The Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) aims to provide a safe environment for children's development and protect those who are at risk or in conflict with the law. It establishes state and district bodies to implement programs that improve vulnerable children's well-being and reduce their risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation and separation from parents. The scheme works closely with civil society and other states to build an integrated response to prevent and address human trafficking of children.

2. Integrated Child Protection Scheme
(ICPS) – The Integrated Child Protection
Scheme (ICPS) an umbrella scheme with a
view to provide a safe and secure
environment for the overall development
of children who are in need of care and
protection as well as children in conflict
with law, including children in difficult
circumstances.

3. The objectives of the scheme is to
improve the well being of children in
difficult circumstances, as well as to reduce
the vulnerabilities that lead to
abuse, neglect, exploitation, abandonmen
t and separation of children from parents.

4. In order to ensure the objectives and approaches of
ICPS are met, the scheme has established state and
districts bodies within a service delivery structure.
At the state level:
 State Child Protection Society (SCPS)- For
implementation of ICPS at the State Level
 State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA)- To
promote and regulate legal adoption
 State Project Support Unit (SPSU)- Technical support
unit to facilitate the implementation of the scheme
At the district level:
 District Child Protection Society (DCPS)- For
implementation of ICPS in all the 11 districts of
Nagaland
 Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and Juvenile
Justice Board (JJB)- to adjudicate matters related to
children in need of care and protection and children
in conflict with law.

5. Trafficking of human beings, especially of
women and children, is an organized crime that
violates basic human rights. Trafficking is defined as
any activity leading to
recruitment, transportation, harboring or receipt of
persons, by means of threat or use of force or a
position of vulnerability. Human trafficking has been
identified as the third largest source of profit for
organized crime, following arms and drug
trafficking, generating billions of dollars annually at
the global level. Trafficking takes places for various
purposes such as labour, prostitution, organ
trade, drug couriers, arms smuggling etc.
However, these cannot be seen in isolation as they
have a crosscutting nexus and linkage, which
compounds the constraints faced in tackling the
problem.

6. The common understanding of the
methods used for trafficking is compulsion,
duping, luring, abducting, kidnapping etc.
However, in most cases particularly
Nagaland, it is the social and economic
constraints of the victims that make them
most vulnerable. With growing globalization
and liberalization, the possibilities and
potential for trafficking have also grown.
People tend to migrate in search of better
Opportunities. Though this is a positive trend, it
has also led to the emergence of other
complex issues such as smuggling of people
across borders and unsafe Migration by
deceitful touts and agents.

7.  The number of trafficked children is difficult
to determine due to the secrecy in the
nature of the crime. studies by the Ministry
of Women and Child Development
(MWCD) estimates that there are about
three million prostitutes in the country, of
which an estimated 40 percent are
children, as there is a growing demand for
very young girls to be inducted into
prostitution on account of customer
preferences.

8.  Over the years, Nagaland has become
a source, destination and transit region
for human trafficking. Cross-border
trafficking also takes place, especially
from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Interstate trafficking from Assam,
Arunachal Pradesh and some from
Meghalaya.
 Poverty force parents in the Naga-
dominated areas of Myanmar to send
their children to Nagaland in the hope
that they would get education but most
children land up as domestic help.

9.  It has been reported that there were over
500 children working in Kohima alone. The
traffickers, who convince parents of better
education for their children, get anything
between Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 for a child.
 The Eastern Nagaland People’s
Organizations (ENPO) reports child
trafficking from Nagaland backward
districts had turned quite serious because of
the poverty. According to report from the
ENPO, there were around 3,000
children, mostly girls, working as domestic
helps in and around Kohima. About 1,000 of
them are from Mon district alone.

10.  Many children are trafficked for purposes of
cheap labour and commercial sexual
exploitation. The destinations are usually New
Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Goa and Kolkata and
extend as far as Thailand and Singapore and
Middle East countries.
 These children are sent with a promise for
better life, better education and proper care.
 Ironically, most of the reported case of
trafficking case has been done through the
church or people posing to be missionaries. In
most cases the local pastors were duped and
fallen prey to some deceitful person who was
posing as Christian missionaries.

