Web of Ordeal - Assam human trafficking

A cruel change of fate has raged down a tea tribal girl’s glorious academic ambition, childhood dreams and above all her ‘freedom of  life’. Meet Mitali, a 16-year-old tea tribal from the interior district of Lakhimpur in Assam, atrophied yearly by flood and other calamities. Continuous poverty has forced this academically brilliant girl, who had topped her class in the last exam, to bid good bye to  studies and to eke  out living in faraway Gurgaon. She took this extreme step  to ensure that her two younger siblings and her poor mother have their two square meals. “I used to see photo of Indira Gandhi and always had nurtured a dream to become an officer, so that I could serve my people and my parents. I wanted to study and go to schools like other girls of my age, but it remained a dream. I pray to God to bestow me a better luck in the next life so that I can study and make my parents proud,” cried Mitali, with tears rolling down her cheeks. 

This is an emotional and a heart rendering story of a poor tribal girl, who had aspired to become an officer. Little did she know that she is falling prey to the marauding human traffickers. There are many Mitalis, who have died unheard and unsung and who are cobbled up in the web of trafficking. Human trafficking has affected all communities in Assam and one of the worst affected is the Tea tribe community.  The tea tribe community of Assam comprises of around 45 lakh people and they are one of the most deprived and down trodden sections of the Indian society. They have been fighting for self-determination for the last 45 years to get the status of schedule tribes. Unscrupulous people have taken this as an opportunity and have  been squeezing out and continuously exploiting the innocent tribal, by luring them of lucrative jobs outside the region and pushing most of the girls into brothels.

Every year thousands of tea tribe girls are lured by people and taken to different parts of India, to work as slave and in most of the cases they lands up in brothels. Those who are forced into sex work, or who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation as domestic labourers, are particularly at risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and unwanted pregnancy.The plight of the women from this community has remained unheard and unattended, since ages and they are have no other options but to migrate and to follow the people who lure them and assure them good jobs out side the state. Trafficking of girls aged five is a common affair in different tea estates across the state. Their parents have no other options but to send their daughters to unknown people and to unknown places, so that she could give them a two-day meal and thus compromising their fate and sealing her future.

In all the metros , it is a common scene across houses in India is that one can see young girls form this particular community, working as a maid to earn a livelihood under the very nose of the administration, though there are stringent rules against employing young children. Every year, thousands of people are trafficked for purposes of forced labour or sexual exploitation. In Assam, young tribal girls from poverty stricken families are lured with the prospects of good job in cities, but mostly they end up in brothels. Internal strife ,natural calamities act as a catalyst  and compounds the problem .

Assam’s tea tribe community is part of the greater North east India, home to more than 300  diverse ethnic entities  and is one of the poorest regions in the world. The recent ethnic clashes between the majority Bodos and other communities have compounded their miseries  and   have displaced lakhs of  people . This volatile situation with a large chunk of  internally displaced people in the country  and make it lucrative for the traffickers on the prowl. And again children go missing particularly during floods and they are abducted and pushed into prostitution racket. According to data from the  Union Home Ministry , Assam  and the North east of India is one of the established source points for trafficking of women and children. Regular armed conflict  have displaced huge number of the population  and as per records Assam records one of the highest internally displaced people in the country. There have been many news reports in regional and the national dailies of busting of sex rackets in different places of the country. And to every one astonishment, in most of the cases, the victims are the young tea tribe girls from Assam and this is a revelation of the fact that tea tribal girl are being trafficked in large numbers.

Every year, an average of 250 women and 200 girl children go missing in Assam, who the Assam Police fear are being trafficked for sexual and labour exploitation to different parts of the country. The trafficking of the young tea tribal is an organised one and there are many people involved in this flourishing trade and the hands of international organisations involvement cannot be ruled out.The tea tribal are a part and parcel of the Assamese society and in spite of incidents like the 2007  Beltola incident in Assam , where they were tortured and assaulted by the locals for bringing out demonstrations. A tolerant Assamese  society have to understand the theory of co-existence and the efforts has to be made by each and every Assamese to ensure that their fellow brethrens are protected against traffickers.

With no solution to the ethnic rigidities in sight ,peace eludes Assam and in the coming year more ethnic tensions will erupt which will in turn force people to relief camps. The threat of human trafficking still remains. The idea of a trafficking free society remains   a distant dream .