Even as over 200 children go missing in India every day, the lack of a single popular platform for finding these missing children remains a major drawback that leads to delay in rehabilitation. Though the government has made efforts by introducing portals for finding families of missing children, the lack of publicity, awareness among the general people and lack of trained police personnel, make the rehabilitate process for children drag for long, and the children either go astray or are forever lost.
Bhupendra Shadilya, a social worker with Chetna, an NGO that primarily works for street children, said, “The people who stand at the forefront of the process of resolving the situation of high number of missing children in India is the police. A common man does not want to get involved or does not know in what better way to help a stray kid. But imagine if the police too won’t know what to do with a missing child that has been reported to them. Chetna worked with Noida police for three years to sensitise their personnel about missing children cases. The sensitisation did not ensure less number of missing children, but better and effective handling of such cases. That eventually led to faster rehabilitation.”
Last month, the Delhi Police commissioner had issued a circular informing the entire police force that reporting a missing child and registering his/her details on official web portals within 24 hours of the child found separated from parents, was mandatory. Various social workers that this paper spoke to said that a good percentage of children who go missing are found. A senior official with Childline Delhi office said, “A single platform that is used across the country by every agency that deals with the missing children issue is the ultimate answer. In June 2015, such a platform ‘Khoya Paya’ was launched by the government and it has been a truly useful resource, but a larger outreach and manpower needs to be put in to make the platform a kind of a ‘super savior’ for children as well as their families. ‘Khoya Paya’ is becoming a popular platform, but larger awareness among the common people for its usage is needed.