Mission Khoj to find missing kids

The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) on Wednesday has launched an operation ‘Khoj’ for finding the missing children.

Chairperson of DCPCR Arun Mathur said that the commission was concerned over the increasing number of missing children in the capital. He said that under the operation ‘Khoj’ the DCPCR will tap information about “missing children from all sources and circulate the same along with photographs to all networked Homes for immediate action.”

A network of approximately 45 children’s homes in Delhi has been created and in case a child is found in one of the homes, the DCPCR will take appropriate steps to identify and reunite the child with his family.

“The information will be sought through email ID [e-mail] and the reply is also expected on the same ID,” said DCPCR.

The DCPCR decided to commission a study to assess and analyse the available data about rescue, recovery and post rescue procedures besides issues of inter-state coordination.

Mathur said that the commission intends to enlarge the network to include more homes and organise regular meetings for sensitisation of the home in-charges. The Commission expects that through proper follow-up many cases related to missing children can be solved.

According to the DCPCR, 7,235 children were reported missing in Delhi in 2013. Some 5,248 children went missing in 2012, 5,111 kids were reported missing in 2011.

About 5,946 children went missing in 2009 and some 5,091 kids were reported missing in 2010. Some 6,268 children were reported missing from Delhi in 2008.

Monitoring cases
Mathur said the DCPCR has been monitoring the cases both at an individual level as well as the policy level. “In individual cases, the commission issues notice to the concerned police station for an Action Taken Report in the matter. It was seen that the replies from the police station reach the commission quite late,” said DCPCR in a statement.

A national consultation on inter-state coordination for rehabilitation of rescued child labourers came to the conclusion that there is not the need for strengthening the rehabilitation mechanisms of child labour in source states as well as in Delhi, but also the necessity of improving inter-state coordination.