Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, August 28: Lauding the efforts taken by the state government to curb trafficking of girls and women, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Friday said the state police rescued 422 children and girls since January in rescue operations named ‘Smile’ and ‘Muskan’.
The Integrated Anti-Human Trafficking Units (IAHTU) set up by the Orissa government in every district of the state have helped contain the menace of human trafficking, said Patnaik in his inaugural address at the two-day national convention on Interstate Coordination on Anti-Trafficking of Girls and Women organised in the city by the State Commission for Women. Activists and government officials from 16 different states, including Orissa, attended the conference.
The Women and Child Development Department has initiated several appropriate steps for the reunion of missing children with their parents and for their rehabilitation, he added.
“Education and empowerment are the two powerful weapons to successfully fight atrocities against women,” observed Patnaik, terming poverty, illiteracy and unemployment as the major reasons behind trafficking practiced by unscrupulous elements.
‘Operation Smile,’ launched by the state police in January, resulted in the rescue of 335 children from various parts of the state. Under ‘Operation Muskan,’ 87 children were rescued from 10 outside states by joint teams of police and officials of the Women and Child Development Department in July.
National Commission for Women Chairperson Lalitha Kumarmangalam said pro-active steps are needed to end trafficking. She said many girls from Orissa have been trafficked to other states like Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh for forced marriages as these states have recorded an unfavouable gender ratio due to the practice of female foeticide and infanticide. Kumarmangalam urged a concrete interstate coordination between state governments and the civil society to root out this social menace.
Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary of the State Home Department, Asit Kumar Tripathy, said facilitation desks have been started at every police station to make registration of crimes against women easier.
Several activists attending the conference urged police to speed up the process of registering FIRs to avoid delay in delivering justice to victims of human trafficking.