Child marriages, trafficking continue amid crises; helpline launched
State Women & Child Development and Social Welfare Department secretary Sanghamitra Ghosh said it is a precautionary measure to keep a check on such delicate issues.
Following reports that child marriages and trafficking have taken place in the state amid the crises of COVID-19 and Cyclone Amphan, the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) has launched a helpline to address the matters, a senior official said on Tuesday.
The WBCPCR has set up an exclusive desk to address issues related to child marriage and trafficking after reports of such crimes came from places such as South 24 Parganas district and the Sundarbans in the past few weeks, he said.
Large parts of south Bengal including the Sunderbans have been severely affected by the cyclone. The South 24 Parganas and particularly the Sunderbans are most vulnerable to child trafficking and a huge number of cases have been reported from the region in the past few years.
Experts who have worked on child trafficking point out that “after cycle Aila [May 2009] there was a huge spike in the cases of trafficking from the Sunderbans. We then called it the saline curse as saline water had submerged large parts of the area. We have to see that there is no recurrence post Amphan,” said Ajanta Dey, joint secretary of the Nature Environment and Wildlife Society (NEWS).
Ms. Dey, who has been working in the Sunderbans for the past few decades, said most of the economic activities like agriculture and betel vines in the Sunderbans have been destroyed during Amphan making people vulnerable to migration and trafficking.