West Bengal: Assam Police Busts Child Trafficking Racket, 48 Children Rescued

Guwahati: Assam Police on Thursday busted an interstate child trafficking racket based in West Bengal and rescued 48 children including four women.

As per reports, the rescued children were later brought to Assam.

The reports further claimed children were forced into child labour after were taken to West Bengal from Assam.

Meanwhile, on an experimental basis, the Assam Police have set up a division in the CID headquarters headed by an SP-rank officer to deal with crimes against women and children, besides the setting up of special cells for women in 11 districts in collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

The CID today organized a meeting of all stakeholders with senior officers from police, social justice, education, health, labour and other departments. Representatives from TISS and NGOs also took part in the meeting.

As per ADGP (CID) AYV Krishna, in 2021, at least 123 traffickers were arrested in Assam while 110 children among 279 victims were rescued.

"Special Juvenile Police units are now operational in 11 districts headed by a DSP/ASP with a child welfare officer in each police station. We started women's help desks in 320 police stations,'' he added.

He further informed that a family counselling centre started at CID headquarters.

''We set up sishu mitra resource centres in collaboration with UNICEF and anti-human trafficking units in all districts. We registered 161 human trafficking cases last year, leading to the rescue of 279 victims, including 110 children, besides the arrest of 123 traffickers," he added.

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