Aug 07 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)
1 lakh children go missing in India every year: MHA
Deeptiman.Tiwary@timesgroup.com
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New Delhi
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Neighbours Pakistan And China Lose Only 3,000 & 10,000
On February 5, 2013, a Supreme Court bench, angry over 1.7 lakh missing children and the government's apathy, had remarked: “Nobody seems to care about missing children.
This is the irony .“One and a half years later, government data show over 1.5 lakh more children have gone missing, and the situation remains the same with an average of 45% of them remaining untraced.
Data on missing children put out by the home ministry last month in Parliament show that over 3.25 lakh children went missing between 2011 and 2014 (till June) at an average of nearly 1 lakh kids going missing every year.
Compare this to our trouble-torn neighbour Pakistan where according to official figures around 3,000 children go missing every year. If population is an issue, then one could look at China, the most populous nation, where official figures put the number of missing children at around 10,000 every year.
National Crime Records Bureau, in fact, deciphers missing children figures in India in terms of one child going missing in the country every eight minutes.
More worryingly , 55% of those missing are girls and 45% of all missing children have remained untraceable, raising fears of them having been either killed or pushed into begging or prostitution rackets.
Maharashtra is one of the worst states in terms of missing children with over 50,000 having disappeared in the past three and half years.
Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh are distant competitors with all recording less than 25,000 missing children for the period.
Worryingly , however, all these states have more missing girls than boys. In Maharashtra, 10,000 more girls went missing than boys. In Andhra Pradesh, the number of girls missing (11,625) is almost double of boys (6,915). Similarly , Madhya Pradesh has over 15,000 girls missing compared to 9,000 boys. Delhi, too, has more girls (10,581) missing compared to boys (9,367).
Experts say several children run out of home due to poverty or physical abuse.
Once on the street, without protection, they could be pushed into any racket or abused.
What's worse is that in the law and order machinery there is no special focus on tracing children. In fact, in the states with a missing persons' bureau in their police department, good officers are seldom posted as it's not considered a coveted division.
This is the irony .“One and a half years later, government data show over 1.5 lakh more children have gone missing, and the situation remains the same with an average of 45% of them remaining untraced.
Data on missing children put out by the home ministry last month in Parliament show that over 3.25 lakh children went missing between 2011 and 2014 (till June) at an average of nearly 1 lakh kids going missing every year.
Compare this to our trouble-torn neighbour Pakistan where according to official figures around 3,000 children go missing every year. If population is an issue, then one could look at China, the most populous nation, where official figures put the number of missing children at around 10,000 every year.
National Crime Records Bureau, in fact, deciphers missing children figures in India in terms of one child going missing in the country every eight minutes.
More worryingly , 55% of those missing are girls and 45% of all missing children have remained untraceable, raising fears of them having been either killed or pushed into begging or prostitution rackets.
Maharashtra is one of the worst states in terms of missing children with over 50,000 having disappeared in the past three and half years.
Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh are distant competitors with all recording less than 25,000 missing children for the period.
Worryingly , however, all these states have more missing girls than boys. In Maharashtra, 10,000 more girls went missing than boys. In Andhra Pradesh, the number of girls missing (11,625) is almost double of boys (6,915). Similarly , Madhya Pradesh has over 15,000 girls missing compared to 9,000 boys. Delhi, too, has more girls (10,581) missing compared to boys (9,367).
Experts say several children run out of home due to poverty or physical abuse.
Once on the street, without protection, they could be pushed into any racket or abused.
What's worse is that in the law and order machinery there is no special focus on tracing children. In fact, in the states with a missing persons' bureau in their police department, good officers are seldom posted as it's not considered a coveted division.
