Bengal’s young guns take on traffickers
ment at the grass roots level. Thirty-five villages in the area have been declared free of child domestic worker (engaged through trafficking).
Started in 2004 in Sandeshkhali-Canning area, such children’s groups are being replicated across the state especially in South 24 Parganas, Malda, Alipurduar and Kolkata districts.
Mostly, rescued children and school dropouts are brought to special centres and given training before integrating them with schools and taking them in the children’s groups.
“We are choosing some of them as ‘child champions’ and sending them to other affected villages to spread the model,” says Sadhu.
“Before the children’s groups were formed in these areas, most were trafficked to different parts of the country. Many children went missing. But now the situation has changed. Now, traffickers have shifted base, as have a large number of placement agencies,” says Hriday Ghosh, head of Dhagogia Social Welfare Society, partner NGO of Save The Children in Sandeshkhali.
“But in villages where there are no such groups the situation is pathetic,” he says. “Apart from making rounds of the villages, visiting homes for awareness, we hold regular meetings,” says Jasmina Khatun, (15), a student of Sarberia high school and member of the children group in Choto Ajgara village.
Village elders, parents, panchayat members and even police listen to us and more importantly act, she says, recalling that they were initially reluctant to listen to them. “If our efforts fail, we call the child helpline, child welfare committee members and police.”
Camelia Khatun (15), student of Agarhati Gourhari Vidyalaya and one of the most vociferous members of children’s group in Tagramari village, says they also help police and NGOs by providing leads, phone numbers and location of children already trafficked from the villages. “We also help rescue children from brick kilns locally.”
The children have also written poems and songs against trafficking. The groups also create awareness on polio vaccination, literacy and other social causes in their respective villages.
“So far we have been able to help rescue 37 children from brick kilns in the last few years. As a member of the village child protection committee, where other members are elders, I still prove my point and get the work done,” says Subrata Naskar (17), member of the children group at Taltolla-Jhaipara village.
(* Name changed to protect privacy) Agents of traffickers bring prospective grooms or visit vulnerable households as placement agents. They promise to pay for the marriage and even pay some cash to the parents of the underage girl.
In case of domestic worker, they pay handsome salary in advance.
The girl is taken away and she can’t be traced.
The agent disappears and parents seldom lodge a complaint with police fearing harassment.
The girls are eventually either sold in sex trade, or employed as domestic help in other states.