Smt. Madhumita Halder, Consultant, Directorate of Child Rights and Trafficking, Government of West Bengal, shared her experiences of child rescue and repatriation with the staff of the Surokhit Shaishav programme in Kolkata.

Caritas India’s Surokhit Shaishav team collaborated with the Directorate of Child Rights and Trafficking, Department of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare (WCD & SW), Government of West Bengal, to organise one-day training on child tracking for its eight implementing partners. The programme is operating in the states of Assam, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, addressing the issues of Child trafficking with a holistic development approach.

Smt. Halder shared her thoughts on the Child trafficking issues that affect millions of children across the country. Child trafficking involves the exploitation of children for labour, sex, and other purposes.

She used case stories as a tool to build an understanding of rescue and repatriation with a clearer roadmap—the standard operating procedures. She shared three case stories, highlighting some of the gaps in the case intervention. Sharing the Missing children’s data, she pointed out a few districts in West Bengal where the highest number of trafficking cases were recorded.

Her session highlighted several orders from the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court on trafficking. She shared how the Women’s Commission and Child Rights Commission emerged from the National Human Rights Commission. Speaking from her personal experiences of repatriating children along the Bangladesh and Nepal border on behalf of the Government, she shared about the process and the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) related to repatriation. wherein basic Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were stated.

Ms. Halder also informed me about the SOPs that have been developed for safely repatriating children and women between India and Bangladesh. She said that West Bengal is the only State that has set up a separate Directorate of Child Rights and Trafficking cell for dealing with trafficking cases and providing effective response and support.

She motivated the partners and said that there is a lot to be done by CSOs with the support of the Government. She requested that the partners work for the survivors and facilitate the process of victim compensation with the District Legal Service Authority (DLSA).

A few of the important takeaways from the training were reporting to the Anti-Human Trafficking Network if local police cannot find a missing child within four months and the concept of filing a zero FIR anywhere, beyond the jurisdiction of the case. The dos and don’ts, privacy, and protection aspects of any victim, especially children, are important, and if violated, they are punishable.

Earlier, the training was facilitated by Ms. Chihanphi Ruth, Anti-Human Trafficking Programme Associate, who explained the nature and magnitude of trafficking, its diverse forms, and traffickers alternating strategies, which are taking huge tolls on human lives.

She informed us that, though awareness of the issues has increased, untoward incidences are still happening in different pockets as the trapping mechanism keeps changing to lure vulnerable. One such example was the “Coimbatore Job Scam,” where innocent and stranded job seekers fell into the hands of monsters. This fake job advertisement has trapped many vulnerable youths, and the victims encounter unbearable torture and loss of life. The situation in the Northeast was highlighted as it has become a hub of trafficking. The session also discussed the pros and cons of trafficking, along with the push and pull factors.

The participants worked together to identify the nature of trafficking in their respective states. They list all the different forms of trafficking, including fake marriages, attractive job promises, cheap labour, organ trade, beggars, illegal adoption, domestic help, education, etc. Thus, trafficking conceals itself and has a lustrous appearance that cannot be easily differentiated by common people. In the process, many innocent lives have been threatened and gone missing.

All the participants expressed deep appreciation for an informative and interactive session. The understanding of the SOPs was one of the highlights of following up and escalating the process to the competent Government Authority for the safe repatriation of the children across the border.