During the last week of February 2011, the Nagaland Police conducted a debate competition on the topic “Trafficking of women and children is on the rise in the State of Nagaland”. Firstly the organizers in particular the Nagaland Police should be congratulated for taking the initiative to conduct such discussions on issues confronting our society and also because at the end of the day it is the police which will have to police this menace and therefore it is only appropriate that our police force is sensitised on the problem. Also it was quite impressive to hear the young participating cops give their arguments for and against the motion. It is good to see educated and talented Naga youths joining the police. In any profession that we serve, we need to keep upgrading our selves to become better professionals. Improving police training programmes will help those who join the force become better police-persons and to fulfil the many tasks and challenges. Nagaland police is known for its bravery and ‘fire power’. However fire power alone will not be enough to enforce law & order. Our police force will also need to train on what we will refer as ‘reasoning power’. Our police men and women should be equipped with both the fire-power and reasoning power. We believe law enforcement in the 21st century will demand more than just force. It will require goodwill and absolute professional conduct.
Whether trafficking is on the rise or going down, this is only of academic interest. What our concern should be is to realize the existence of this problem and look for ways to address it. At the end of the day whether trafficking is going up or coming down, our cops will still have to do your job of policing. Now coming to the issue, trafficking has been quite appropriately described as an “enormous global dilemma”. In fact human trafficking has been listed as the second biggest crime after arms and drugs trafficking. So trafficking is going to be a very big problem in the years ahead and it is only appropriate and timely that our police force who are going to do the policing are rightly going about by engaging with the issue upfront. The other thing that we notice about trafficking is the difficulty in drawing a clear line between what is acceptable and what is not. It is not like a black and white thing. There are many grey areas. This will only make the job of policing more difficult especially when you are out there in the field trying to deal with the problem. What are the dos’ and don’ts for say the police? We are still developing what should be right way to go about things.
It will be appropriate here to mention about a comment on human trafficking by KG Balakrishnan, former Chief Justice of India. He talks about “finding creative solutions” to this serious concern. He also says and rightly so that trafficking “has to be approached in a very pragmatic and realistic manner”. In a State like ours where we have our own layers of public, legal, tribal constraints, our police force may have to improvise and deal according to the situation. One suggestion is if we can come out with a state specific approach to deal with the problems of human trafficking in the local context. For this the State Police, the Nagaland State Women Commission and some NGOs should come out with a hand book which can serve as a useful guide and reference while dealing with problems of trafficking.
Whether trafficking is on the rise or going down, this is only of academic interest. What our concern should be is to realize the existence of this problem and look for ways to address it. At the end of the day whether trafficking is going up or coming down, our cops will still have to do your job of policing. Now coming to the issue, trafficking has been quite appropriately described as an “enormous global dilemma”. In fact human trafficking has been listed as the second biggest crime after arms and drugs trafficking. So trafficking is going to be a very big problem in the years ahead and it is only appropriate and timely that our police force who are going to do the policing are rightly going about by engaging with the issue upfront. The other thing that we notice about trafficking is the difficulty in drawing a clear line between what is acceptable and what is not. It is not like a black and white thing. There are many grey areas. This will only make the job of policing more difficult especially when you are out there in the field trying to deal with the problem. What are the dos’ and don’ts for say the police? We are still developing what should be right way to go about things.
It will be appropriate here to mention about a comment on human trafficking by KG Balakrishnan, former Chief Justice of India. He talks about “finding creative solutions” to this serious concern. He also says and rightly so that trafficking “has to be approached in a very pragmatic and realistic manner”. In a State like ours where we have our own layers of public, legal, tribal constraints, our police force may have to improvise and deal according to the situation. One suggestion is if we can come out with a state specific approach to deal with the problems of human trafficking in the local context. For this the State Police, the Nagaland State Women Commission and some NGOs should come out with a hand book which can serve as a useful guide and reference while dealing with problems of trafficking.
