the association 2013

12 the
association
news from assam
with Romen Goswami
human trafficking on rise in Assam
ASSAM is seeing an
increasing trend in the
number of women and
children who are being
trafficked, according to the
United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crimes.
The UN body reported
that recurring floods in Assam
have led to the displacement
of a large population
and traffickers have
targeted victims of such
disasters. Other reasons
include poverty, insurgency
and communal clashes.
The State Crime Records
data shows the total number
of missing children in
2011 was 1,565, up from
899 two years previously.
In 2011, the number of girls
trafficked was more than
double, compared to the
boys – and the number of
trafficked women went up
from 600 in 2009 to 1,243
two years later.
In the report, the United
Nations Office on Drugs
and Crimes (UNODC) sites
that Assamese women and
children are trafficked
across India – Delhi, Mumbai,
Punjab, and Gujarat –
for sexual exploitation, labour
and forced marriages.
trafficking
more than
doubles in
two years
Vulnerable areas in
Assam include Nagaon,
Morigaon, Dimakuchi and
Karimganj districts, particularly
at the Mizoram and
Bangladesh borders.
Illegal recruitment agencies
have also been very
active in the North East.
Many of these agencies
lure women and girls into
exploitative working conditions
abroad. Victims from
Nagaland were rescued
from Malaysia after they
had been sold to prostitution
rackets. The travel
agents operating under the
guise of an NGO, Abel and
Leo Private Limited, had
lured girls from the Seven
Sisters with domestic work
in Singapore and Malaysia.
But in one instance, the
victims were sold to a
nightclub in Kuala Lumpur.
Another aspect to the
problem was revealed in
The Observer – how
low wages for tea pickers in
Assam fuel India’s trade in
child slavery.
Plantation workers on
12p an hour are easy
prey for traffickers
who lure away their daughters
to India’s cities –
100,000 girls as young as
12 may be under lock and
key in Delhi alone. A girl is
sold by the trafficker to an
agent for as little as £45,
sold again to an employer
for up to £650, where they
are kept as slaves, raped
and abused. It is a 21st
Century slave trade.
Pressure is now growing
on big tea brands to ensure
better pay.
Manipur king ends his fast over palace eviction
THE TITULAR king of
India’s Manipur state,
Leishemba Sanajaoba, has
ended a hunger strike that
he started in protest
against the state government’s
decision to evict him
from his ancestral palace.
The king began his fast
on 24 June and only
broke his fast after being
requested to do so by
women’s groups and non
-governmental organisations.
They wanted the king
to start dialogue with the
Manipur government.
The Manipur royal family
occupied the Kangla Palace
– now a museum – after
the 1891 Anglo-Manipur
War and built the Sana
Konung for the royals to
live in.
State officials want to take
over the Sana Konung Palace
and develop it as a
heritage site despite a 2006
agreement that reportedly
states that no decision
about the palace would be
taken without the monarch’s
consent. The king
says he feels betrayed.
The government says the
takeover will ensure that
royal artefacts will be
preserved for future
generations.