As many as 22 children go missing in the city every day, with the Capital reporting 7,928 missing cases (for children) in 2015. The information surfaced in a RTI reply sent by the Delhi Police. Releasing the data on Thursday, NGO Child Rights and You (CRY) said that the district-wise data showed that Outer Delhi was the “most unsafe”, with the maximum number of children missing from that area. Almost half of the 1,583 missing children in Outer Delhi remained untraced last year.
Stating that the percentage of untraced children had risen steadily every year, the NGO said: “The number of boys in the age group of 0-12 years who went missing was much higher compared to that of girls. However, girls formed a major chunk of children in the age group of 12-18 years who went missing.”
Cases of missing children are attributed to kidnapping, trafficking as well as fleeing home. A majority of these children belong to poor families, especially those migrating to Delhi for livelihood. Despite several initiatives and legislations in place, both the Central and State governments have “failed” to control kidnapping of children, CRY claimed in its statement.
