MUMBAI: Save The Children has entered into a partnership with WATConsult, the digital and social media agency from Dentsu Aegis Network India, and Snapdeal to create awareness about the problem of child trafficking in India. On this international day against trafficking the company launched a campaign titled #KidsNotForSale campaign to curb child trafficking.
The company recently launched the teaser of the campaign which portrays ‘Amazing Kids Sale’ on Snapdeal which leads to a hard-hitting campaign that highlights stories of children who are sold for prostitution, kidnapped at birth, made to work in unhealthy conditions, drugged for organ trafficking or forced to become combatants.
The campaign pointed out that an estimated seven children go missing every hour. Half of them, are never able to return home. Between 2016 and 2017 alone, nearly one lakh children went missing. The conviction rate of these criminals was a dismal 22.7 per cent in 2016.
WATConsult founder and CEO Rajiv Dingra said,“This is a fight and a step against odds, an initiative to combat the dark web of trafficking. It was important to spread awareness about such a crucial situation through an innovative route that made one and all feel their role in ending this menace. We are glad to join hands with Save The Children and Snapdeal to help save our kids.”
A Snapdeal spokesperson said, “The trafficking of children is a serious and unconscionable issue. This year we have decided to leverage our kids’ sale store to not just urge the government to enforce strict actions to protect our children but also help Save The Children identify and rescue children, and possibly catch predators through donations from our users.”
Save the Children head of campaigns Pragya Vats added, “Children are the most ‘easy’ target, trafficked and pushed to most harmful forms of labour and abuse, often forced into prostitution, physical labour or domestic work. Young and vulnerable, children are losing their childhood forever to one of the most inhuman practices that remains one of the dark realities of human trafficking. We must break the apathy, build a public momentum to ‘#KidsNot4Sale an innovative initiative, in collaboration with WATConsult that aims to inspire public action”.
The government of India has taken a pioneering step forward by tabling India’s first Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 in the Parliament yesterday. The #KidsNotForSale campaign aims to urge the government to consider recommendations for not just comprehensive prevention but also rehabilitation, and monitoring and coordination mechanisms that will strengthen the power of the bill.
