photo: google
India has seen its share of problems lately, with so much focus on rape of both adult women and children.
But a true epidemic that has been mostly overlooked by the international press is that of missing children.
In India, approximately 60,000 children go missing each year. It is so prevalent and unfortunate part of society, that it is even portrayed in Bollywood movies as part of a plot. Often in these movies there is a case of a missing child, abducted by a villain and then later saved by the hero in the film
But the reality of child abduction does not follow its cinematic portrayal. Some are found, but they are not in the minority.
It is something that is not new in India. The disappearance of children in such a populuous nation is often seen as a symptom of societal ills that have to be borne together with poverty and violence. But this attitude, just like with rape, must be changing. In fact, it was in the aftermath of the rapes, that the Indian government ordered an in depth study to assess the scope of the problem.
A child goes missing in India every eight minutes. Because of the population density it is both easy for children to get lost accidentally as they try to make their way home, or from abductions by strangers.
Most of the child abductions are blamed on organized crime, who prey on the poor who are sometimes eager to give away a daughter. Because of dowries, even if banned by law, most girls are seen as a tremendous burden on the family. In fact, some of the statistics show that during large festivals, where millions of people gather, some families deliberately abandon their female children.
Many however, are lost apparently to disattention of the child, or at least that is what authorities would like to believe. And it is not just poor people who lose their children. The statistics point to a trend that spans all classes.
However, kidnapping makes up the largest percentage of missing cases. More than half are believed to be kidnapped for organ harvesting and prostitution / child pornography. Some are used for begging or even held for ransom.
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that a lot of children work even when extremely small, and they are in the street plying their trade. There are almost 13 million children in the streets in India, working every day. This of course, makes them easy prey.
One of the things that authorities believe has caused the number of missing children to increase lately is the fact that the laws currently are not very strict on child abduction and prosecution is very sporadic. The Indian judiciary is notoriously slow and bureaucratic, making prosecution of all but the worst crime difficult at best.
Police also often dismiss the reports from parents or fail to investigate, either because they are overworked or because they think that the parents might be responsible.
Dehli however, is in the forefront of this issues, trying to change both perception and investigation of the crime. They have recently passed stricter laws. Police in Delhi are now also obligated to file a kidnapping report if the child is not found within 24 hours of the parent's alert.
One solution to the problem would be to create a DNA bank to help identify missing children. It worked well in Guatemala, a country with a noticeable history of violence against women and children.
Source: al Jazeera 3.10.13
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