Representational Image. (Morung File Photo)
Longrangty Longchar
Dimapur | June 28
India is recorded to have the largest number of working children in the world. Whether they are sweating in the heat of stone quarries, working in the fields, picking rags on streets, or hidden away as domestic servants, these children endure difficult lives. They do not go to school and more than half of them will never learn the barest skills of literacy. The Child Labour Act of 1986 was enacted by the Indian Government to safeguard against employment of children, below 14 years of age in specific occupations, and yet the Act is rarely followed and implemented.
Nagaland is no different. Just in the past few days altogether twenty three children have been rescued by a joint team of East Police Station personnel and the Assam police, the latest being the rescue of eleven children from various places in Dimapur on Wednesday.
The ordeal began when some few months back, a child trafficker, Bikash Bagh alias Ruplal brought children from Udalguri, a district in Assam bordering Bhutan, after convincing the parents that the children would be sent to schools in Dimapur.
The children were brought and given away to different families as ‘caretakers,’ by the child traffickers. In return, the ‘caretaker’ paid some Rs 1000-1500 and a monthly payment of 250-300 rupees to the child’s parents, which never reached them in Udalguri. Within a span of few months, reportedly forty children were brought by Bikash Bagh and given away to families in Nagaland.
After six to seven months of receiving no news about their children who were supposedly studying in charity schools in Dimapur, the worried parents lodged a complaint in the Udalguri police station. Their complaint brought the Udalguri police personnel to Dimapur on June 24 and on that day, the Assam police assisted by East Police personnel raided many households in Dimapur and rescued 12 children. After three days the same team rescued another 11 children on June 27. Another six children have been located in various places in the state: two in Kohima, and one child each in Shuruhuto Zunheboto, Changki and Chungliyimsen villages under Mokokchung district,. Their caretakers have been informed to bring the child to Dimapur within a period of time, Dimapur police said. However, police are yet to know about the whereabouts of another eleven children.
‘Huge demand’
Dimapur police officials said that there is huge demand for these children in the Naga society as it is a means of cheap labour. No wonder, the children who were first brought to Dimapur found their places in different districts and even in villages. Most of the children are made to work in families doing odd jobs in exchange for a meager amount of Rs 250-300.
None of the children who were brought to study were sent to school, though they enjoyed a seemingly luxurious life with good clothes and good food being provided by their ‘caretakers.’ Dimapur police officials said that the reason why the children were not sent to school was mainly because the children were either very small (four to six years old) or the admission time in the schools are over.
Question of trafficking
The greatest question that has come to point is whether this is a case of child trafficking or not. Dimapur police said that this is a case of child trafficking in some ways, while others disagree.
Some opined that since the children were brought with the consent of their parents and were treated well, there is no point in panicking. It is learnt that some of the ‘caretakers,’ while giving the children away to the police, gave their telephone numbers and asked the children to return if they so wished.
However, a top police official said that this is a clear case of trafficking because the children were brought for sale and for work. He said that the caretaker of the child is also liable to be punished and that the police will think over it, depending on the action of the Assam police since the case is under them.
An advocate in Kohima also said that under Indian laws, the traffickers and the caretakers are liable to be punished not only under the Human Trafficking Act but also under the Indian Child Labour Act.
The Indian Child Labour Act bans the employment of children, below 14 years of age in specified occupations and processes which are considered unsafe and harmful to child workers and regulates the conditions of work of children in employment’s where they are not prohibited from working. Under the Act, Child means a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age. Any such person engaged for wages, whether in cash or kind, is a child worker.
However, a police official disclosed that the Assam police does not intend to take legal proceeding against the Naga caretakers since they were also cheated by the traffickers, and moreover the children were also “treated nicely with no exploitation as such”. Another official said that the Assam police requested the Dimapur police to locate the other missing children, and then they would be satisfied with no further cases.
No solution at hand
With the huge demand of the child labour; there is no ready solution for the Naga society at hand. A top police official said that the only answer to create awareness about child labour and child trafficking. Another official said that only option is to educate the people about the complications about the keeping of such children.
He said that the police during the rescue operations, educated and appealed to the caretakers to take police verification and properly scrutinize the credentials of the people supplying the child and also the child. The police also advised the caretakers undertake legal procedures like signing bonds and understandings to avoid complications such as this.
‘Paying for child, a crime’
One noted social worker in Dimapur district said that if one pays for a child, it is a crime. She squarely put the blame on the ‘Naga mothers’ and said that they are also a party of the trafficking since they are abetting child labor and trafficking in their want for cheap and easy labour.
The social worker expressed her serious concern that the right of a child are often violated and made to work very hard leading to their exploitation. However, she also said that some families treated their servants well, but she added that such cases are very rare.
Whatever the case maybe, Dimapur police are very concerned about the issue and taking the case very seriously. However, they do not think that Dimapur has turned into a human trafficking hub.
“I don’t think so” said one police official, “This case is mostly related to domestic help and the children were living comfortably and enjoying good food. And as Christians, I don’t think that is possible in the state”. However, trafficking hub or not, the stark reality about children working in the restaurants, workshops and other places raises serious concerns about child labour and to deal with the problem is not just the responsibility of the police department, but the public in general.
