The incidents of children going missing from the capital are showing an increasing trend this year with statistics showing that five minors disappear every day compared to three last year. So far this year,a total of 541 children were either kidnapped or went missing from the capital. This month alone,164 cases were registered while last month the figure was 166. The latest case was that of one-and-half-year-old Ishaan,son of a businessman,who was allegedly kidnapped by the family's domestic help Seema yesterday. "Last year,an average of three such incidents were recorded on a single day. But this year,it has risen to five per day. Alarmingly,the number of girls are around 60 per cent in such cases," a senior police official said. He said the number of children going missing could rise over last year's figure of 1,179 if one goes by the rate of such incidents this year. "We are investigating all the cases. We don't see any pattern in this and there is no organised gang operating in the city," the official said. According to Delhi Police statistics,Crime Branch registered the most number of such cases (118) followed by south-west Delhi (94),North-East (69) Outer (65),South-East (63),West (62),East (60),North-West (45),Central (19) and New Delhi (8). Last year,North-West district had registered the highest number of missing children cases with 250 followed by South-West district (154) and East district (121). On January 27,parents of around 50 children who had gone missing in the past few years had approached Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta seeking a better police intervention in their cases. Gupta have assured them all help in tracing the children. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has taken up with city police the issue of missing children in Delhi and alerted them about some vulnerable areas of the national capital,from where girls are regularly abducted for trafficking. Kirari in north-west Delhi and Sultanpuri in outer Delhi are identified by the Ministry as the most vulnerable areas in this regard. The National Human Rights Commission has issued notices to Union Home Secretary and Delhi Chief Secretary asking them to submit a report on the issue of 17,305 children allegedly going missing in Delhi in the past two years,out of which 2,366 are yet to be traced.
