Mohammed Ataullah,a cart-puller in Bawana,Outer Delhi,worked harder on Monday,like he did on Eid last year. The extra hours were to drive out memories going for the Eid prayers to the nearby dargah with his only son,Tauhid Alam. Tauhid,then 7,disappeared on the evening of April 16,2007. He had finished school,hurriedly gobbled up his rotis and gone out to play. He was never heard of again. Last year,I waited for him at the dargah,thinking he might come looking for me, Ataullah said. My wife and I went to all the childrens homes in Delhi to look for him. But I cant lose hope he is my only son. Tauhid remains a tiny untraceable statistic among the 9,000 children reported missing from the Capital since 2006,according to statistic compiled by the Delhi Commission of Protection of Child Rights,a statutory authority. Cops said go have another sonTwo years on,the police are yet to file the mandatory First Information Report (FIR),Ataullah said. When I went to the police station,they told me to go and have another child. That broke my heart. Last Wednesday,Delhi High Court Chief Justice A P Shah spoke for him: What is this comment? One child is missing,and they are asked to produce one more. This is totally anti-poor. If the parents are wealthy,the police will go to any length to rescue the child but a poor person is asked to wait and watch. The court had taken suo motu cognizance of the increase in the number of missing children: Tauhids case was one of 82 sample cases in the court records. The court has reserved the case for formal orders The price of searchTake the case of Lauji,a porter at Sabzi Mandi in Azadpur. As the familys only earning member,the daily wager cannot afford to miss a days work for the Rs 100 he earns every day. But Lauji still declared a reward of Rs 25,000 to any person who could find his eight-year-old daughter,Neelam,missing from the neighbourhood since May 16,2005. I kept aside the reward money for two years, the resident of H-2/830,Jehangirpuri said. But I started using it slowly after I lost my job while looking for my daughter. He began working again this year. In his affidavit filed on August 28,senior advocate and amicus curiae H S Phoolka said: Most missing cases belong to the lower strata. They survive on daily wages (and) a few days absence affects the whole family. Laujis neighbour Lakshman,also a daily wage earner,lost his 18-month-old son Manish in 2000 when his wife left the child at the doorstep of their house while taking a bath. A must,FIRs not lodgeDA sworn affidavit by DCP (Headquarters) H M Meena in High Court says the police suspect suspicion or foul play in the disappearance of 384 children in 2008,264 in 2007,and 176 in 2006. FIRs are not registered because parents or guardians are either not located or missing from the workplace or there is no full name,details,addresses,or photos given to us, the affidavit dated March 31,2009 said. A standing order of March 18,2009 called for the mandatory registration of FIRs in cases where the missing child is a boy aged below 12 and a girl below 18. A 634-page report,signed by Senior Superintendent R C Gupta of DCPCR,placed before the High Court on September 18 said the child rights panel cannot arrive at overall statistics such as how many children go missing,or how many are traced,because a system simply does not exist. No access to informationBesides a helpline number (23241210),the police say it has a web-based software called Zipnet accessible to the public and available at every police station to track investigation in a given case. The report said,Zipnet has records of 866 children whose parents are not traceable. But,amicus curiae Phoolka asked,how would a labourer or a rickshaw-puller access the Internet and track police investigation? DCPCR chairperson Amod Kanth told Newsline,Each case of a missing child has to be investigated. We are collecting information. Senior advocate Phoolka,meanwhile,recommended setting up a legal aid cell of lawyers under the Delhi Legal Services Authority to chase the police probe.
