The revelation that the state has witnessed a rise in the number of cases of children aged below 18 years going missing after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is a matter of grave concern. A police officer had revealed on the occasion of “World Day against Trafficking in Persons” last week that three such cases were reported at the police stations daily, on an average. This means a whopping 1095 missing cases were recorded in Nagaland in a year, which is a big number for a small state. The success rate of rescue by the authorities, which the police said is 80%, is encouraging but the increase in the number of missing cases is disturbing. Although it is difficult to ascertain the exact cause of the surge, the timing of occurrence points to various underlying factors that need to be deliberated to arrest the issue. Normalcy may have returned after all the chaos following the outbreak of the pandemic but people, especially from developing countries are still experiencing its consequences.
The United Nations’ recent global Multidimensional Poverty Index has claimed that a total of 415 million people in India had exited poverty in just 15 years, ending 2019-2021. A study by Indian government’s think tank NITI Aayog also put the number of people, who had moved out of multidimensional poverty between the financial year 2015-16 and 2019-21 in the country, at 135 million, with Nagaland showing a significant decrease from 25.16% to 15.43% during the period. However, these reports lack post-COVID data. The World Bank had claimed, in its report published last year, that the pandemic had pushed more than 70 million people into extreme poverty globally in 2020, with India accounting for 56 million. Different studies may reveal different data on poverty but the fact remains that the pandemic had affected thousands of families in the state, especially in rural areas and the urban poor. Poverty and unemployment issue, which worsened after the pandemic, can’t be ignored to effectively address the worrying trend. It is also necessary to find out the dropout rate of school and college-going students in the state over the past few years to have a clearer picture of the issue. Internet access has also turned out to be a bane rather than a boon for many in the Northeast India, as gullible young people are lured by online predators on the pretext of providing jobs in metro cities. Many end up being exploited physically and mentally, while others fall into the hands of sex traffickers. The issue of human trafficking in northeastern states, including Nagaland, has been widely discussed of late but nothing much has changed on the ground. It indicates that the message has failed to reach the vulnerable population. Extensive awareness campaigns at village level, remote areas, and vulnerable age groups can help curb missing cases, which is closely associated with human trafficking. Besides the authorities, active involvement of communities, civil society organisations, churches and the general public is a must. People need to be reminded of the menace at regular intervals, not once or twice a year.
