• Poonam, the 10-year-old daughter of Bigna Oraon of Bakhar village (Jharkhand) is missing since 15 February, 2004. Though he lodged a complaint with the local police immediately, his daughter is still untraceable.

• Jabar Munda’s 14-year-old daughter, Gangi Purtilodged went missing on August 23, 2003. Though the Akri police station (Jharkhand) registered an FIR, there has been no headway in the case.

• Fifteen-year-oldSarsawati, daughter of Ramnagina Hembrom of Kisku village (Lohardaga district in Jharkhand) did not return from school on May 14,2003. Even though the father promptly filed a complaint, he is yet to hear from the police.

• Ashok Soy’s, 16-year-old daughter Rukmini Tirkey went missing from near the well where she had gone to fill water on February 12,2002. Even after five years, the Chakardharpur police station (West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand) has made no headway in the case.

Majority of people here, particularly the Adivasis have very poor living conditions. Sending their children to work as domestic help in metros bought them quick money. Earlier, where they barely managed to make Rs 500-600 per month by doing odd jobs particularly working as part-time labourers, their children were employed for more than double of what they bought home.

“This new-form of employment thrown up by metros has led to the rise of missing children,” said RC Kaithal, Additional Director General of Police while speaking to the indian Express.

Though on January 25 this year he had directed the superintendents of police to furnish him with data on missing children in Jharkhand, he is yet to hear from them. Compilation of the complaints have, however, helped the police zero in on the fact that most of the missing girls were in the age group of 8 to 15 and they were either illiterate or school dropouts, employed by agencies to work as domestic help.

Our investigations revealed that Poonam was sent to New Delhi along with two other girls — Sangeeta and Ashok, by Sony, a resident of Piskanagri village (Ranchi district). She liasoned with a domestic help placement agency in the national capital. Though Sangeeta and Ashok returned home a few months later, Poonam is still untraceable.

“We lost touch with her,” said Sangeeita when we contacted her. Though we could not contact Sony, she has apparently told the missing girl’s parents that the New Delhi place ment agency was unreachable on the numbers with her.

Suresh Tiwari,a lecturer at Sanjay Gandhi College has written in his thesis on “Trafficking of Adivasi Girls in Jharkhand” — “Most agencies lured the parents by promising them a party of their children’s wages. But in quite a few cases they failed to keep track of the girls.”

It’s not that all employers are insensitive. 16-year-old Salkhi’s employers in the posh Bengali Market area of New Delhi lodged a case of missing at the local Tilak Nagar police station. The police advertised for her in the missing columns of local Hindi dailies in Ranchi as well as New Delhi.

SH Lakra, the Additional Superintendent of Police (CBI), who was also working on this case said: “She was friendly with a boy but there are are other suspects as well.” The Delhi Police is yet to make a breakthrough.