Big worry for Narendra Modi Govt: 1 Lakh children go missing every year

A recent report by the Home Ministry has revealed some shocking facts. The report on missing children shows that over 3.25 lakh children went missing between 2011 and 2014 (till June) at an average of nearly 1 lakh children going missing every year.

Only one incident of missing children comes too one's mind and it is when in 2006 suddenly children started vanishing in Uttar Pradesh's Noida region. And later when the missing children were found in the form of skeleton from a house in Noida's Nithari, it left everyone in a shocked state of mind.

Later, the police revealed that children, a local businessman, Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surender Koli murdered children living around the area. And as the case underwent further investigation, many more startling facts were revealed.

The number of missing children reached the triple figure because the local police did not pay attention when the parents of these children came to complain about their missing kids.

The incidents of missing children are increasing day by day in our country but why are we not doing anything about it?

The facts and figures:

The Government data has revealed that after 1.7 lakh children missing in 2013, now over 1.5 lakh more children have gone missing and one child goes missing in every eight minutes.

Over 3,25,000 children went missing between 2011 and 2014 (till June) which turns out to be nearly an average of 1,00,000 every year.

In India, Nearly 1 lakh children go missing every year

A TOI report says, "The data further revealed that nearly 55% per cent of those missing are girls and 45% of all missing children have remained untraceable as yet raising fears of them having been either killed or pushed into begging or prostitution rackets."

In the past three and a half years, over 50,000 children have disappeared in Maharashtra with Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh recording less than 25,000 missing children for the same period.

The report also said, "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 around 9,000 boys. Delhi, too, has more girls (10,581) missing compared to boys (9,367)."

Why children go missing?

What the experts believe is that children from rural India and urban poor run out of home due to poverty, after they are on streets, they don't have anyone to protect them. This pushes them into further problems.

There are umpteen number of reasons because of which children go missing. Kidnapping of children for ransom and for trafficking purposes, organ trade is the most prominent reasons among others.

And another major problem is the apathy of our police and government. In 2013, even the Supreme Court had criticised the state and central governments for showing lack of interest in the cases of missing children. This lacklustre attitude towards the issue is making us lose the youth of our country, whom we expect to be our country's future.

Even there is no proper law and order machinery in place to trace these missing kids. The state administrations hardly depute good cops in the missing persons' bureau. At a time when the new dispensation is making stringent laws for juveniles there is an urgent need for the government to look into this matter as well.