Hit hard by flood and coronavirus pandemic, Assam children may fall prey to traffickers: Save the Children

Severely impacted by floods and the coronavirus pandemic, children belonging to disadvantaged families in Assam may fall prey to traffickers, Save the Children, a global non-profit organisation alerted.

The NGO, which works for children in 120 countries, including 19 states in India, said that as schools remained shut for months due to the pandemic and livelihood of their parents already severely impacted, particularly in tea garden areas and in interior places, the traffickers could target such children to take them out with the promise of care, education or jobs.

"As their schools are still shut, children especially in the far flung tea growing areas did not even have their books for the new academic year. While many of their fortunate counterparts have the chance to initiate their virtual classes, these hapless children has remained out of education due to unavailability of books and internet facilities. Also many families have lost their source of livelihood due to Covid-19 lockdown, so the susceptibility of children of getting trafficked has increased substantially," Chittapriyo Sadhu, deputy director, programme management (East), Save the Children told DH on Saturday.

"On top of this, the current flood situation has added to their woes. With houses under water in many places, children along with their families are staying in make-shift relief camps. The fate of children in Assam is thus swinging between the pandemic of lifetime and the annual calamity of flood," Sadhu said.

According to the flood bulletin issued by Assam State Disaster Management Authority on Saturday, more than 26.37 lakh people remained affected by floods in 27 of the 33 districts while the death toll reached 97. It said 47,772 people including 5,502 children were taking shelter in relief camps in different districts. The situation is unlikely to improve soon as the Brahmaputra and several tributaries were still flowing above danger level at several places.

At the same time, Covid-19 positive cases crossed 30,000 on Saturday, of which over 8,000 are active cases. Death toll reached 76.

Trafficking of women and children is a serious issue in Assam and the state has been identified as one of the major sources of trafficking. Flood and poverty are two major push factors of trafficking.

The NGO said Assam reported 2,120 cases of missing children in 2018 and analysis of these cases revealed that children were either victims of child marriage, sexual abuse and bonded labour. Assam registered 37.41% increase in the number of crimes against children from 2016 to 2018, according to the NCRB," Sadhu said.