47,000+ Children Missing in India, 71% are Girls
More than 47,000 children are missing in India, according to the latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), with 71.4 percent of these being minor girls.
NCRB figures for the five years up to 2022 also show a mostly rising trend in the figures of missing children — a spike of 7.5 percent in 2022 in comparison to 2021, a significant surge of 30.8 percent in 2021 against 2020, a drop of 19.8 percent in 2020 against 2019 and again an increase of 8.9 percent in 2019 against 2018 and of 5.6 percent in 2018 against 2017.
The data for 2022 also shows that 76,069 children were reported kidnapped during the year, of which 62,099 were females. Up to 51,100 minors are listed under ‘Unrecovered Victims of Kidnapping & Abduction’ category, including figures from previous years, of which 40,219 or 78.7 percent are minor girls.
There are other rackets as well in which these children are trapped — begging, child labor, etc. If from the start itself, the police start investigating all angles and motives, including trafficking, the probe is expedited and the chances of the child being found are better.
Data, however, paints a faint picture of trafficking of minors, with only 424 such cases lodged in 2022, according to the NCRB. Further, just 11, 10 of whom were girls, were recorded to have been sold for prostitution all over India.
