NEW DELHI:Taking note of a PIL that over 1.7 lakh children have gone missing in the country between January 2008-2010, many apparently kidnapped for trafficking in flesh trade and child labour,the Supreme Court on Friday sought response of the Centre, States, UTs and Attorney General on the issue.
A bench of justices Altamas Kabir and S S Nijjar while issuing notices on the PIL filed by an NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan sought replies within four weeks from the respective Governments.
Senior counsel H S Phoolka, appearing for the NGO, urged the apex court to direct the Centre and States to formulate a national plan to tackle the menace and also to define the term ‘missing children’, which he said has so far not been defined in any statute.
Quoting statistics including the NCRB (National Crime Research Bureau), he said, between January 2008 to January 2010, 1,17,480 children have gone missing in 392 districts in the country and out of these, 41,546 are still untraced.
The NGO claimed that the number of missing children in India is almost 90,000 every year with more than 30,000 remaining untraced with West Bengal accounting for the largest number of cases, followed by Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. “One of the major issues with respect to tackling the issue of missing children in India is the fact that the term ‘Missing Children’ has not been defined in any statute in India.
“Therefore the cases of missing children are not properly handled by the authorities and the fate of such children are completely dependent on the whims and fancies of the authorities,” the petition, filed through counsel Jagjit Singh Chhabra, stated.
The NGO submitted that the number of missing children could go further as data pertaining to 8 states and 3 Union Territories, was not available.
“The proportion of traced and untraced children gives a shocking figure for those who are still missing.
41,546 untraced children constitute more than 1/3rd of the total children reported missing. “West Bengal has maximum number of untraced children.
It is noticeable that states with higher number of missing and traced children also have higher number of untraced children. (PTI)
