Child trafficking 3rd largest illicit profitable business:UN

Kolkata, Feb 23 (UNI) About one million children are trafficked from India to neighbouring countries and 7000 from Nepal into the country, thus earning the perpetrators 32 billion US dollars every year, a UN report said.

In order to pressurise and sensitise the government regarding the ever rising crime, 'Bacchpan Bachao Andolan', a Delhi-based voluntary organisation, is organising a rally from here on February 25.

The rally, which would start from Kolkata and culminate in New Delhi on March 22, will march through all major places near the Indo-Bangla-Nepal border.

This would be the third such rally after the gruesome Nithari killings, where the targetted children were mainly from underpriviledged section of the society.

Talking to newspersons today film actress and social activist Nandita Das said, ''We all know the fact that children are trafficked mainly due to prostitution, but forced labour remains a hidden issue.'' Though the government had created Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act in 1986 to check this third largest crime, there is no regional protocol to prohibit such crime for forced labour and provide assistance to the victims, she said.

''We will fight till a bill is passed in Parliament to check trafficking,''Ms Das added.

BBA founder and chairperson of Global March Against Child Labour Kailash Satyarthi said, ''The objective is to build a mass movement against the crime and highlight the most vulnerable and neglected area.'' Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are the most vulnerable states, he said adding that there should be urgent legal measures for repatriation and rehabilitation of victims and conviction for the traffickers.

''We want everything in practice, not just on papers,'' he reiterated and urged the media to help eradicate this global menace by pressurising the government.

The rally is being sponsored by UNIFEM, UNDOC along with NGO's like Sanlaap and Apne Aap.

UNI