Though the number of children who go missing has seen a declining trend over the past two years it is still high in Haridwar district. The number of the missing girls is still alarmingly high, say the police officers . The children who go missing are mostly in the age group of six to 15 years and they are mostly from the economically unprivileged section of the society. During investigations carried out by police to trace them, the police officers find that the principal reasons leading to the children running away from homes include grinding poverty, scolding by parents and pressure from them to perform well in the examination. Besides, there are cases of elopement and going out to seek jobs.
While dwelling on the matter, Haridwar senior superintendent of police, Krishna Kumar VK said that they have a special unit in the district focused on tracing the missing children and reuniting them with their parents. “We have also anti-human trafficking cell too under the crime branch. In the district, some sub- inspectors have been deputed for investigation into such cases. Things are not very gloomy in the district now. As on date, just two to three children are left to be traced. They would be traced soon as our unit is very active across the district. However, there is no room for complacency,” he added.
Many of the children who remain unclaimed after they are found roaming around on roads or in railway or bus stations by police are from the neighbouring states, he said, adding that economic condition is a prime factor for such children fleeing home. “There are many instances of children fleeing home on being scolded by their parents. Such cases account for close to 90 per cent of such missing cases,” said SSP.
Manoj Chandran, former Additional Secretary of the District Social Welfare Department who is now a senior forest officer said that they had come across many instances of children who left home upon being scolded by parents reaching Haridwar by train.
“There are also instances of such children being abducted by some agents to be employed as domestic helps or other menial works or even flesh trade. We succeeded in reuniting many of them with their families. We use Facebook, Whatsapp and other social networking sites to trace their families when they fail to inform us about their proper addresses. Many a time, the families are reluctant to take back the minor girls who are thus rescued by police. This is a serious problem for police. Besides, we came across cases of girls from as far as Mayanmar and Nepal being found in Uttarakhand.”
Chandran claimed to have reunited over 300 such children, most of them girls, over a couple of years. “I have a passion to work in this field,” he added.
Giving an interesting instance of a minor girl being rescued, he said that a 13- year- old girl had failed to remember the place from where she was after she was rescued and kept at the children’s home. “She longed to go back home, but we were helpless. We did not, however, give in and kept questioning her to learn from where she was. She was shown pictures of some animals. She got interested in elephants and said that she had seen elephants straying into her home. Furthermore, we learnt that there were tea estates around her residence. We got a clue that she might be from the northeast or a place in Darjeeling, Siliguri or Nepal. She also uttered ‘Gangapara’. We used Google to locate the place. We contacted the forest officers and finally the girl was reunited with her kin,” Chandran said.
Kamla Joshi, former head of Bal kalyan Samiti, said that her experiences over six years confirmed that most of the people from the economically weaker sections of the society are less sensitive to their children as they have many children to take care of. “Such children are brought to Bal Greh and they are brought up there till they are 18,” she said. Suggesting ways on how to enable them to face life when they become adult, she said that the government must think seriously of skilling such children, giving them technical education so that they can earn their living after they leave the home. “Otherwise, they might fall prey to crimes,” she added.