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{{Short description|Overview of child exploitation in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh}}
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2026}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}}

'''Child exploitation in Arunachal Pradesh''' takes many forms: [[child labour]], [[child trafficking]], domestic servitude, sexual abuse, and forced prostitution. All of this happens in the northeastern Indian state of [[Arunachal Pradesh]].<ref name="scroll">{{cite news |last=Ahmed |first=Farhana |url=https://scroll.in/article/858125/state-of-despair-how-child-labour-and-sexual-abuse-are-becoming-endemic-to-arunachal-pradesh |title=State of despair: How child labour and sexual abuse are becoming endemic to Arunachal Pradesh |newspaper=[[Scroll.in]] |date=23 November 2017}}</ref><ref name="federal">{{cite news |url=https://thefederal.com/category/the-eighth-column/bhonti-culture-how-minor-girls-from-assam-are-sold-into-slavery-in-arunachal-pradesh-98342 |title='Bhonti culture': How minor girls from Assam are 'sold' into slavery in Arunachal Pradesh |newspaper=The Federal |date=12 October 2023}}</ref> Authorities have identified the state as a destination for trafficked children. Victims are drawn disproportionately from marginalised communities, including the [[Chakma people|Chakma]], [[Adivasi]], and migrant populations from neighbouring [[Assam]].<ref name="scroll"/><ref name="wire">{{cite news |last=Ahmed |first=Farhana |url=https://thewire.in/rights/arunachal-pradesh-chakma-community-child-trafficking |title=Arunachal's Exclusionist Policy Towards Chakmas Has Led to Rampant Trafficking of Their Children |newspaper=[[The Wire (India)]] |date=23 October 2022}}</ref> The [[National Crime Records Bureau]] recorded 47 incidents under the [[Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012|POCSO Act]] in Arunachal Pradesh in 2022.<ref name="ncrb-pocso">{{cite news |url=https://satyarthi.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Status-of-POCSO-Cases-2017-2019.pdf|title=UP recorded highest number of POCSO cases: NCRB report |date=4 December 2023}}</ref>

A practice known locally as the ''bhonti'' system has been widely documented as child trafficking. Minor girls from Assam are purchased and brought into Arunachal Pradesh households as domestic servants.<ref name="federal"/> Police raids in 2024 and 2026 broke up interstate trafficking networks in the state capital, Itanagar. Government officials were among those arrested.<ref name="indiatv">{{cite news |url=https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/inter-state-sex-racket-busted-in-arunachal-pradesh-govt-officers-among-arrested-minors-girls-rescued-latest-updates-2024-05-16-931604 |title=Inter-state sex racket involving minors busted in Arunachal Pradesh, govt officers among 21 arrested |newspaper=India TV News |date=16 May 2024}}</ref><ref name="assam-tribune-2026">{{cite news |url=https://assamtribune.com/north-east/three-minor-girls-rescued-six-held-in-arunachal-trafficking-racket-1608085 |title=Three minor girls rescued; six held in Arunachal trafficking racket |newspaper=[[Assam Tribune]] |date=20 February 2026}}</ref> In 2024, a POCSO court sentenced a government school hostel warden to death for sexually assaulting 21 children.<ref name="deccanherald">{{cite news |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/india/arunachal-pradesh/pocso-court-sentences-man-to-death-for-sexually-assaulting-21-children-in-hostel-in-arunachal-pradesh-3211019 |title=POCSO court sentences man to death for sexually assaulting 21 children in hostel in Arunachal Pradesh |newspaper=[[Deccan Herald]] |date=29 September 2024}}</ref>

==''Bhonti'' culture==
The word ''bhonti'' comes from [[Assamese language|Assamese]], where it is a term of affection for a younger sister.<ref name="federal"/> In Arunachal Pradesh, the meaning has shifted. It now refers to a female domestic worker, and almost always a minor.<ref name="federal"/> Most ''bhontis'' are girls brought from Assam's impoverished [[Tea-garden community|tea belt]] and from [[Bodo people|Bodo]] tribal areas that have been torn apart by conflict.<ref name="federal"/>

''The Federal'' investigated the practice in 2023.<ref name="federal"/> Children as young as eleven are sold by their own families to intermediaries. Sometimes the price is as low as Rs 2,000, roughly US$24.<ref name="federal"/> The intermediaries then sell the children on to households in Arunachal Pradesh, where they cook, clean, work on farms, and care for other children.<ref name="federal"/> Racho Buda, chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee of Lower Subansiri district, called it "an undeclared custom" present in "almost every household in Arunachal Pradesh" and said it violated the Child Labour Act.<ref name="federal"/>

