Satyarthi demands passage of bill to curb human trafficking

Neerukonda (Guntur District): Expressing concern over the rampant trafficking of children and women, Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi demanded that Parliament should pass immediately the bill, which has been pending for the last four years, to effectively curtail women and children trafficking.

Addressing the media at the SRM-AP University on Monday, he said that people worship Goddess Durga, Goddess Saraswati and Goddess Lakshmi but the treat the girls badly. The country is celebrating Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav marking 75 years of Independence but it is a blot on the country that children are sold like cattle, he lamented.

The Indian laws explicitly prohibit child labour below the age of 14 years but still millions of children are still languishing without education, he rued.

One of the youngest countries in the world, India allocates only 4 percent of the budget for education, health care for the young people who are 44 percent of the population. "It is pathetic that five children are molested and nine children missing every hour across the country," he remarked.

When asked about the implementation of the Right to Education, Satyarthi said that political will, budget allocation and necessary infrastructure are necessary to implement that wonderful enactment.

Referring to the school dropouts during the pandemic, he said that 60 percent of the dropouts have no proper facilities for online learning and 40 percent have no facilities like Internet, smart phones at all. He expressed grave concern over the child marriages across the world, African children are facing the worst conditions.