Hundreds of women volunteers and children march to parliament demanding stringent laws against child trafficking

A good number of women activists, parents of the missing children, students, voulnteers of several non governmental organisations and socio political activists including few journalists today marched from Mandi House to Parliament street under the scorching sun raising anti police, administration and government slogans demanding immediate rescuing of the disappeared and trafficked children and fulfilment of several other genuine demands to expedite action on hundreds of thousands of cases of the missing children all over the country.

Holding playcards and raising slogans against the police and the concerned authorities the acrimonious procession marched for about one n a half kilometres from Mandi House and finally culminated at Parliament street where the participants were addressed by the Chief of the Search My Child website and a leading women activist Kusum Kandwal Bhatt, senior journalist n socio political activist Charu Tiwari, President of Uttarakhand Journalists Forum Sunil Negi, Dev Singh Rawat, activist Sushma Negi, Babita Negi, several women NGO activists, Nandan Singh Rawat, Uday Mamgain Rathi and several others.

The main organiser of this protest demonstration Kusum Kandwal Bhatt and her co women activists later on presented a two page memrandum to the Prime minister’s South block office under police escort.

The memorandum expressed serious concern, shock and anguish over the increasing and unabated incidents of child trafficking and disappearence of children all over the country and the ignorance n complacense of the police authorities in tracing them and punishing the guilty under the relevent and stringent sections of the law.

While emphatically demanding immediate permission for registration of Zero FIR in the cases of child’s disappearence in any part of the country, the Search My Child organisation also demanded establishment of Fast Track Rescue Cell in every police station of the country compounded with expeditious recovery of the vast number of missing children n mandatory use of adhar card to lacate them. The furious and angered demonstrators, majority of whom were women and youngsters literally pledged to continue their fight against the system till their demands are not met forthwith.

It may be recalled that 4 year old Kashish Rawat had mysteriously disappeared from.her sector 22, Noida House about two n a half years ago and is still untraceable since then despite tremendous efforts of her parents and various socio political organisations right from meeting the UP state CMs’ former and present to the entire senior officers of Noida police to union Home minister to all the MPs of Uttarakhand but of no avail.

Since then several mass protests and demonstrations were organised at Jantar Mantar Delhi n Noida n several memorandums handed to aithorities concerned but nothing fructified till yet. Mrs Kusum Kandwal Bhatt and her organisation in league with other NGOs n Social organisations thereafter took the cudgels of this burning issue in their hands and mobilised students, teachers and parents by holding mass awareness campaigns in various scholsand colonies of Delhi. Today’s protest march was in sequel to the earlier efforts and initiatives to pressurise the government accept their demands on this pivotal issue and devise new n stringent laws to punish the guilty and trace the missing children expeditiously.

Sunil Negi, President, Uttarakhand Journalists Forum