Skip to content Skip to navigation

Addressing unsafe migration, preventing human trafficking

The first Session of the Anti Trafficking-in-Persons Conclave 3 took off at Hotel Brahmaputra Ashok Conference Hall Thursday evening. The Conclave is the third in the series which seeks to explore and replicate best models to address Trafficking-in-Persons in Northeast India and its bordering countries.

The Asian Centre for Human Rights identified Guwahati as the main transit point for trafficking of women from North Eastern states to other parts of the country, particularly Siliguri, Kolkata and New Delhi. According to the US State Department millions of women and children are trafficked in India annually which is a source, destination and transit country for men women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Forced labor of millions of its citizens constitutes India’s largest trafficking problem; men, women, and children in debt bondage are forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories.

The Session I of the Conclave: Igniting Innovation in Market Access, Corporate and Social Enterprise Approach to address unsafe migration, preventing human trafficking kicked off with a welcome speech by Rachel Sunden, Deputy Director, American Center, Kolkata. The panelists were: Biswajit Chakraborty, Head North East Council, FICCI, Arnab Chakraborty, National Director, UNCTAD, Hasina Kharbhih, Managing Director, Impulse Social Enterprises, Gaurav Gogoi, Founding Secretary, Farm2Food Foundation and Nandinee Kalita, Director and Head, Assam State, Confederation of Indian Industry. Former Special Secretary to the Government of India, Krishan Varma moderated the session.

Acclaimed multi-lingual actor, human rights and labor issues campaigner Victor Banerjee was the star attraction who appeared briefly during the session and assured to lend his support and celebrity persona to help address the issue of Trafficking-in-Persons. He said, “I tend to always believe that my heart belongs to Assam and the Northeast but my soul rests in Uttarakhand.”

The session discussed issues related to the responsibility of the promotion of sustainable livelihood initiatives in the region, the necessity of responsible business initiatives, Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) towards livelihood and connectivity issues of the region.

Biswajit Chakraborty, Head North East Council, FICCI, presenting his views on the causes of migration and trafficking said that only education and employment with added skill sets will be able to get vulnerable people on a higher platform of employment and keep them from being trafficked.

In his speech on entrepreneurial developments, Arnab Chakraborty, National Director, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that entrepreneurship is a way out of abject poverty. He highlighted UNCTAD’S maiden efforts in India with Empretec which is an integrated capacity-building programme that promotes the creation of sustainable support structures that help promising entrepreneurs build innovative and internationally competitive small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), thereby contributing to the development of a dynamic private sector.

Among the areas that UNCTAD is interested to work closely are women entrepreneurship, technology entrepreneurship and interpreneurship which is promoting an entrepreneurial culture in governance, in large organizations, public sector organizations and transnational. UNCTAD have examples of success which is not just poverty alleviation but robust business linkage platforms that help regional collaborations and cooperations.

Empretec started initially as a technical assistance request of the United Nations by Brazil in Argentina in the early eighties and it is a fairly well structured programme today. “Among other Indian states Assam is one we had the privilege of presenting our credentials before the honorable Chief Minister of the state who has requested Empretec for the state,” Chakraborty informed.

Presenting her views on the role of the corporate sector, Nandinee Kalita, Director and Head, Assam State, Confederation of Indian Industry said, “Corporates will have to play a very important role within the Corporate Social Responsibility cap and so also the civil society organizations. Once a bridge is built between these two sectors it will be possible to go ahead to identify the vulnerable section for proper rehabilitation. In the Northeast except for telephone companies there are no Private Sector Units (PSUs) working on Corporate Social Responsibility. Its mostly the PSUs who have to work on this.”

She cited two approaches which can be taken in this direction; one: the involvement of NGOs in identifying the vulnerable sections and helping them to create livelihood, entrepreneurship and acquire developed skills including education and infrastructure especially the underprivileged and the school drop outs who are most vulnerable to trafficking. And secondly, the participation of the corporates in taking up rescue and rehabilitation programmes.

Talking about the importance of entrepreneurship and enterprise building she said that since survivors of trafficking cannot become entrepreneurs all by themselves, corporates and the CII must literally hand hold them, identify small projects for them and once their livelihood is assured help them to access the market. She informed that CII has already started an initiative on this line called the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust. It identifies underprivileged entrepreneurs who has no access to banks whom the corporates help take a loan. She stressed on the corporate involvement and commitment in tackling trafficking and empowerment through CSR initiatives that can be diverted to combating trafficking which is one of the third most rampant crime that afflicts our society after crime and drug dealing.

