Saturday 31 August 2013

The Tale of Missing Children in Gujarat



- Gujarat government's Crime Investigation Department (CID), which is the nodal agency in the state for investigating cases pertaining to missing children, has admitted that most kids missing are teenagers, and they end up becoming child workers, with girls taken into sex rackets.

- CID's own track record in tracking down children who went missing is poor. Between 2007 and 2011, it failed to track as many as 4,314 children who went missing in this period couldn’t be tracked.

The success rate of children traced is very poor. During 2012-13, up to March, only 37% of those who have gone missing have been tracked -- 191 of 504.

As of today, 7,240 children are missing, with no tracks found by the government.

- Girls, unfortunately, form the bulk of the missing children. More teenage girls are missing as compared to their male counterparts. While the ratio is almost 1:1 in age group of 0-14 years, it jumps to 3:1 in the higher age group.

- Data of missing children reveal that a few of them are kidnapped and pushed into organ or sex trade. Still others leave home to escape emotional and educational pressures, or to live with a person they are in love with. Most toddlers, meanwhile, are kidnapped for illegal adoption.

- Those between three and ten years of age are made to beg or pushed into organ trade, while those above 11 years are lured into flesh trade and what is called in official circles as "sex tourism.

(excerpt from Gujaratlive.org)

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