Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Over 4,000 girls are reported missing from MP. Police records say more than 5,000 children have gone missing, and among them, 1,099 are boys and 4,002 are girls.
But last year, the police did a lot of work to search for the missing children. They found 11,760 girls and 2, 771 boys last year, but 12, 017 girls and 2,740 boys are reported missing this year.
Although the government has launched Operation Muskan to search for the missing children, a large number of children go missing every year. There are certain cases of missing children in which the parents and relatives keep away from lodging any complaints.
According to reports, girls leave their houses for different reasons. There are several reasons behind the missing girls. Some of them leave home because of family disputes, and a few others run away from home due to love affairs. Another reason behind the children running away from home is poverty. There are certain cases in which children ran away from their homes with their friends.
According to the police, after the girls run away from homes, their parents complain about it, but they never inform the police when they return. According to AIG (women safety wing) Kiran Kerkatta, every police station has been instructed to act swiftly if there are any complaints about missing girls. They have also been told to keep themselves updated about such cases, she said. The police make efforts to find missing girls as quickly as possible, she said. The family members have been told to inform the police when their missing children return, but they keep away from doing so, she said.
Social workers said in many cases, the police had initially shown interest and acted fast in finding the missing girls, but with the passage of time, they swept the case under the carper, so the girls remained untraced in many cases. Similarly, some people, involved in human trafficking, take away children, they said.