Police data from Itanagar shows 14 human trafficking cases were registered in Arunachal Pradesh between 2019 and September 2023. Those cases led to 22 rescues and 21 arrests.<ref name="federal"/> Jummar Basar, Superintendent of Police (Crime) and nodal officer of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, said the numbers were just "the tip of an iceberg." Parents, traffickers, and employers are all involved, which makes victims unlikely to report anything.<ref name="federal"/>

Between the years 2020 and 2022, the Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights had registered130 cases in total, five of which involved trafficking.<ref name="federal"/> Eleven involved child labour. One was bonded labour. Sixty-nine were filed under the POCSO Act. Four involved physical assault.<ref name="federal"/> Keni Bagra, Superintendent of Police of Lower Subansiri, said traffickers based in Assam drove the operation, contacting employers in Arunachal Pradesh to arrange sales of domestic workers.<ref name="federal"/> In some cases, girls who escaped one household were placed in another within weeks by the same trafficking networks.<ref name="federal"/>

''The Federal'' documented a girl who had worked as a ''bhonti'' since age eleven. She did not know her own name. Her employers had never called her anything but ''bhonti''.<ref name="federal"/> She was rescued and spent more than a year in a shelter home in Ziro before she could remember her home address.<ref name="federal"/> Since 2005, that shelter had housed 72 children.<ref name="federal"/> Another survivor, a fifteen-year-old Bodo girl working as domestic help in Itanagar, was raped by a male member of the household. She was sent back to Assam at seven months pregnant.<ref name="federal"/> Her family refused to take her back. She gave birth at a shelter home and gave the child up for adoption.<ref name="federal"/>

A ''Scroll.in'' investigation in 2017 reported similar findings. The Itanagar Child Welfare Committee was receiving roughly twenty complaints of child rights violations every month.<ref name="scroll"/> Between January 2016 and July 2017, [[Childline India Foundation|Childline]] recorded 104 confirmed cases of child labour and seven cases of sexual abuse across the state. Ninety-one of those child labour cases came from Itanagar alone.<ref name="scroll"/> Kani Nada Maling, who headed the Itanagar Child Welfare Committee, said most rescued children had been sent into domestic labour by poor families and then subjected to physical, psychological, or sexual abuse by employers.<ref name="scroll"/> The victims came predominantly from marginalised groups, including indigenous Adivasis, Assamese tea tribe communities, migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Chakma refugees, and [[Puroik people|Puroiks]], a formerly bonded labour community in the state.<ref name="scroll"/>

==Trafficking of Chakma children==
The [[Chakma people|Chakma]], a Buddhist ethnic group who were initially displaced from the [[Chittagong Hill Tracts]] were resettled in Arunachal Pradesh in 1964 following the construction of the [[Kaptai Dam]]<ref name="wire"/> In 2015, the Supreme Court of India directed that Chakmas be granted citizenship rights but the state government continues to not comply. As a result, the community members still lack citizenship documents, residence certificates, and access to government jobs and services.<ref name="wire"/> Journalist notes that this might be one of the few reasons, why the community is facing an increase in child trafficking cases.

''The Wire'' investigated in 2022 and found trafficking of Chakma children was widespread. The worst-affected areas were the Diyon Circle of [[Changlang district]] and the districts of Namsai and Papum Pare.<ref name="wire"/> In the villages of Aranyapur, Udaipur, Dharmapur, Mudoidweep, and Dumpani, almost every household had lost a child to traffickers.<ref name="wire"/> Families handed children to intermediaries after being promised education and employment. The children were then put to work in domestic servitude, construction, or sexual exploitation.<ref name="wire"/>

Individual cases documented by ''The Wire'' included a twelve-year-old boy found dead in unexplained circumstances shortly after being handed to an intermediary, and a second twelve-year-old who went missing and was still untraced a decade later.<ref name="wire"/> A thirteen-year-old girl was taken to Namsai with promises of work. Her captor sexually abused her. She was eventually rescued after someone filed a complaint on her behalf.<ref name="wire"/> Without citizenship rights, families could not access legal protections or report crimes to police effectively.<ref name="wire"/> The Arunachal Pradesh Chakma Students' Union ran its own anti-trafficking unit to track missing children.<ref name="wire"/>

The United States Department of Labor's 2022 report on the worst forms of child labour cited the trafficking of Chakma children in Arunachal Pradesh. It referenced ''The Wire'' investigation as evidence of the link between exclusionist state policies and trafficking vulnerability.<ref name="usdol">{{cite web |url=https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2022/India.pdf |title=2022 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor: India |publisher=United States Department of Labor |date=2022}}</ref> [[Caritas India]] separately identified northeast India as a hub for child trafficking. This particular study, found that about 80 per cent of the children from Assam's tea tribe communities were recruited for [[Child labour]] in Arunachal Pradesh.<ref name="caritas">{{cite web |url=https://www.caritasindia.org/assam-and-arunachal-pradesh-face-issues-of-child-trafficking/ |title=Assam and Arunachal Pradesh face issues of Child trafficking |publisher=Caritas India}}</ref>

