Police look at ways to curb missing children cases

The year’s count of missing children touched 1,764 till August 29,the police said,adding that they have redoubled their efforts in this regard after the High Court maintained that the disappearance of “children below 16 years of age should be taken seriously”.

Though the Delhi police increased their strength significantly over the last few years and initiated programmes such as ‘eyes and ears scheme’ to share information on criminals,there still seems to be no cap on children going missing. The previous year must have been the worst for the city in this regard,with as many as 5,857 children going missing from Delhi,the situation does not seem much better in this one.

According to officials,the areas most prone to child disappearances are Jahangirpuri,Swarup Nagar,Ambedkar Nagar,Dabri,Dwarka,Nazafgarh,Alipur,Neb Sarai,Badarpur,Munirka,Seelampur and Mandawali. However,the 1,764 figure also includes missing children reports from nearby states — such as Uttar Pradesh,Haryana,Rajasthan,Punjab and Uttarakhand — which are members of ZIPNET (Zonal Integrated Police Network) along with the Delhi police.

The places from adjoining states that figure in the children missing list are Bhilwara,Jalore,Chittorgarh,Pali,

Kota City and Alwar from Rajasthan,Ghaziabad and Noida from Uttar Pradesh,Karnal and Rohtak from Haryana and Kashipur and Haridwar from Uttarakhand,apart from a few areas in Punjab.

In thin air
* A five-year-old boy,Sujal,went missing from Ambedkar Nagar in South East Delhi on August 28.
* A three-year-old boy,Lovjeet,went missing from Vijay Vihar area in Outer Delhi on the same day.
* A 12-year-old girl,Pooja,went missing from Jahangirpuri on August 24.
* Three-year-old Tanisha went missing from Dabri on August 23.