Ensure safety and protection of children: Centre to states

Allahabad, Feb 16 (UNI) The Centre has written to the states suggesting that there is an immediate need for major steps for ensuring the safety and protection of children, specially in vulnerable communities and areas.

This letter was produced before a division bench of Allahabad High Court comprising Justices Amar Saran and R N Mishra who are monitoring the case relating to missing children in the state of Uttar Pradesh after the Nithari serial killings.

It has been also pointed out in the letter written by the Secretary, Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, on January 9, 2007 to Chief Secretaries of all states and Administrators of Union Territories that a large number of complaints of missing children are not always registered at the police stations nor any action is taken to trace them out.

The state governments have been directed to issue a instruction to the police so that they register evey complaint of a missing child and accordingly conduct the investigations and take followup action to recover the child.

The districtwise data of missing children and those located/re-integrated should be scrupulously maintained.

The letter has further mentioned that Women and Child Development Ministry is also keen to build a national data base in missing children so as to study patterns, trends and causes relating to missing children which will help them in formulating appropriate policy and programmnatic interventions. The states and union territories have been requested to send district wise gender and age disaggregated details of the missing children in their states as per records available for the last five years.

UNI