With 6 out of 10 untraced, Delhi the worst at finding missing kids

DATA SHOWS 26,761 CHILDREN WENT MISSING IN DELHI IN LAST FIVE YEARS; ONLY 9,727 COULD BE TRACED

Delhi’s record of tracing its missing children is the worst in the country, according to data tabled in Parliament.

As per a reply submitted by the minister of state for ministry of women and child development Krishna Raj, out of 2,42,938 children reported missing across India between January 1, 2012, and March 20, 2017, only 1,70,173 could be traced. The details were also uploaded on TrackChild portal.

The data revealed that 26,761 children have gone missing in Delhi in the last five years and only 9,727 could be traced. Across the country, 30% of the children remained untraceable but in Delhi — the number was the highest — 63%.

“The ministry is implementing a centrally sponsored Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) for the improvement of the well-being of children in difficult circumstances. Under ICPS, financial assistance is provided to the states/UTs for, inter-alia, undertaking a situational analysis of children in difficult circumstances for setting up and maintenance of various types of homes including Children Homes and Specialised Adoption Agencies,” she said in the reply.

The ministry said it has developed web portals, such as TrackChild and Khoya-Paya to track the missing and found children. The Khoya-Paya has been integrated as a citizen corner on TrackChild portal.

Some of the reasons behind cases of missing children could be kidnapping, abduction, trafficking, illegal adoption, runaway children, displacement in natural calamities, the minister said in her reply.

According to NGOs such as Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Delhi is fast emerging as the hub of children trafficking and gangs mostly target children from lower income groups as both parents go out to work, leaving the minors alone and vulnerable.

Activists say that most of the missing children are trafficked by organised gangs which push them into a life of bonded labour in big cities or in Gulf countries. Girls are mostly forced into prostitution, many of them sent to villages with poor sex ratio and married off to men twice their age.

According to Delhi Police, its priority is to trace the children who are aged below seven and after that, they move to looking for the higher age group.

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