.

According to NGO Maity Nepal, more than 7000 people are trafficked to India and more than 1000 from India to Nepal in a year.

Maity Nepal’s regional director of eastern Nepal Gobind Ghimiray said that last year 290 women were trafficked to India and 46 women to Nepal. He also said that the trafficked women were

between 12 to 35 years of age . Recently 46 girls were rescued from Kolkata, Mumbai, Silchar and Kishanganj areas by Maity Nepal with the support of the police and NGOs.

He said poverty, illiteracy, violence against women and disturbances in the country made people fall prey to traffickers.

Coordinator of Kanchanjunga Uddhar Kendra, Siliguri, Prabhat Pathak said due to similar culture, lifestyle and physical appearances, it often became difficult to distinguish the people who crossed the border. He also said that the security forces deployed in the borders also paie more attention to stop smuggling of goods than human trafficking.

To stop human trafficking, security agencies, NGOs and local people from both the countries should make a plan to work jointly, Ghimiray said.

Pathak felt it was important to create awareness among villagers in the border areas so that they could pass information to security forces and social organizations about the traffickers.

Chief District Officer of Jhapa, Nepal, Rohit Pokhrel, said that to keep vigil on traffickers and stop human trafficking Nepal Home Ministry has deployed police forces in bus stands, airports and borders.

SSB, North Bengal, DIG A K Mallick said that after the deployment of the SSB along borders there had been some fall in the incidents of human trafficking  but due to open porous border it becomes difficult for the jawans to keep vigil in all the areas.