Social media is seemingly giving a tough time to the law enforcers and anti-trafficking activists, who had been working to stop the menace of trafficking of young boys and girls from this part of the country.
While hundreds of people have been arrested for their involvement in the trafficking in the past, the wide accessibility of internet and peoples’ ever-growing interest in social media like Facebook and WhatsApp are making it difficult to for the law enforcers and activists to fight the menace.
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“The internet has always been very unsafe. Now with the growth of social media like Facebook and WhatsApp, the traffickers have got an added advantage to lure boys and girls,” said Rishi Kant, a member of Shakti Vahini.
“Earlier our fight was against some persons who are into trafficking but now there are sort of ‘ghosts’ who are active in social media only to lure the young boys and girls outside,” he added.
Shakti Vahini is an organization working against the menace of human trafficking.
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It may be mentioned here that Assam had recorded 2835 cases of crime against children in 2015 followed by 4951 cases of crime against children in 2017.
According to the data available with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 1651 young boys and girls have remained missing in 2017.
“We are going very strongly in Assam to stop the menace of child trafficking,” he further said.
“We are trying to work with the Assam education department to develop safety messages to make the youths particularly the girls aware on how to remain safe,” he added.
“We have already done it in West Bengal, which was successful. We are working on to develop some safety messages for the girls and boys which will make them aware of attempts of traffickers to lure them,” he said.
The Shakti Vahini has also been working with Facebook to ensure safety for the girls and boys against the menace of traffickers.
“The response of Facebook is very positive. They told us that they are also developing some safety measures so the social media could not be misused,” he said.
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