Prodigal’s Home, a Dimapur based organization has revealed that at least 315 children in Nagaland have gone missing since January 2007 till date. Out of the 315 listed, 230 are below the age of 18; while 35% of the missing children are yet to be traced. This is a worrying sign. Nagaland has fast been emerging as a hotbed for human trafficking; and the recently released Prodigal’s Home report has put human trafficking and particularly child trafficking into perspective and pointed out the crying need for the Nagaland government and the people to act against human trafficking. The lack of political will to fight human trafficking in Nagaland only raises serious concerns around the absence of good governance and human rights.
Human trafficking is the modern name for slavery. Human trafficking constitutes one of the leading categories of violence in the world today and the United Nations reports that the international trade in human/trafficking is now the fastest-growing business of organized crime. As defined in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime: “. . . trafficking in human beings is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by means of force. It may also involve abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or the giving and receiving of payments for purposes of sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery-like practices, servitude or the removal of organs.”
The Naga society riddled with protracted conflict, poverty, patriarchal institutions, pervasive nature of unemployment, degeneration of social values, break down of family systems, domestic violence and weak economy is fertile ground for human trafficking. The alarming note is that most of the trafficking is being carried out under the cover of employment and education opportunities. The report wherein two Naga women were rescued by Dimapur women cell, from a brothel in Pune, after they were taken on the pretext on receiving free treatment is disturbing. The fact that they were trafficked to Pune and then sold off for Rs. 2 lakhs for a contractual basis of 5 years is even more frightening. In the same breath, the case of two minor girls who were trafficked to Dimapur on the pretext of sight-seeing, before they were eventually forced into sex-work is shocking. The Naga public needs to get more aware and involved in the fight against human trafficking and a highly trained and motivated monitoring mechanism needs to be put into place.
The Prodigal’s Home in its report has clearly stated that a larger number of the missing children are domestic workers. The common practice in Naga homes to keep child helpers is becoming chronic and not only does it violate the rights of children, but there are further repercussions as well. A growing perception that ‘mothers’ are abetting in the cycle of cheap child labor and indirectly child trafficking is an insight that just cannot be taken lightly, nor can it be simply ignored. Addressing the roots of this predicament is essential. Community organizations working on child issues must take the initiative to mobilize community education and meetings to engage in direct dialogue with the mothers and initiate a process of co-learning, not just on the ills of child labor and trafficking, but also on how it affects the development of their own children.
The seriousness of human trafficking must become a public issue. The government must take the initiative. It can no longer remain silent, the highest decision making body in the Nagaland government must provide a definite direction in the fight against human trafficking. It is now time to act.
