Over the last six years, the most number of children trafficking occurred in Jaipur, Rajasthan according to the report released by Games24x7 and the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation (KSCF) on Sunday.
On World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on July 31, the report titled “Child Trafficking in India: Insights from Situational Data Analysis and the Need for Tech-driven Intervention Strategies” was released.
According to the reports, KSCF rescued a total of 13,549 children over the six-year period of 2016 to 2022.
The report says that the maximum number of children were rescued from Jaipur and it stands at 1,115 making it 9 per cent od the total children rescued in the country. The report also mentions that the state government is working to stop child labour completely.
The next two districts of Delhi comes next with the highest number of rescues are North Delhi, accounting for 5.24 per cent of the total rescues, and Northwest Delhi, accounting for 5.13 per cent of the total number of rescued children. There are five districts of the national capital on the list of top 10 districts.
According to the report, Rajasthan has experienced a significant increase in the average number of trafficked children. In the post-Covid years of 2021-22, the number rose to 99 children compared to 48 in the pre-Covid years of 2016-20. As per the report, the numbers before and after the pandemic has seen a significant increase which confirmed: “the damaging impact the pandemic had on the trafficking situation in the country”.
Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of children being trafficked per year when compared to other states. On average, there were 267 cases of child trafficking in the pre-Covid phase (2016-2019), and this increased by over 350 per cent in the post-Covid phase (2021-2022) to 1,214 cases per year. Just in 2021, there were 2,055 reported cases of child trafficking in the state. Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of cases, followed by Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, making up the top three states from which the most children were trafficked on average each year.
Karnataka witnessed a significant rise in the number of child trafficking cases per year, going from six cases before the Covid outbreak to 110 cases after it, which is an increase of 18 times. The report claimed that Kerala hasn’t shown a single case as a source state after Covid.
