Guwahati: State-Level Consultation on Human Trafficking on Dec 16 & 17

Shakti Vahini, a registered voluntary organization will organize a two-day 'State Level Consultation' in Guwahati as a part of 10^th Anti Trafficking in Persons Conclave Series on December 16 and 17 at Hotel Vivanta by Taj.

The main objective of the consultation is to bring together state level stakeholders including legal services, law enforcement, child protection and prosecution agencies to ensure convergence in response mechanisms and to strengthen interstate collaboration between source and destination agencies. A special session on Discussion with key law makers on Issues related to Human Trafficking will be held on December 16 in Guwahati.

The Shakti Vahini in a statement said that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing situations of vulnerability to trafficking inpersons, including in digital contexts, increasing the number of individuals at risk.

They further stated that internet use has been integrated into the business model of traffickers during the pandemic and it felicitates the luring of victims into sexual exploitation, forced labour, forced criminality and other purposes. "There has been a misuse of information and communications technologies, in particular the internet to facilitate various aspects of trafficking in persons, including advertising, grooming, recruitment, control, financial transactions and various forms of exploitation, including online child sexual exploitation and the production and distribution of child pornography and other child sexual abuse material," the statement added.

Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi also termed the situation generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on children as 'Crisis of justice, of humanity, of childhood, of the future of an entire generation'.

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