Nalinikant:
Of all the women and minor girls trafficked in the district, 90% are tribal minor girls whose age ranges from 14 to 17 years. While 10 percent girls and women are from scheduled caste and Muslim community. In most of the cases, it has been found that their facilitators are local women and close relatives. To whom dreams of living in big cities, along with good job and salary, they are shown a vegetable garden of opulent life.
More or less this situation gives rise to trafficking of women and minor girls in our district. Most of the trafficking is done by caste, relatives, neighbors and friends. Their poverty, crumbling social and family system and creaking natural economy matter a lot in smuggling.
Out of the nine blocks of Godda district, the remote area of Boarijor, the inaccessible hill of Sundarpahari and the interior of Podaihat and the Santal and Paharia tribal community settlements located in the interior of Godda block keep coming under the grip of human trafficking. Of all the women and minor girls trafficked in the district, 90% are tribal minor girls whose age ranges from 14 to 17 years.
While 10 percent girls and women are from scheduled caste and Muslim community. In most of the cases, it has been found that their facilitators are local women and close relatives. To whom dreams of living in big cities, good job and salary as well as showing vegetable garden of opulent life and taking 8-10 minor girls and women together in dark night at bus stand or local railway station like Jasidih,
Godda, Pakur and reach Bhagalpur and they are told on the way that if anyone asks, they should tell that they are going for studies or going to relatives. They are first kept in a transit place from where they are taken to the next places i.e. homes, shelters, hotels by paying money to the agent taking them according to the bargaining price, physical condition of the girls and other factors. These are mostly delivered to Delhi, Jaipur, Surat, Mumbai, Pune as well as presently to Kerala. Where they are sent to prostitution along with forced labor. Apart from this, girls and minor girls are prepared to trap other girls and women along with smuggling of drugs.
In most of the cases, it is seen that their parents are given a small amount by brokers at home and on the basis of their partial consent, the girl child is sent to these cities through various brokers in the name of education and job. Sometimes trafficking is done in the name of marriage. The local boy lures the minor in the name of marriage and takes her to these cities where she is handed over to the touts from where the process of exploitation begins.
Many times the trafficked girls suddenly run away and if they fall into the hands of the police, they are made to stay in children’s homes or women’s homes, from where it takes months to send them to their homes in the district. Sometimes trafficked girls from Boarijor and Sunderpahadi blocks are recovered in groups of 10-20 and they are sent to their homes through Government Child Welfare Committee, Police and Child Line. Some minor girls who come from Boarijor and Sunderpahari tell that they voluntarily handed over to the touts because they used to face a lot of trouble with their step mother, alcoholic father and brother and they could not even get proper food. So he decided to go with the smuggling brokers to save his life.
Overall, the picture emerges that when the family is ruined, the society is broken and its systems are disintegrated, as well as the means of earning money start getting limited, then human trafficking especially gives birth to minor girls and women trafficking. Recently, during and immediately after the Kovid epidemic, many minor girls and women got trapped in the clutches of traffickers.
For this, it is most important that the means of livelihood should be strengthened, the social security system of minor girls and women should be established, along with strengthening the education system, along with wide awareness on these issues, the local society should be made sensitive. There is a need to make the child and women protection system strong and responsible at the panchayat, block and district levels. Only then the trafficking of girls and women can be reduced.
For this, it is also necessary that the Village Child Protection Committee located at the village level should be reorganized and trained and their monitoring should be done by any non-governmental organizations so that outsiders coming to the village keep a close watch on the girls and women going out of the village. To be kept Along with this, block and district level child protection committee also needs to be made responsible and empowered so that the case of trafficking can be dealt with strictly.
The system of migration registration at Panchayat level will also have to be started through government notification so that where each person is going and with whom he is going can be monitored. The most important thing is that minor girls and women trapped in human-trafficking do not have real addresses. They are taken to any unknown destination. From where it is very difficult for them to get out.
Therefore, it is also necessary that the nearby educational institutions should be operated regularly and the work of education should be continued by specially enrolling the boys and girls of such community so that if ever they get caught in the clutches of human-trafficking, they can continue their education. And could come out on the strength of knowledge. Apart from this, anti-human trafficking squad should be prepared in every district and block and they should be trained, who should always keep vigil. Mapping such areas with the help of local voluntary organizations and start a special government assistance program for them.
It is most important that proper counseling sessions should be organized for girls and women who have been returned from human trafficking and arrangements should be made for them to live their lives at the government or community level. Along with this, a list of touts caught and involved in human trafficking should also be attached to each police station. Along with this, the watchmen attached to the police stations should be given the responsibility that which people are continuously coming and going in their area, who are outsiders or strangers.
It is very important to pay more attention especially to stranger women. There is also a need to monitor which strangers and which minors and girls meet in the local haat, market or fair. Wherever there is coal or stone mining area at Godda district level, it will be necessary to strictly monitor and keep the local community aware. Along with this, local and traditional Gram Sabha and Gram Pradhan will have to be educated to prevent human trafficking so that the security system at the community level can be further strengthened. Along with these measures, Godda district can be made human trafficking free only by continuous community and government monitoring.
“My father takes drugs, my brother also takes drugs, there is no one in the family to earn, brother creates trouble after drinking alcohol, beats my mother and father, the forest is over and the land does not produce crops properly. Then we went to Delhi through some middleman and earned some money, but in return we had to pay a lot. Then ran away and reached her home with the help of the police. The situation at home is the same.” Monika Malto (fictitious name).