New Delhi: The incidents of children
going missing from the capital are showing an increasing trend
this year with statistics showing that five minors disappear
every day compared to three last year.
So far this year, a total of 541 children have either
been kidnapped or went missing from the capital. This month alone,
164 cases were registered while last month the figure was 166.
The latest case was that of one-and-half-year-old
Ishaan, son of a businessman, who was allegedly kidnapped by
the family`s domestic help Seema yesterday.
"Last year, an average of three such incidents were
recorded on a single day. But this year, it has risen to five
per day. Alarmingly, the number of girls are around 60 percent in such cases," a senior police official said.
He said the number of children going missing could
rise over last year`s figure of 1,179 if one goes by the rate
of such incidents this year.
"We are investigating all the cases. We don`t see any
pattern in this and there is no organised gang operating in
the city," the official said.
According to Delhi Police statistics, Crime Branch
registered the most number of such cases (118) followed by
South-West Delhi (94), North-East (69) Outer (65), South-East
(63), West (62), East (60), North-West (45), Central (19) and
New Delhi (8).
Last year, North-West district had registered the
highest number of missing children cases with 250 followed by
South-West district (154) and East district (121).
On January 27, parents of around 50 children who had
gone missing in the past few years had approached Delhi Police
Commissioner BK Gupta seeking a better police intervention in
their cases. Gupta have assured them all help in tracing the
children.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development has taken
up with city police the issue of missing children in Delhi and
alerted them about some vulnerable areas of the national
capital, from where girls are regularly abducted for
trafficking.
Kirari in North-West Delhi and Sultanpuri in outer
Delhi are identified by the Ministry as the most vulnerable
areas in this regard.
The National Human Rights Commission has issued
notices to Union Home Secretary and Delhi Chief Secretary
asking them to submit a report on the issue of 17,305 children
allegedly going missing in Delhi in the past two years, out of
which 2,366 are yet to be traced.
PTI