Gaurav Gogoi, Founding Secretary, Farm2Food Foundation which aims to transform farming by providing training on organic practices, community development support, youth development, market and advocacy support to farmers in Northeast India citing the present economy of India said, “Agriculture is driving the revival of the Indian economy and after agriculture is infrastructure. Its not manufacturering, its not IT, its not banking, its agriculture. And that’s where a small solution lies because we have not done justice to this sector, and when I say agriculture I just do not mean production, I just don’t mean paddy, I mean agriculture and allied activities. I also would like to encompass within it, the industry side of it in terms of food processing, storage, warehouse, all that value added products in terms of bio-pesticides and medicines.”

It is with the idea and motivation of agriculture and creating entrepreneurship within agriculture that he started the Farm2Food Foundation which over the next three years will be working with three thousand children in Class Eight telling them and teaching them how to be agri-entrepreneurs; how to grow something from the land and how to make profit from it. He also drew the attention of the participants on the importance of combating Climate Disasters which the region is prone to.

Drawing from experience, Hasina Kharbhih, Managing Director, Impulse Social Enterprises said, “We have worked so much on the issue of prevention, on the issue of policing, the issue of rehabilitation, the issue of providing prosecution to traffckers, but, having spent this journey I realize that at the end of the day it boils down to poverty and an unstable economy that makes women whom I have been working with all these years migrate from the Northeast.”

Honing in traditional skills that can give market accessibility to the survivors of trafficking, offering them a long term sustainable market so that the can be back to the area where they come from and empowering them to make their decisions can essentially ensure that women and children do not get trafficked, she concluded.

The panel ended with an informative interactive session thrown open to the participants that included the who’s who of the government, the business industry, the stakeholders and civil society organizations from Indian states and visiting country representatives.

 

Author info

Syed Miraz Ahmed's picture

Writes, edits and researches. In 2013 he was conferred the Rotary International District 3240 Young Achiever Award for his work in the area of environment and digital journalism. In 2006 he was awarded first in the category of Wildlife Photography by the Department of Environment & Forests and Tourism, Government of Assam.

Add new comment

Assamese Translator

Assam Times seeks English to Assamese translators!
Join our volunteer team.
Email editor@assamtimes.org.

Random Stories

American Center organizes education road show

4 Nov 2014 - 5:32pm | Syed Miraz Ahmed
With the aim at encouraging young students to pursue higher education in the United States, the Education USA Alumni Road show is travelling to four cities- Guwahati, Kolkata,...

Rijiju to meet Gogoi

7 Jun 2014 - 8:42am | AT News
Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju is scheduled to assess the law and order situation with chief minister Tarun Gogoi in Guwahati on Saturday. Rijiju, who took over as the union minister...

Assam flood scene grim

10 Sep 2013 - 6:28pm | AT News
At least 10 districts are reeling under flood water. The worst-hit are river island Majuli and the Kaziranga National Park. Rising water of the Brahmaputra has inundated vast tracts of land in...

New RTI commissioner

7 Aug 2015 - 7:14pm | AT News
 Imanuel Basumatary took oath as RTI commissioner on Friday. Governor PB  Acharya administered him the oath of office and secrecy at a brief function at the Raj Bhawan in the morning....

