School principals from North-East India endorsed an urgency call to curb human trafficking during the webinar held on 14th November. The webinar was jointly organised by United Christian Forum North East India (UCFNEI) in collaboration with Hope Charitable Foundation (HCF) and North East Solidarity (NES).
The event was moderated Professor Polly Vauquline, the Head of the Department of Women’s Studies from Gauhati University.
The resource person of the day was Pallabi Gosh. The responses were given by Fr. G. P. Amalraj the deputy secretary of NEIRBC and the secretary of the commission for Education and Prakash Gurung the vice Principal of Little Kids School, Diphu, Assam.
Instances of human trafficking are increasingly noticed from different parts of North-East India. According to the resource person and the panelists the incidents of trafficking make a small minority of predators rich, while the larger community, comprising of school children and youth and other marginalized young people are left to pay for the damage.
Pallabi expounded on the different facts that lead human traffickers to target Schools. Some of the causes of human trafficking in North East India are poverty, lack of education, unemployment, migration, natural disasters, social factors and cultural practices. The traffickers target school children through social media websites, telephone chats, after-school programs, on the streets, shopping malls pubs and restaurants.
The lack of awareness and training among people who come in contact with victims such as teachers and other school personnel makes these crimes undetected and unaddressed. Hence, there is a greater need to do more sensitization on the issue.
Schools need to be a haven for children, especially those who are vulnerable. School personnel as front-line professionals are in a unique position to interact daily with students, build a trust relationship with them and can identify and prevent human trafficking.
The welcome address and invocation prayer was done by Dr. B. J. Symlieh.