New Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejariwal recently asked the Delhi Dialogue Commission (DCC) to prepare a report on how the government could deal with the problem of missing kids in India. This instruction came after reports detailing the scale and magnitude of the problem came to light. According to statistics published in Hindustan Times last May, around 22,000 children went missing in Delhi alone in the last three years.
A DDC official has already outlined a plan and submitted it to the CM, adding that “As per the initial discussion, we want to create a single point of contact for the parents of missing children. We will set up a control room and a helpline, where parents can call to register their complaints. First, we will identify areas, where children are targeted the most. We will then ask the police for the data.”
The Alarming Rate of Missing Kids in India
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The Indian Express
The CM wanted to focus on protecting children from kidnapping, and because the police force is not under the government rule in New Delhi, Kejriwal planned on installing electronic billboards at bus stops and railway stations where details of missing kids in India will be posted. Without child monitoring devices, it will be hard to look out for these kids, so the CM and the New Delhi government are asking those who travel regularly to other states to inform the government if they spot any of these missing children.
The CM was shocked by the report of over 22,000 missing kids in India. Out of these numbers, at least 9,000 are yet to be traced. Every year, there are over 7,000 children that go missing, and over 1,500 of them remain untraceable.
Most of these missing kids in India, according to activists, are trafficked by organized gangs that push them into bonded labor in big cities or in the Middle East. Girls are mostly forced into prostitution as well, most of them sent to villages with poor sex ratio and married off to men more than twice their age.
With the considerable lack of GPS tracking devices for children, the government is also asking for the help of NGOs and is set to form group of 500 parents to follow their cases. According to organization Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Delhi is fast emerging as the hub for child trafficking, with gangs mostly targeting children from lower-income groups while their parents are out for work.
An analysis by Child Rights and You (CRY) revealed that 22 children went missing in the capital every day in 2015, up from 18 per day the year before.
The Hindu
The government is now planning on opening day care centers in poor areas, especially for those parents who have to leave home to earn a livelihood and can’t afford to have someone sit for their children. Outer Delhi is considered to be among the most unsafe city for children in the world, especially considering that as many as 50 percent of those who have been reported missing in 2015 still hadn’t been traced. Of these children, those missing in the 0–12 age group were mostly boys, while the 12–18 age group showed mostly missing girls.
The missing kids in India are part of the poorest population in the country, but you can do something to ensure that your children will not be part of the statistics. There are ways to keep an eye on your kids even when you can’t be with them 24/7 thanks to new child safety apps and technologies like Trackimo. Trackimo uses GPS and GSM to locate your children and loved ones. Small and handy, you can just attach them to your child’s belt or put it in their bags, so you can check where they are at all times, leaving you free from worries.
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