Children are the future of the society. The parents, family members, society and finally the State want the all-round development of the children. Unfortunately, there has been an increasing trend of children missing cases which poses a serious threat and flags concern for the authorities, especially the law enforcing agencies.
Despite all efforts put up by the State machineries and the law enforcement agencies for tracing and recovering the missing children, many of them go untraced till date. Among those, a high percentage of girl children remain untraced.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, 1, 21,351 children went missing across India till 2021 with 77,535 missing cases that year and the remaining being the untraced from previous years. The number of missing girls was nearly three times that of the missing boys ( 90,113 girls and 31,224 boys). In Odisha, there has been seventy three percent increase in missing cases of minor girls and fifty seven percent increase in missing cases of minor boys. The number was 2,452 in 2021 which increased to 4,250 in 2022 for girls whereas in case of minor boys, it was from 219 to 507 in the same time period.
It has been argued that, people file complaints to police relating to missing children but they are very casual in informing the police when the children return back to their homes for which the cases remain untraced in the police record books.
The problem continues unattended despite there are various constitutional and legal mandates, policy guidelines and several rulings of the Supreme Court of India and High Courts and the recommendations of NHRC and NCPCR. Generally, the children are missing due to various internal, external, social and economic factors like trafficking, intentionally leaving their homes, examination stress, dreaming of glamour world, decent earning and elopement to get rid of domestic violence etc. The victims of abduction are subjected to all forms of violence and abuses including physical, mental and sexual harassments and involved in the harmful practices such as begging, child marriage and engagement in hazardous work, etc. Missing children are mainly from the poorer backgrounds, who are kidnapped, trafficked, or lured largely for social, commercial, and sexual exploitations.
Missing children cases are considered as a social issue and not a crime, unless trafficking angle is proved. The children have every right to protection and the parents or caregivers, communities and schools are responsible for creating a protective, safe and child-friendly environment for their survival, growth, learning and development. The Government, civil society, communities and families are responsible for preventing the missing children incidents. The NGOs who are working in this field have their own database on missing children as they have direct link with the community where they are functioning. Due to different formats in the collection of data, there is also a chance of duplication.
Prior to 2013, police were not registering First Information Report (FIR) in case the parents or guardians of the missing children approached them. However, due to the Supreme Court’s direction on May 10, 2013 it was made clear that, in case of complaint with regard to any missing children made in a police station, the same should be reduced into a First Information Report and appropriate steps should be taken to see that follow up investigation is taken up immediately thereafter. In case of every missing child reported; there will be an initial presumption of either abduction or trafficking, unless, in the investigation, the same is proved otherwise. Besides, in case a missing child is not recovered within four months from the date of filing of the FIR, the court further directed that the matter may be forwarded to the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit in each State in order to enable the unit to take up more intensive investigation regarding the missing child.
Looking at such a sensitive issue, there should be a provision for special police squad to respond to the missing children issues immediately. In this context, an instant FIR mechanism should be developed once parents or guardians inform to the police. The CCTV provisions should also be there in the main roads and bazaar areas of the villages. Counselling of the children and parents in schools may be organised in regular intervals to keep sound mental health of the children. The self defence mechanisms should be taught to the children and specifically to the girls. The community involvement and awareness programmes should be given priority by both the PRIs and ULBs to prevent and trace the missing children. Besides these two bodies should develop a mechanism to keep the record of such incidents and to inform the police accordingly.
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