The Gajapati district in southern Odisha has been adjudged as one of the 20 best performing districts in the country in preventing cases of child trafficking and psychotropic substance abuse among children and adolescents, the officials said on Wednesday.

“Based on the indicators of Joint Action Plan on “Prevention of Drugs & Substance Abuse” among children & illicit trafficking out of 262 districts by National Commission For Protection Of Child Rights (NCPCR) along with Narcotics Control Bureau, (NCB), Gajapati has been conferred the ‘best-performing-tag’, thanks to the effective implementation of various convergence projects and multi-disciplinary measures jointly initiated by civil and police administration, excise personnel, civil society groups besides various stakeholders”, said Gajapati collector, Lingaraj Panda.

Adopting the multi-disciplinary, more than 200 children who had fallen into the vicious trap of traffickers and drug abuse have been rescued and rehabilitated in the district in a year-long drive.  A total of 15 cases were lodged against brokers and 19 persons have so far been arrested in this regard.

73 vulnerable children have been identified and produced before the Child Welfare Committee for rehabilitation. The district administration sensitized the public about the use of the child helpline number (1098).

729 job card holders were offered with 100 days employment in 15 projects under MGNREGA & 12 para legal volunteers were appointed by “District Legal Service Authority” (DLSA) for legal counselling of victims.

55 children have joined ITI training programme free of cost and 34 children are presently staying at different child care centres and urban hostels after being rescued. These multi-pronged initiatives of the district administration have yielded positive results and that has been widely appreciated across the country.

Gajapati district had earned the dubious distinction of becoming a congenial ground for the brokers for child-trafficking to Goa, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Chennai and Surat for the purpose of maid servant, child labour, prostitution and other acts of illegalities.

After a full-fledged review, the district administration initiated different activities aimed at identifying the most vulnerable children and bringing them back to mainstream. This was further intensified by a high-level methodology to combat child trafficking.

At first 18 most vulnerable gram panchayats were identified where the child trafficking was very high, where there was a need to make a site survey using socio-economic parameters, which was followed by a 24X7 surveillance at every important entry and exit point of the district. It was further extended by the involvement of the local volunteers by creating a community-based vigilant group through the formation of “Village Level Child Protection Committee ” (VLCPC).

To keep a tab on drug abuse, the district has made the installation of CCTV in all the chemist shops. The objective was to maintain vigil over vigil on children getting addicted to cough syrup containing Codeine Phosphate (a narcotic drug). CCTV coverage of shops has detected children dropping to chemist shops to buy syrup. They were later rehabilitated, Collector Panda concluded.