BODO ANTITRAFFICKING INITIATIVE

Kokrajhar, 24rd July, 2006
Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), Assam

Another shocking news from massive joint rescued operation in different railway stations of lower Assam from 23rd to 24th July 2006, rescued 66 women and girls from being trafficked, hailing from different ethnic communities, Bodo and Rajbongshi, mostly from ethnic conflict hit villages and flood affected areas of Baksa (BTC) Nalbari, Kamrup, Udalguri, Boropeta, Dhubri and Goalpara districts were rescued from Gujarat bond DN 5636 train Okha express at Kokrajhar, Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) Assam railway station. Similarly last year on 24th August 2004, 200 women and girls were rescued from the same train. It is suspected that they were lured by the Pimps (dalal) in the pretext of lucrative job in Gujarat. It is the second biggest raid operation conducted in the North East region.

The raid was jointly conducted by NEDAN FOUNDATION, All Bodo Student Union (ABSU), All Bodo Women Welfare Federation (ABWWF), CRPF stationed at Kokrajhar and Kokrajhar district Police. The Gujarat bond Okha express was forced to stop in three different station such as Rongia, Bongaigaon and Kokrajhar station as soon as the tip-off information was received. Most of the women and girls boarded the train from different station in-order to avoid suspicion of public. The raid operation was planned and conducted accordingly.

The 66 rescued were the age group of 15-30, most of them are school drop out. As per the information given by the rescued women they were offered job in Gujurat and rest would be taken care. Non of the rescued were given details of the company where they will be working/would be recruited. The main accused, Mr. Raju who goes to the poverty stricken villages to gather young girls for the lucrative job in the cities, was also arrested.

The concerted efforts of NEDAN awareness building on Trafficking and HIV/AIDS finally open up the eyes of the larger ethnic community on human trafficking network that has been operational in the North East region.