New Delhi: Children living in slums,
unauthorised and resettlement colonies are most vulnerable of
being trafficked, running away or getting lost, a report by an
NGO working for protection of child rights said on Friday.
According to the report compiled by Child Rights and You
(CRY) based on the information under RTI from various police
station of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, 1,260
children were reported missing this year till April 30 from
just eight districts of the three states.
While 250 children were missing from eight districts of
Uttar Pradesh, 1,683 children were reported missing from six
districts of Madhya Pradesh in 2007-08.
The report attributed labour, sex trade, domestic help,
slavery, organ trade, marriage and begging as the main reasons
for increase in children missing incidences in the country.
The NGO today also held a public hearing here in which
families of some missing children from the three states
narrated their stories to the jury comprising of Delhi
Commission for Protection of Child's Rights (DCPCR) President
Amod Kanth, Bharti Ali from Haq - Centre for Child Rights,
Additional Commissioner UK Chaudhary and retired Chief
Justice of Delhi High Court AP Shah.
The families alleged they didn't get any help from the
local police to locate their child.
Narrating an incidence, a daily wage earner Banwari Lal
said his son Chetan was abducted seven months back.
"After repeated reminders to the police, an FIR was filed
and the police later asked me to pay the ransom demanded by
the abductors. When I asked the SHO to help me, he did not
cooperate and despite knowing the abductor's whereabouts he
made no attempts to rescue my child," Lal said, adding that
till date he doesn't know if his son is alive or not.
The Jury assured Lal that the court proceedings of his
case would be monitored by Joint Commissioner of Police.
"We hear about similar stories of police negligence and
lack of proper guidance due to which parents are never able to
find their kids again," Ali said.
The accused, who runs the trafficking business, is not
prosecuted as the case is mostly closed once the child is
found, she said.
"Such incidents deprive children of their childhood.
Adequate resources, human and financial, have to be invested
towards establishing an effective system of tracing and more
importantly preventing future cases by providing education and
a healthy and safe environment," CRY Policy and Research
Director Vijaylakshmi Arora said.
PTI
First Published: Friday, July 29, 2011, 23:15