Almost 45,000 kids go missing in India
I am highlighting some frightening statistics today, the 14th of November, which is Childrens’ Day. The information is based on a Times of India report:
As per an United Nations study, almost 45,000 kids went missing in India in 2004. Out of these almost 12,000 have not yet been traced. What is scary is that a majority of these missing children do not make it to the official records. Official records (National Crime Records Bureau – NCRB) say that only 3,518 children were kidnapped in that year!
According to PM Nair, project coordinator, anti-human trafficking of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the UN conducted the survey with the help of NGO’s involved in rescuing children from bonded labour or trafficking – the reason why they got hold of the actual figures. He adds: ‘We came across agents of kidnappers during our survey. Strangely, very few kidnappers are mentioned in police records. The need of the hour is to establish direct linkage between NGOs and various government agencies to trace these missing children.’
Related Reading: Police lethargy in cracking down on missing kids
Some of these kids are victims of serial killers
No humanity towards child trafficking victims
Sex Tourism growing in India
What is the root cause of child labour?
No long-term rehabilitation for street kids
The abuse of domestics, particularly children
Disturbing indeed.
The police department’s vigor in rescuing the son of an MNC’s CEO was gr8 but y not the same effort for others??? And also the media which covered the same news with its hourly updates is not worried about those 45,000 kids…. y such as partisanship??
It is a sad state of affairs but the police are often either indifferent or corrupt, like many other government agencies.
You cannot assure your children (however little) that the world is a safe place to live because this is not true at all. Now you would have to warn little kids to watch out for dangers which they are hardly able to comprehend thus innoculating their innocent little minds to the poisonous influences surrounding their daily lives. Guess what little Naresh, a rakshash lives next door so you better watch out now.
I must clarify one aspect for those who do not live in India. 99 per cent (approximate) of the children who go missing are from poverty-stricken homes and a large percentage of them are sold by parents themselves for say going for camel races in Dubai or into the flesh trade or into bonded labour. I however feel that the fact that so many kids are sold by parents themselves does not excuse the authorities for turning a blind eye to what is going on. So the missing children in India would be very different from missing children in say the US. A very small percentage of children are actually kidnapped for ransom and even fewer are taken by serial killers.