Child trafficking in Lahaul-Spiti

Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, December 5

Despite stringent law to curb child labour across the nation, organised human trafficking for child labour is rampant in the tribal district of Lahaul-Spiti.

The reason behind was that the area was remote and not accessible even to the district administration easily. As a result, information about offenders, who were exploiting minors as bonded labourers for the past many years, was hard to come.

Sources told The Tribune that organized human trafficking of minors from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh as well as from Nepal was going on to meet the demand of labour for household and field work of agriculture in the remote district, which remains cut off from the rest of the world for months together every winter due to the closer of 13,050-feet Rohtang Pass due to heavy snowfall.

A gang, active in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, was in contact with the locals of Lahaul Spiti, who purchase minors of poor families for meager amounts and then sell them as bonded labourers in the region, forcing minors to lead a pathetic life.

No childline NGO or any other NGOs were active in the district to detect such cases to protect the rights of minors. Besides, cases were not coming to light because of the connivance of locals.

Four bonded labourers were rescued last week by district police when somebody supplied the information that a few miscreants barged into a bus near Gondhla in Lahaul Spiti, in which victims were trying to flee out of the district. Offenders beaten them up mercilessly and bundled them into a van.

Chairperson of Child Welfare Committee Lahaul Spiti Shakuntla Devi said that this year in July month one such case came to light and the authorities later handed over the minor to his family, who was from Bihar.

Talking to The Tribune here, Superintendent of Police Lahaul Spiti Raman Kumar Meena conceded that a gang involved in human trafficking of minors from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh was active. The gang members purchase minors of poor families shelling out small amounts and then sell them to others. “Preliminary investigation reveals that the four rescued minors were trafficked a few years back in the district, who were forced to work as a bonded labourers in the region. Police was trying to nab the culprits involved in the gang of human traffickers for child labour”, SP said.

Two years ago criminal Investigation Department Kullu district also came across one such case at Kullu, in which four minors were trafficked by the miscreants. They were later rescued by the police authorities. Deputy Commissioner Lahaul-Spiti Vivek Bhatia said that the authority would keep a close watch on offenders and action will be taken accordingly.