Apart from drugs and cattle trafficking, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday that his government will focus on ending human trafficking. Officials said Sarma was interacting with a group of about 40 children and two adults who had been trafficked to Sikkim and were recently rescued by the Assam Police.
“We cannot tolerate childhood, the most promising period of one’s life, being snatched away. We cannot allow exploitation of children either. I hail Assam Police for recovering 40 children and two adults from the child traffickers,” Sarma said.
He stated that the state government will establish a policy for the rehabilitation of children who have been trafficked.
In the last two months, at least 107 children and women from Assam who had been trafficked to various parts of the country have been rescued, according to Sarma.
There are 16 girls and 24 boys among the 40 children, as well as two adults who are women. Police said they were working to find more trafficked children and bust the human trafficking ring.
In Assam’s Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), 80 children were trafficked from four villages along the Indo-Bhutan border. Police used their intelligence network to locate 42 of these trafficked individuals in Sikkim.
They were rescued and returned to Assam with the help of Sikkim Police. The government would first hand over the children to their parents, after which they would be sent to residential schools with their permission. The government will also seek the advice of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