Other Contents by Author

The U.S. Consulate General, Kolkata in collaboration with social enterprise Contact Base, is launching a youth entrepreneurship initiative – Y4BIZ (Youth for Business) in four cities Guwahati, Patna, Ranchi and Kolkata. The program in Guwahati took place in association with the local organization, Startup Assam. The Y4BIZ program aims to support a promising group of 50 young entrepreneurs, and transform their business ideas from the initial stage to a sustainable business model. The 50 entrepreneurs will be selected by a rigorous screening process after the launch events in all four cities. This will be followed by an online capacity building and mentoring program run by the IC2...
The People’s Democratic Council of Karbi-longri (PDCK) Thursday rubbished what it term ed as a “strange” news report aired by News 18 on November 7, 2017 with graphics of photographs and videos on the basis of a police claim. “The news report emphatically asserted that our Home Secretary, Mir-ang Sir-ang was and is directly involved in cases of poaching rhinos in the Kaziranga National Park. The allegation made by the greedy Assam Police personnel and corrupt forest department officials against PDCK and its Home Secretary for killing rhinos is baseless and fabricated. It is an insinuation of the worst kind manufactured out of thin air in order to tarnish the image of this promising...
Investigators from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) returned to India this week to continue the search for remains of U.S. personnel missing since World War II.  Last year, DPAA deployed a team to northeast India for 30 days in search of remains for unaccounted-for U.S. airmen, and this is their fifth mission to India since 2013. There are approximately 400 U.S. airmen missing in India, most of whose remains are believed to be located in the Himalayan Mountains in northeast India.  During World War II, the United States provided supplies to the Chinese Army by flying over the Himalayas, a route known as “The Hump.”  Many of these aircraft went missing and were...
The People's Democratic Council of Karbi-longri (PDCK) an affiliate of the United National Liberation Front of Western South East Asia (UNLFWSEA) Sunday condemned the atrocities committed by what it terms ‘Indian occupation forces’ upon two arrested persons, namely Rau Engleng and Longsing Teron.  “They used electric shocks and beating as a method of torture to extract information and forced them to confess. These practices are gross violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Convention,” said the outfit.  Stating statutes, PDCK said that occupation forces should recognize the International Humanitarian Law and the Law of Armed Conflict, which protect persons as a target for...
One Planet Academy, a digital portal was launched ​in Guwahati on Wednesday as a part of WWF-India’s initiative in partnership with Capgemini to create awareness ​in the area of environment and ​ ​ educate students and citizens through an interactive ​ interface​. Leveraging the affinity of today’s learners towards technology, the website focuses on various environmental themes and is a digital hub for schools, teachers and students that brings under its ambit a digital training and resource centre. One Planet Academy is the first of its kind digital hub for environment education for schools, teachers, students and citizens. The OPA is designed to be a one stop destination for engaging not...
The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee, Sunday filed an FIR at Bhangagarh Police Station, Guwahati, seeking immediate arrest and prosecution under the Criminal Procedure Code following remarks made by Jorhat Lok Sabha Constituency MP, Kamakhya Prasad Tassa on Saturday in a meeting held at Sonari in Charaideu District. Tassa described Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi as 'garbage' in the presence of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. 
The final round of the 10th International Edition of the Wild Wisdom Quiz, organised by WWF-India and Discovery Kids in association with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), was held at WWF-India, New Delhi on October 6, 2017.The event saw participation from 28 city level winners across the country and 2 winners from Nepal.Wild Wisdom Quiz has grown in strength over the last decade and has reached beyond the country, with Nepal running its first edition of the quiz in 2017. In India, the Wild Wisdom Quiz is being run across 817 schools in 14 cities with participation from approximately 50,000 students. Run in the format of a competition, the quiz is a fun way to help children learn...
Organized by Abiogenesis Society with sponsorship from North East Council, Ministry of DoNER, Shillong; Artist Aloud as Digital Promotion Partner, Asian News International (ANI) for international news coverage and Doordarshan Kohima Kendra for live telecast, the festival aims to showcase music made by indigenous social groups of the region.The main event on October 7, will see a very strong line up at IMC Hall, Dimapur from 5:30 pm featuring eight renowned artistes and bands.They are: Summersalt – a folk fusion band from Meghalaya who has been featured in the Bollywood film Rock On 2, Jambili – a folk fusion band from Assam, Imphal Talkies – a six member folk rock band from...
​​A land without ruins is a land without memories – a land without memories is a land without history: so wrote Reverend Abram Joseph Ryan, an American poet, popularly known as the Poet – Priest of the South and also as the Poet-Laureate of the Confederacy. Ruins are not alone physical remains of a building or a structure, but embodiment of memories. The past is deeply entrenched in them. Even in a stage of dilapidation, besides the stories of glory and loss, they also weave narratives of a sense of being part of that past which stand right there to be touched and felt. The historical monuments of the pre-colonial Dimasa state today lie in a state of ruins across vast geographical areas...
The proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom [ULFA-Independent] expresses delight in the arrival of the under seventeen Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup soccer matches in homeland Assam. “I, on behalf of my organisation, thank FIFA for bringing International Football to this remote part of the world and a warm welcome to the FIFA officials and players of different nations to Assam,” states Abhizeet Asom, the elusive Chairman of the outfit.He believes that the people of Assam will immensely benefit by the experience, learning about international standards in football by witnessing the ways and manners of the teenage players from different countries and...