Chief Secretary stresses on combating child trafficking
Source: Hueiyen News Service / NNN
Imphal, February 062015 :
Manipur chief secretary PC Lawmkunga Friday stressed the need for a concerted effort to combat child trafficking menace while asserting that children required protection as they are innocent and vulnerable to trafficking.
Addressing the inaugural session of a one-day conference on combating child trafficking at Hotel Imphal, the chief secretary also appealed all law enforcing agencies and other organizations to protect the children from being misused for commercial and selfish purposes.
He said that children were the most vulnerable to trafficking as they were innocent and they solely depend on others.
The conference was organized by Manipur Commission for Protection of Child Rights in collaboration with state police department and sponsored by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
NCPCR Member Secretary Asheem Srivastav, Principal Secretary of Social Welfare SK Dev Verma, chairperson of Manipur Commission for Protection of Child Rights A Nabachandra, police officials and representatives of NGOs working for cause of the child rights took part in the inaugural session of the two-day conference.
The conference aimed at finding a way for adopting an effective mechanism to combat child trafficking, according to chairperson A Nabachandra of Manipur Commission for Protection of Child Rights who talked to reporters on the sideline of the conference.
He expressed grave concern over the increasing child trafficking in different parts of the state and underlined the need for identifying root causes to combat the menace.
Manipur has a long history of child trafficking.
Minors are being regularly trafficked out of the state to other cities of the country with false promise of free education.
Poor parents, who cannot send their children to schools, willingly hand over their wards to the frauds who promised a bright future for the children.
Instead of fulfilling their promises, these children are ill-treated and used as forced labourers.
Many of these children had been rescued from illegal homes in various cities of the country in the last few years.
To combat the menace, Manipur government has set up anti-human trafficking cells in all the districts and envisaged a greater role for police in checking the increasing trend of children being trafficked out of the state.