11.  In 2009, 29(twenty nine) children (all from
Peren District) were rescued from
Andhra Pradesh from a home. These
children went through many
physical, social, emotional and mental
trauma. These children were rescued
and repatriated to Nagaland. At
present, the SCPS Nagaland is keeping
close check on these children in co-
ordination with the District
Administration, Police, Civil
Societies, Village Council and schools.

12.  In 2011, 6 Naga children from Peren District
were rescued from Hope
Home, Kolkata, West Bengal. Out of these
children, one child was only 2 years old and
was given up by her mother as she could
not afford to keep her. SCPS Nagaland
coordinated with childline Kolkata. The
officials of SCPS and the State Juvenile
Police units went and rescued the children
and repatriated back to their families. The
DCPO, Peren along with the counselors and
the Legal Officers are in constant touch
with these families and children. We are
also in the process of providing sponsorships
and foster care to some of these children.
SCPS is also trying to initiate legal adoption
so these that these children can be placed
in a safe home.

13.  Just yesterday, Rajasthan police rescued 49
children, including 27 girls of northeast
region, aged between 4 and 14, from an
illegal orphanage in Jaipur and arrested
one person in connection with the
case. The children were kept confined in
shelter homes which were not registered
with government agencies. A man claiming
to be a pastor was arrested by police,
officials said. Police detained a man
identified as Jacob John, who claims to be
a pastor, the officer added. John said the
children came from poor families across the
country. Among them were children from
Punjab, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and
Chhattisgarh.

14. These are the various Acts, Codes and
Sections that we apply in dealing with various
trafficking cases:
 The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (ITPA)
 The Indian Penal Code (Sec 339, 340, 372, 373)
 Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of
Children) Act, 2000 (JJA)
 Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act
 The Bonded Labour System (Abolition)
Act, 1976

15. The State Child Protection Society has built strong
linkages and partnerships with various stakeholders
including civil society, NGOs, and other states, in all its
endeavors to build an integrated response to prevent
and combat trafficking in children
 All children below the age of 18 years from Eastern
Nagaland are to register from Eastern Nagaland
People Organisation (ENPO) at Kohima and Dimapur.
 Sponsorships and Foster Care - SCPS has been
providing sponsorships and foster care to families
who are not financially stable for preventive and Re-
habilitative purposes.

16. One of the challenges faced in the
rehabilitation and re-integration of the
victims is that of providing them with
sustainable livelihood options. In order to
help children emerging from Institutions to
restart a new life in mainstream
society, there are various after-care
programs where they are given Vocational
Trainings.

17.  Child Line Services – Child Line, the toll-free
number 1098, is a 24-hour telephone service run
under the aegis of MWCD, available to all
children in distress or to adults on behalf of
children in distress. One of The basic objectives of
Child Line is To respond to the emergency needs
of the children in difficulty and provide referral
services.
 Track The Child – Child Tracking System: It is a
web-enabled Child Protection Management
information System on all children accessing
services to track missing children has been
introduced in Nagaland in collaboration with
the NIC.

18.  Advocacy and awareness of all sections of society. Special
efforts are on to sensitize the church, civil bodies and law
enforcement agencies
 To call upon all concerned, including police, prosecutors and
the judiciary, to undertake concerted action in law
enforcement so that offenders are punished quickly, certainly
and severely and in a time-bound manner;
 To identify vulnerable areas, including the study of migration
and trafficking trends and patterns;
 To identify inter-State and intra-State source, transit and
destination;
 To prevent brokers and intermediaries from indulging in
trafficking for forced labour and other forms of illegal
purposes, including, specifically, domestic child labour;
 To build a coalition of media partners and Organisations to
advocate for the prevention of trafficking.