Guwahati: Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today flagged off the Mukti Caravan, a campaign on wheels against child trafficking, spearheaded by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) in association with the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation at the main entrance to his official Koinadhara residence.
Flagging off the Mukti Caravan, Chief Minister Gogoi said that the movement launched in the State would help create mass awareness about trafficked children, sexually abused and exploited children and liberate them from bondage.
The Chief Minister recalled his meetings with Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi and said that the joint action plan to stop child trafficking in the State was an outcome of those meetings, Assam Tribune reported.
Gogoi appealed to the people, NGOs and the media to join hands with the State government and the BBA to put a full stop to all sorts of exploitation and subjugation of children. “All must join hands to make the movement against child trafficking, child labour and other sorts of exploitation a strong and vibrant one and to help liberate these children from bondage,” he said, adding that all-out efforts have to be made to restore educational, health and other rights to the rescued children.
The Chief Minister hoped that the movement that has spread out in different parts of the country and elsewhere, would also touch every nook and corner of Assam.
Speaking on the occasion, senior BBA member and director of Balashram, Sumedha Kailash appealed to one and all to strengthen the movement to save the children being trafficked from the State and other neighbouring states and to help bring back their lost childhood by rehabilitating them in the mainstream. “I appeal to the people to lodge complaints against child trafficking and other sorts of sexual abuse to the police station and the office of Bachpan Bachao Andolan. I also urge the media to bring to light cases of child trafficking in the State,” she added.
She pointed out that in the earlier campaign launched by the organisation in the State in 2011, around 500 complaints against exploitation of children were received, out of which 259 were rescued and rehabilitated.