SC seeks deeper probe into missing children

THe sublime margaret court on tues called for a deeper dig into into the missing children statistics by directive the Centre to analyse if the incidents are spread across any particular region, state or across the country to enable effective coordination for their restoration and crackdown on organised gangs indulging in such crimes.“Is there a pattern emerging from the data received so far,” asked a bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, which had directed the Centre in December 2025 to gather data on missing children from January 1, 2020 till December 31, 2025 and the status of prosecution of these cases updated as on date.Examining the issue in a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the non-profit organisation Guria Swayam Sevi Sansthan, the order passed by the court said that collection of data is one aspect for which directions can be issued to states/UTs, but equally important is to analyse the same for gathering trends.“It is necessary to analyse data to identify if an emerging pattern appears either state-wise, region-wise or across the country,” the bench observed, as it directed states and UTs to positively provide information to the nodal officer appointed by the Mission Vatsalya portal operated under the aegis of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).Additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati appearing for Centre said, “12 states/UTs have not given data on missing children while 14 are yet to give status of prosecution in these cases.The court posted the matter for March 10 and issued a warning for states/UTs to cooperate. Directing the Centre to communicate the order to all states/UTs which are non-compliant, the order said, “If by the next date of hearing, the required data is not submitted to the Centre, this court will have no option but to take serious measures.”The affidavit filed by MHA gave data of 24 states and UTs on missing children which raised a disturbing pattern with regard to children reported missing over the past five years, recoveries made, and children still untraced. The states/UTs which are yet to respond include Delhi, Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir (UT), Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, among others.Bihar, for instance, proved to be the most notorious among the states which have responded so far. The state witnessed a steady rise in reported missing children complaints recorded at 4,868 (2020), 3,870 (2021), 7,472 (2022), 8,933 (2023), 12,443 (2024) and 16,390 (2025). Due to efforts by police, some children were restored to the custody of parents or child care homes. But the figure that remains untraced is equally startling. By the end of December 2025, there is no trace of 8,857 children in the state.The bench said, “You have to analyse the pattern based on the figures provided and see if there is an all-India network or whether the network (indulging in kidnapping or trafficking children) is restricted to a state or region.”The court told Bhati, “What steps have you taken to break the network? When you trace the missing children, what is the information that you get from them? You need to interview these children. It will assist in your investigation.”Senior advocate Aparna Bhatt appearing for the petitioner organisation npointed out that there needs to be segregation of data based on age as well. She said that organised gangs have been found to indulge in kidnapping of children for various purposes. While newborns and children barely three years old are kidnapped for adoption while minor girls are abducted for immoral trafficking.She further pointed out that the present petition seeks to get the data and utilise it for curbing the menace of trafficking in children, which remains a stark reality in society. The data provided in the MHA affidavit further reveals that after Bihar, the states with the highest number of untraced children are Madhya Pradesh (2,825), Chhattisgarh (1,712), Haryana (1,434) and Rajasthan (754).Bihar and Chhattisgarh have not provided data on the status of prosecution due to which it is not known how many cases ended up in conviction or acquittal.The present PIL is pending before this court since 2024 and suggestions have been made in the past to have a specialised agency such as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe these matters as it has inter-state and even overseas linkages. However, the court had mooted for strengthening the available mechanism by appointing nodal officers across each state and district.The Centre had launched the Khoya Paya Portal in 2015 to serve as a centralised database exclusively dealing with missing children. However, the same did not yield results as the portal failed to ensure inter-state coordination of investigation.In addition, the MHA had launched a national level communications platform – Crime Multi Agency Centre (Cri-MAC) in 2020 to facilitate police across the country to share information about significant crimes, including human trafficking cases, on a real-time basis.Advisories were issued by MHA in June 2013 asking all states and UTs to address aspects of prevention and prosecution of child trafficking cases by setting up anti-human trafficking units (AHTU) in each district. The advisory further stated that if a child remains missing for a period of four months, the case is to be forwarded to AHTUs.As per the Crime in India 2022 Report, the all-India figure of “unrecovered child victims” of kidnapping and abduction from previous years is 51,100.