==Sexual abuse in government institutions==
In September 2024, a [[Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012|POCSO]] court at [[Yupia]] sentenced had found, Yumken Bagra, a former hostel warden at the Karo Government Residential School in [[Shi-Yomi district]], for having sexually assaulted 21 children. He was subsequently sentenced to death<ref name="deccanherald"/><ref name="morung">{{cite news |url=https://morungexpress.com/arunachal-hostel-warden-sentenced-to-death-for-sexually-assaulting-21-children |title=Arunachal hostel warden sentenced to death for sexually assaulting 21 children |newspaper=Morung Express (IANS) |date=26 September 2024}}</ref> His victims which 15 girls and 6 boys, were aged six to fifteen. <ref name="morung"/><ref name="ar-observer-karo">{{cite news |url=https://arunachalobserver.org/2024/09/27/karo-school-students-sexual-abuse-case-main-culprit-bagra-given-death-penalty-2-other-accused-awarded-20-year-in-jail/ |title=Karo school students sexual abuse case: Main culprit Bagra given death penalty, 2 other accused awarded 20-year in jail |newspaper=Arunachal Observer |date=27 September 2024}}</ref> This was the first ever death sentence ever imposed for a [[child sexual abuse]] incident in Arunachal Pradesh.<ref name="ne-live">{{cite news |url=https://northeastlivetv.com/topnews/in-a-first-an-arunachal-court-grants-death-penalty-to-a-former-hostel-warden-accused-of-raping-and-molesting-21-school-students/ |title=In a first, an Arunachal Court Grants Death Penalty to a Former Hostel Warden Accused of Raping and Molesting 21 School Students |newspaper=Northeast Live |date=26 September 2024}}</ref>

The court also sentenced former headmaster Singtung Yorpen and Hindi teacher Marbom Ngomdir to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment each. Both had helped cover up the offences and failed to report them.<ref name="ar-observer-karo"/> Students had told Yorpen what was happening. He told them to stay quiet to protect the school's reputation.<ref name="ar-observer-karo"/> A special investigation team had found that Bagra had drugged students before assaulting them and had also threatened them to not speak out.<ref name="ar-observer-karo"/><ref name="indiatodayne">{{cite news |url=https://www.indiatodayne.in/arunachal-pradesh/story/arunachal-hostel-warden-sexually-assaults-21-children-in-shiyomi-district-617299-2023-07-19 |title=Arunachal: Hostel warden sexually assaults 21 children in Shiyomi district |newspaper=India Today NE |date=19 July 2023}}</ref> Six of his victims attempted suicide.<ref name="ar-observer-karo"/> This abuse was discovered in late November 2022 when two sisters told their parents.<ref name="indiatodayne" /> Bagra fled to Itanagar and was arrested in December 2022.<ref name="fpj">{{cite news |url=https://www.freepressjournal.in/education/arunachal-rape-accused-hostel-warden-surrenders-in-court |title=Arunachal: Rape Accused Hostel Warden Surrenders In Court |newspaper=Free Press Journal |date=1 August 2023}}</ref> Later on, the [[Gauhati High Court]] annulled his bail order granted by the lower court.The.<ref name="fpj" />

In December 2024, police arrested a man in Itanagar for allegedly sexually assaulting a fourteen-year-old girl who had been employed as domestic help, in a case registered under the POCSO Act.<ref name="at-dec24">{{cite news |url=https://assamtribune.com/north-east/man-held-for-alleged-sexual-assault-of-14-year-old-domestic-help-in-arunachal-pradesh-1561094 |title=Man held for alleged sexual assault of 14-year-old domestic help in Arunachal Pradesh |newspaper=[[Assam Tribune]] |date=14 December 2024}}</ref>

==Interstate sex trafficking==
In early May 2024, the [[Arunachal Pradesh]] state police had broken up an interstate [[sex trafficking]] ring in Itanagar.<ref name="indiatv"/> During this operation, they rescued five girls aged between ten to fifteen, who had been trafficked from [[Dhemaji]] in Assam.<ref name="indiatv"/> As a result a total of twenty-one people were arrested. Among them were a deputy superintendent of police of the 1st Arunachal Armed Police Battalion, a deputy director of health services, two state-employed engineers, and a doctor.<ref name="indiatv"/><ref name="nenews">{{cite news |url=https://nenews.in/arunachal-pradesh/arunachal-interstate-sex-racket-dsp-of-1st-arunachal-armed-police-battalion-2-others-arrested/10148/ |title=Arunachal interstate sex racket: DSP of 1st Arunachal Armed Police Battalion, 2 others arrested |newspaper=Northeast News |date=15 May 2024}}</ref>

Two sisters from Dhemaji ran the operation. They owned a beauty parlour in Itanagar and ran a brothel out of their home.<ref name="indiatv"/> Two hotels served as venues for the sexual exploitation.<ref name="indiatv"/> The sisters, along with two other women, coerced the girls into prostitution.

The Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Women condemned the case. It said the involvement of government employees was a source of institutional shame.<ref name="observer-racket">{{cite news |url=https://arunachalobserver.org/2024/05/15/condemnations-pour-in-sex-racket-6-more-nabbed-1-more-minor-girl-rescued/ |title=Condemnations pour in; Sex racket: 6 more nabbed, 1 more minor girl rescued |newspaper=Arunachal Observer |date=15 May 2024}}</ref> The Arunachal Pradesh Women's Welfare Society petitioned the Deputy Commissioner of Itanagar Capital Region to cancel licences for hotels and beauty parlours found to have facilitated trafficking.

In February 2026, Itanagar Police uncovered a separate interstate child trafficking network linking Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.<ref name="assam-tribune-2026"/><ref name="devdiscourse">{{cite news |url=https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/3811134-interstate-child-trafficking-racket-uncovered-between-assam-and-arunachal-pradesh |title=Interstate Child Trafficking Racket Uncovered Between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh |newspaper=Devdiscourse |date=19 February 2026}}</ref> The case began when police found a severely injured seven-year-old girl in Itanagar. Three more minor girls were rescued. Six people were arrested.<ref name="assam-tribune-2026"/> Investigators found an organised system in which children were trafficked from Assam and sold through cash transactions with no legal adoption process, destined to work as domestic servants.<ref name="assam-tribune-2026"/> The children were denied schooling, identity documents, and basic rights.<ref name="devdiscourse"/> At the time of reporting, two children were still missing.<ref name="assam-tribune-2026"/>

==Institutional capacity and enforcement==
Arunachal Pradesh's child welfare infrastructure is widely regarded as too thin to address the scale of the problem.<ref name="scroll"/> As of 2017, the state had only six Child Care Institutions. Two of them were not functioning.<ref name="scroll"/> Of 21 Child Welfare Committees across the state, only those in Ziro, Lower Subansiri, and Itanagar were active.<ref name="scroll"/> Child rights workers reported being threatened and abused by perpetrators.<ref name="scroll"/> Sunil Mow of the Indian Council for Child Welfare's Arunachal Pradesh chapter said that adding more committees would not be enough without shelter homes and trained social workers to back them up.<ref name="scroll"/>

As of 2022, Arunachal Pradesh had not joined the central government's scheme to set up Fast Track Special Courts for rape and POCSO cases. Only two other states or union territories had similarly failed to do so.<ref name="satyarthi">{{cite web |url=https://satyarthi.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Paper-on-Pendency-of-POCSO-Cases_Jan23.pdf |title=Status of POCSO Cases in India |publisher=Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation |date=January 2023}}</ref> Nationally, 90 per cent of POCSO cases remained pending as of 2022. Courts completed trials in only 12 per cent of cases.<ref name="usdol"/>

A 2024 analysis by 360info found that at least 11 million children are trafficked for labour in India. Weak enforcement of laws and poor training of authorities continued to undermine protections even where comprehensive legislation existed.<ref name="360info">{{cite web |url=https://360info.org/child-trafficking-thrives-in-india-despite-strong-laws/ |title=Child trafficking thrives in India despite strong laws |publisher=360info |date=16 September 2024}}</ref> A 2017 ReliefWeb report by Caritas India identified northeast India as a hub for child trafficking, with child labour and sexual exploitation as the main drivers.<ref name="reliefweb">{{cite web |url=https://reliefweb.int/report/india/child-rights-violations-and-trafficking-haunting-north-east-india |title=Child Rights Violations and Trafficking haunting North-East India |publisher=ReliefWeb |date=29 September 2017}}</ref> Caritas India's anti-trafficking programme in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh covers 75 villages across five partner organisations.<ref name="caritas"/>

==See also==
*[[Child labour in India]]
*[[Human trafficking in India]]
*[[Chakma people]]
*[[Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Child labour in India]]
[[Category:Human trafficking in India]]
[[Category:Children's rights in India]]
[[Category:Child sexual abuse in India]]

Child exploitation in Arunachal Pradesh - Revision history

JaniePan0653361: Put up a stub basic info