It is a well-known fact that Delhi has a reputation of swallowing up young girls who are in most cases never found. This is a story about a 15 year old girl (name cannot be disclosed) who went missing from Delhi’s Malviya Nagar. However, her parents did not lose hope and informed the cops immediately. After an intense search, the cops found out that the little girl was in touch with two men on a social media platform. It was found that the two men are from Jammu and had pushed the girl into prostitution at a brothel in West Bengal’s Siliguri city. The girl was fortunate as the cops tracked down the men and rescued her from the slavery of prostitution.
But there are many girls across the country who go missing every day. According to the data of 2016, 6,921 children were reported missing. The data shows a total of 5,467 are in the age group of 12-18, while 712 are from 0 to 8 and the remaining 742 are the ones between 8 and 12 years of age. The Delhi Police and the ministry of women and child development data show as many as 20 children go missing on an average from the capital of India. More than 29,663 children have gone missing since 2013 and the Delhi police have failed to trace 19,832 of them.
Nowadays, youngsters are quite active on social media platforms. They get carried away by people who influence them in the wrong direction. The choice is theirs but children need to be counseled to keep away from strangers on the social platforms. The child goes through both physical and emotional changes during the adolescent stage because of which they seek more independence and love from people around them. This is just one of the reasons why a child gets carried away by others. In other cases, children are kidnapped from outside their home, parks, bus stands and also railway stations.
When the sources went on to find the bitter reality of child abduction, they found that physical appearance was the key factor in the demand and supply of the children. Rishi Kant who is an activist for the NGO Shakti Vahini told sources, “In most of the kidnapping or missing cases, organized rackets are behind these acts. There is an agent who asks the abductor to arrange a particular number of children. After setting the target, the children are kidnapped from different areas. Later, they are handed over to another person who concludes the deal”.
The Anti-human trafficking has formulated SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) that demands mandatory registration of a FIR in case the child goes missing. It is important that parents pay more attention to their child’s safety and build a rapport. This will help their child to open up in case any of trouble.
