Patna, Aug 8: Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary on Saturday called for stronger efforts to prevent human trafficking and protect missing children, saying economic vulnerability, migration and the desire for quick financial gains can expose people to serious social risks.Addressing an eastern regional conference on missing children and human trafficking organised by the state Home Department in Patna, Choudhary said the Bihar government was following a zero-tolerance policy towards trafficking.
Representatives from Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal attended the conference, which focused on preventing trafficking, tracing missing children, rescuing victims and ensuring their rehabilitation.The Chief Minister said initiatives such as ‘Sahyog Shivir’ were being used for real-time monitoring of complaints involving missing persons and children.
He said more than 600,000 applications had been received through the programme, with over 550,000 cases disposed of so far.Choudhary said campaigns under ‘Naya Savera 1.0’ and ‘Naya Savera 2.0’ had been followed by ‘Naya Savera 3.0’, aimed at strengthening awareness, prevention, rescue and rehabilitation measures against human trafficking. More than 1,200 missing children have been recovered through such efforts, he said.
Linking trafficking with employment-related migration, Choudhary said expanding industrial activity in Bihar could create more livelihood opportunities and reduce distress migration.He said the state had signed memoranda of understanding worth more than Rs 51,000 crore with various steel industry groups for industrial investments, adding that the government wanted to create conditions that would encourage people to find employment within Bihar.
Supreme Court Justice A Amanullah, who attended the event as the chief guest, said rescue alone could not be considered the end of the rehabilitation process.He stressed the need to provide trafficking survivors with employment, social acceptance and a dignified return to their families and communities. He cautioned that rejection by families or society could leave survivors vulnerable to exploitation and re-trafficking.
Justice Amanullah also urged the police, judiciary, administration and society to work together to protect children and ensure that rescued victims do not return to the circumstances that had made them vulnerable to trafficking.Bihar DGP Vinay Kumar said Anti-Human Trafficking Units were conducting continuous operations across the state.
Between 2022 and June 2026, he said, 2,553 FIRs related to human trafficking were registered, 7,150 victims rescued and 2,698 alleged traffickers arrested.The state currently has 48 Anti-Human Trafficking Units, including 40 district units, four railway units and four airport units, the DGP said.He added that details of 10,788 missing children had been uploaded on the Mission Vatsalya portal to facilitate their identification and tracking.
According to police data presented at the conference, 7,772 missing children were recovered in 2025, including 1,205 boys and 6,567 girls. During the first six months of 2026, another 5,232 children were recovered, including 868 boys and 4,364 girls.
The conference also discussed strengthening coordination among eastern states for preventing trafficking, tracing missing children and improving victim rehabilitation. A film highlighting the dangers of human trafficking and measures for rescue and prevention was also screened at the event.
