Chhattisgarh form special teams for tracing the missing children
20 Nov, 2014Replies to applications filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act have revealed the high figures of missing children in certain parts of the country. Data about the missing children obtained from various departments including police headquarters, district crime records bureau and CID had revealed that nearly 1,500 children including girls went missing between January 2011 and May 2014. It has been alleged that a large number of children going missing everyday end up at flesh trade, begging, forced marriages and domestic or industrial slavery.
On November 13, the Supreme Court had summoned Madhya Pradesh chief secretary for failing in finding missing kids and had further directed the state government of Bihar and Chhattisgarh to take action for tracing the missing children. Folowwing the apex court directive, the Chattisgarh government is now setting up special teams at police station level and SPs in all districts. These teams would at police station level and SPs in all districts. So far, Chhattisgarh did not have a missing children squad or active child tracking system which could act swiftly if there was a report of a child gone missing.
On a PIL filed by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan contending that over 1.7 lakh children have gone missing in the country between 2008-2010, the Supreme Court had issued many directions which are to be enforced by the government.