New Delhi: Twenty-two children go missing in the national capital everyday with most of them being boys aged upto 12 years, according to an RTI reply.
"A whopping 7928 children went missing in 2015, an increase of almost 1500 children from the previous year. It means 22 children on an average went missing in Delhi every day last year," Child Rights and You (CRY) said, citing an RTI reply from Delhi Police.
Eighteen children went missing everyday in 2014. The number of boys in the age group 0-12 years, who went missing was much higher, as compared to girls. However, girls formed the major chunk of children in the age group 12-18 years who went missing, the NGO said.
It noted with concern that the percentage of untraced children has risen steadily every year across all age groups. The district-wise data showed that Outer Delhi was the "most unsafe" with maximum number of children missing from the area. Almost half of the 1583 missing children in Outer Delhi remained untraced last year.
Children go missing due to a number of reasons including kidnapping, trafficking as well as cases of running away from home. A majority of these children belong to poor families, specially migrant families coming to Delhi for livelihood.
According to Union Home Ministry's latest data, Delhi was among the top 4 states which account for 60 per cent of missing children in the country during 2010-14.
"Collaboration between government departments, monitoring bodies like child rights commissions and police is crucial in checking the crimes against children," Regional Director of NGO CRY Soha Moitra said.
Despite several initiatives and legislation in place, both the central and state governments have "failed" to control trafficking and kidnapping of children, CRY claimed in its statement.
