Guardians deny Assam tribal girls’ trafficking

The controversy over the trafficking of 31 tribal girls from Assam took a new turn on Tuesday when parents of the girls came before the media, claiming that they have sent their children to get a better education.

The Rashtra Sevika Samiti Assam (RSSA), an affiliate of the RSS, brought these parents before the media after the Congress raked up the issue.

The office bearer of the RSSA clarified, “It wasn’t trafficking. 31 tribal girls from poor families were taken for better education with due consent from their guardians and village heads who have signed to give their approval.”

Uttar Asom Prant Sanchalika Dr Malati Baruah and Uttar Asom Bouddhik Promukh Sandhya Goswami of RSSA said, “This isn’t the first such incident. We take tribal girls from far-flung, riot-hit and backward areas for better education. So far, a large number of such tribal girls of the region have been given better education at our institutions.”

The RSSA representatives, operating under the supervision and guidance of RSS, pointed out that many such girls have already been facilitated better education through their intervention and are now well placed in the society. “This year, we’ve sent as many as eight girls from the Northeast,” the NGO claimed.

Informing that the RSSA was set up in Assam in 1975, they said, “RSSA was running as many as three girls hostel in Assam, one in Mizoram and 30 elsewhere in the country.”

Akhil Bharatiya Sampark Promukh Sunita Haldikar, who was also present in Guwahati, said, “There are 180 girls who are getting education in RSSA-run shelter homes.”

In an obvious bid to counter the propaganda campaign, the RSSA presented many guardians of the said 31 tribal girls who vehemently denied the charges of their wards being trafficked. The NGO also presented before the media those girls who received education due to RSSA and are now well-settled.

Meanwhile, Assam Congress has also threatened to rake up the issue in the Assam Assembly.