Chhatrapur: The district administration has been making serious efforts to curb child trafficking and set child labourers free. Child protection committees (CPCs) have been formed at every ward, panchayat, block and district to work in this regard.
According to sources, several programmes like Nirbhaya Kadhee, Mo Gelha Jhia, Biju Kanya Ratna, Beti Bachao and Beti Padhao are under way in Ganjam district. Even as 37 child marriages have been stopped in Ganjam district this year, 8574 cases of child trafficking have been foiled and these children rescued during past six years.
Precisely, 456 children were rescued in 2014-15, 1615 in FY 2015-16, 1304 in FY 2016-17, 1559 in FY 2017-18, 2551 in FY 2018-19 and 1089 in FY 2019-20. Ganjam child welfare committee (CWC) has rescued these children when they were being trafficked to work in bangle-making and prawn-processing factories outside the state.
Especially, girls who are rescued by CWC are imparted vocational training at two Skill Development Centres of Chhatrapur, member Harihar Padhi informed.
The district administration should seek support of traditional leaders in order to combat the ever-growing menace of child marriage. Likewise, the drive against child labour like ‘Operation Muskan’ could be more fruitful if district police involves agencies like labour department, child protection units and voluntary organisations, intelligentsia opined.
PNN
