Heartbreaking video about child trafficking exposes our collective apathy
Suman, a nine-year-old nomad girl from Rajasthan, with her face painted in colours to attract commuters, looks at the camera as she begs for alms at a traffic junction in Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi. Photo: Reuters
National Human Rights Commission of India had published a report in 2014 which said that least 300,000 children across India are drugged, beaten and forced to beg on the streets every day.
The report added that over 40,000 children were reported missing every year, of which over 11,000 remain untraced.
According to new data released by the National Crime Records Bureau, trafficking of minor girls surged 14 times over the last decade and increased 65 per cent in 2014.
A child is reported missing in India every eight minutes.
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| A boy carries coal at an open cast coal field at Dhanbad district. Photo: Reuters |
Children as young as four-years-old are being trafficked for prostitution, labour, organ trades among other things.
The government recently proposed a draft of India's first anti-human trafficking law, which received widespread criticism from charities and activists, who said that the proposed legislation does not address all aspects of the fast-growing crime.
Child trafficking is one of India's most sensitive problems but it doesn't garner mainstream attention because it won't generate hashtags.
In about a minute, ufaan.org showed that it doesn't take much to create awareness about an issue.
Some people like to fly in Air India One and talk about "Acche Din" in the United States. It might work better if they take tangible steps, like introducing stronger legislation, to curb this horrific menace.