World Day against Trafficking in Persons

Marking World Day against Trafficking in Persons that falls on July 30 every year, Vikasaarth conducted awareness programmes in the Lakhisarai district. As a part of the programme, the NGO has been creating awareness against child trafficking and child labour at grassroots levels from primary and secondary schools to gram panchayats and various households. These consistent efforts by the NGO are to ensure that there is ample awareness among people about child trafficking and child labour. While there have been stringent actions and initiatives both at the state as well as central government levels in the last one decade, combating child trafficking has been a challenge for the country considering the lack of awareness and knowledge among the masses.

Children being trafficked from different parts of the country has been a huge challenge for decades and while the number of such reported cases have increased, reflecting the growing awareness among the masses, a lot still needs to be done. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, in the year 2021, nine children were reported missing every hour while the number of children trafficked every day was recorded as eight. The report further revealed that in 2021, 77,535 children were reported missing. As compared to the last year the number of children missing in 2021 increased by 31 percent.

Throwing light on the increased number of cases of child trafficking in the country, Sunita Singh, Founder Secretary, Vikasaarth said, “The fact that more and more people are now coming forward to report cases of missing children is a huge step. It reflects that the awareness programmes that we all conduct at grassroots levels are leading to a change in the mindset of the people. But while the governments and law enforcement agencies are also working aggressively to handle child trafficking issues in the country, what we need strict is anti-trafficking laws if we want to eradicate child trafficking completely from our country.”