SWIFTLY & RESPONSIBLY

The Kathmandu Post

17 June 2016

SWIFTLY & RESPONSIBLY

As long as the government’s handling of the reconstruction programme in the quake-affected areas remains slow, vulnerable children and women will continue to fall prey to trafficking. Many children and women have disappeared from their homes during the last one year. Some of them were rescued from the Nepal-India border points by the security forces (“73 children, women rescued from Birgunj in 3 months” 15 June, Page 1). However, if the rescued children and women are not properly looked after by their families, who are themselves homeless and vulnerable due to the killer earthquake, the chances of them falling prey to trafficking again will remain high.

According to a UN estimate, about 15000 girls from Nepal are trafficked into Asian countries for sex trade each year, which is an extremely unfortunate matter. If these data are reliable, several questions and concerns can be raised. What are the government and its concerned machineries doing to stop this heinous crime? What are the INGOs/NGOs involved in children and women development programme doing? What are the so-called social, political and human rights activists doing from stopping the girls and women falling into prey of the human traffickers? There must be innumerable ways of controlling this inhuman act if the concerned authorities and agencies show their commitment and sense of responsibilities.

This heinous crime can be minimized. if not stopped, if the concerned local government in coordination with the VDC based NGOs, political activists, youth clubs among others launch massive awareness campaign penetrating right down to the household level making the parents and guardians aware of the problem of human trafficking. As the porous border with India is part of the problem, the districts bordering India need to set up a separate security forces to control the human trafficking. Likewise, a special security force needs to be assigned at the Tribhuvan International Airport to stop the girls and women from being trafficked to other countries. It is high time the concerned central level government became serious about the issue and acted swiftly to save its vulnerable citizens from human traffickers.

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharajgunj       

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