Bijoy (title modified) from Sikkim, was elated when his dad and mom lastly agreed to let him go on a visit along with his buddies to Siliguri. In October 2023, the group of 16-year-olds made their strategy to the West Bengal city with plans for an ideal weekend.
Little did Bijoy or his dad and mom anticipate the nightmare that was to comply with.
When the group of boys returned to Sikkim, they have been one quick. Bijoy was lacking. Frantic, his father known as the one man he knew may assist — Raju Nepali. One thing of a hero within the Dooars area of West Bengal, Raju is the primary dialled variety of any guardian who’s unable to hint their ward.
He was fast to calm a dishevelled guardian down as he outlined the subsequent greatest plan of action. “We have to file a grievance with the Sikkim Police Division,” he stated.
Whereas assuring Bijoy’s father that he would assist discover Bijoy, Raju was already drafting a WhatsApp message with the boy’s image. A number of seconds later, 230 folks have been notified concerning the lacking boy. This included journalists, police, social employees, and attorneys throughout India who sprung into motion.
The following few weeks have been a busy time for the members of the group. As they found, the boy was lured by a drug peddler and brought to Bhagalpur, Bihar, the place he was overwhelmed. “The dad and mom have been flooded with messages for a ransom of Rs 1 lakh in the event that they needed to see their youngster once more,” remembers Raju. Environment friendly monitoring utilizing cellular networks led the police to the placement, from the place the boy was lastly rescued.
Sharing the thought of the WhatsApp group ‘Cease If You Can’, Raju emphasises that it’s a trendy resolution to curb human trafficking — a speedy one in distinction to the extra antiquated options which in any other case trigger confounding delays to find the lacking youngster.
Each youngster reunited with their dad and mom is a milestone for Raju, now in his late fifties, who was as soon as clueless about his future when he failed Class 7. However at this time, he’s a shining success.
A missionary in Nepal
The WhatsApp group that was profitable in tracing Bijoy is a part of the NGO Duars Categorical Mail arrange by Raju in 2007. By its networks, the NGO has efficiently rescued over 1,500 kids to date.
“However we’ve protected over a lakh kids,” provides Raju. Profitable on the stage of coverage and apply, Duars Categorical Mail is a joint collaboration between Raju and anti-trafficking activists, Rangu Souriya and Nirnay John.
As Raju spends his day understanding plans of motion to sort out the trafficking instances that come their approach, he says three many years in the past his life appeared very totally different. As a missionary, Raju’s work concerned travelling to the remotest elements of India, particularly to areas that have been going through peace conflicts. It was on one in every of these journeys to Nepal in 1992, that Raju and a younger woman grew to become buddies. The 2 struck a robust friendship and she or he appeared as much as him as an elder brother, inviting him to her engagement when it was fastened.
Whereas Raju attended the engagement, he gave the marriage a miss as he had returned to his house in West Bengal. “I used to be pleased for her. However it by no means struck me to search out out extra concerning the boy she was going to marry or his background,” he remembers, including that on a go to to the woman’s house later he realised his mistake. “Her dad and mom had misplaced contact along with her. They advised me she had not had any communication with them for the reason that marriage ceremony and neither approach was the boy reachable.”
The household was distraught. Whereas Raju helped them file a police grievance, there have been no results in go additional, till eight years later when he was in Pune!
As soon as once more on missionary work, Raju remembers how that day modified the course of his life without end. “I used to be at one of many dhabas in Pune and felt a faucet on my shoulder. After I turned to see who it was, I didn’t recognise the lady,” he shares.
However when she reminded him about their conversations and her engagement, Raju remembered. She was the identical woman who was lacking. Because the woman narrated her story of how she was duped by the person she married and delivered to Pune the place she was compelled to work in a pink gentle space, Raju was shocked. “It was the primary time I had heard about human trafficking,” he shares.
A vicious circle
Over the subsequent few weeks, Raju appeared for assist for the woman and advised her household, considering they might be pleased he discovered her. However within the course of, he got here to grasp that the evils of human trafficking lengthen past the plain purview. “After I advised this woman’s dad and mom the story she had advised me, they have been reluctant to take her again as she had been working in a pink gentle space. This made me realise the significance of counselling in such instances, each for the sufferer and the household,” he says.
Sadly, the woman succumbed to the HIV she had contracted inside a number of weeks of Raju discovering her. “My pal had misplaced her life. I needed to make sure nobody else was a sufferer of this destiny,” he notes.
With this as the muse for Duars Categorical Mail, Raju started networking with anybody in West Bengal who may assist him perceive extra concerning the channels of human trafficking. As he quickly learnt, based on an NCRB Report, between 2019 to 2021, the variety of lacking kids in West Bengal elevated by 22 p.c.
The scenario is grim. The Nationwide Crime Information Bureau (NCRB) knowledge ranks West Bengal tenth in human trafficking. “One thing wanted to be accomplished,” thought Raju.
At present, the work of Duars Categorical Mail is prolonged however not restricted to the safety and rescue of victims of human trafficking.
Elaborating on the method adopted, he says, “Every time the dad and mom of a lacking youngster come to us, I first advise them to go to the police station and file a ‘lacking’ grievance or a ‘kidnapping’ grievance in case of a minor. Then together with the police and social employees, we draw up a suspect sheet as to who the kid was final seen with and the place they have been headed. We additionally strive tracing the placement via cellular.”
As soon as the placement has been ascertained, the crew traces the closest railway station within the state and provides the closest police station the lead. The WhatsApp group expedites the method. With folks from pan India and even Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, the group is a holistic community, and with so many minds working, finding the kid turns into simpler.
Raju provides that when a baby is rescued, the District Justice of the Peace decides whether or not the kid wants counselling and might go house or must be positioned in a shelter. It’s this second that he waits for. Each case solved is a win for Raju, and he’s glad he can step in.
“Kids who’re trafficked lose hope of ever returning house, however seeing their smiles after their ordeal is the happiest second for me,” he remarks.
Edited by Pranita Bhat