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6 kids go missing every day in city
Most Never Return, Shows Police Data
Dwaipayan Ghosh & Medha Chaturvedi | TNN February19, 2009 P-2
And these are official figures culled from Zonal Integrated Police Network (zipnet.nic.in) data based on actual complaints. The real number could be higher.
The scale of the tragedy becomes clear if one looks at the number of recoveries. During this period, just 368 missing children were recovered, including many who had disappeared before 2008. The import is clear: An overwhelmingly large percentage of parents whose kids have gone missing, aren't likely to see them again..
The Delhi Police claim a majority of these kids have eloped, that is, willingly run away with a lover or someone else. But most parents refuse to buy this argument. Says Sambhu Kumar, father of 4-year-old Gaurav, missing from Gokalpuri since February 3, ''My child surely cannot elope. Yet, police say I am primarily responsible for what has happened and that I have not been a good father. Why are they not trying to find my son?''
WHERE ARE ALL THESE KIDS?
According to police data, 2,503 minors missing in capital since Jan 1, 2008. That's an average of 6 children going missing every day
115 of these cases reported from a single police station — Gokalpuri in north-east
In Feb so far, 72 cases of missing children have been recorded
Police chief announces helpline for missing kids
New Delhi: With a large number of children reported missing in Delhi, police commissioner Y S Dadwal on Wednesday announced the setting up of a new helpline. ''We will start a helpline for missing children within a few weeks. Although we haven't observed a pattern in the way the children are going missing, the matter is being probed. For us, nothing is more precious than the safety of children,'' he said.
Perhaps a good place to begin this investigation would be Gokalpuri in northeast
Some senior police officials even deny their own figures. When contacted, a senior official of northeast district claimed, ''The figures are grossly inflated.'' Surendra Yadav, DCP, North-East, said, ''There is a need to crosscheck the numbers.''
''Most families here belong to the lower strata. The level of education is low. Even common interactions between men and women are frowned upon by elders. This often leads to quarrels and elopements,'' said a senior cop.
Commissioner Dadwal said that the case of six teenagers missing from New Sanjay Amar Colony area in east
The students had told their parents that they were going to school and would go for a picnic later. Two cases of kidnapping have been registered.
Residents of New Sanjay Nagar colony had alleged on Tuesday that as many as 22 children were missing from the colony in a span of a few years. However, DCP (east) Anand Mohan said, ''We have received complaints for only 13 such cases. We are taking these cases very seriously and have handed them over to the district investigation unit.''
Dadwal seemed confident that while the number of missing children seems to be rising, there is no pattern which could lead them to believe that an organised racket of kidnapping and trafficking is in operation.
Dadwal said, ''Although slums in border areas may be vulnerable, there is still no evidence to suggest that the children were kidnapped. Sometimes, children return home but their parents don't inform the police. We are not sitting on this issue, we are investigating it regularly.''
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