Fewer People Sold

Assam had the ignoble record of being the State with the second-highest tally in human trafficking cases in the year 2015. West Bengal had topped the list, with Rajasthan and Gujarat coming after Assam. There has been a marked improvement in the detection and prevention of human trafficking cases compared to earlier years. In 2016, Assam was ranked 10th in the country in terms of reported cases of human trafficking. However, in terms of the rate of crime vis-à-vis its population, Assam was put in the 11th position last year. This constitutes a remarkable improvement in the crime scerio considering that we are talking about the sale of people even in the 21st century. In most advanced countries, human trafficking is a crime that is deemed to be something that ended in the 18th century. In those days, we did not have euphemisms like ‘human trafficking’. A human being that could be bought or sold was a slave, and so the expression used for ‘human trafficking’, shorn of euphemisms, was slave trade. What constitutes a slap on the face of humanism is that there are still countries in the 21st century where it is possible to sell people to be used as slaves or worse. Perhaps the only redeeming feature of this kind of crime is that it should have come down in India and that the detection and prevention of the crime should have become more efficient. In 2016, law enforcers maged to arrest 98 accused and charge-sheeted 37 of them (in 28 cases) although there was no conviction or acquittal. Records have revealed that 92 victims of trafficking from the State (63 females and 29 males) were rescued from different parts of the country. Thirty-seven of them were minors. We forfeit the right to call our country civilized until this sale of human beings is completely ended.