Monday, February 05, 2007

India Sees Thousands Of Children Missing Thanks To Neglect In Police

February 05, 2007 21:44 PM

NEW DELHI, Feb 5 (Bernama) -- When India's senior police officers check the crime charts, they will frown upon increase in thefts, murders and even chain snatching incidents but seldom upon the number of missing persons, Xinhua reported Monday.It was no wonder that the public and media were so shocked when the serial killing of about 40 children was revealed early January in Noida, a satellite town of Indian capital New Delhi known for its large middle-class population.According to the police investigation, two prime suspects, a businessman and his servant, seduced the children from an urban village near their house, sexually abused and killed them. They dismembered the bodies and buried them in a dried drainage behind the house.People were asking how come the local police had been not aware of the crime when worried parents in the village kept filing complaints about their missing children in the past two years.The case seems lead to the fact that missing cases are so low on policing priority.A National Human Rights Commission report said that 45,000 children go missing every year but the Women and Child Development Ministry was quoted as saying it could be thrice as much.Some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and social workers said that official estimates are based only on police complaints and the actual numbers may be close to 1 million.In Delhi there are 21,561 people reported missing including nearly 16,000 children. Provided that the city has other 50,000 homeless it is a frightening scenario.But India has no official website or data base for the missing people. The only public source of information seems to be Doordarshan, India's public TV channel, or personally placed ads in media.There is very little emphasis on locating missing children by the police or even the society, said Kiran Bedi, director-general of the Delhi police in charge of training.More attention will be paid on finding a stolen car than finding a human being because the former involves a pressure group and the insurance company, said Sagar Hudda, Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police.And missing children from poor and powerless families will face the most neglect from the police.The victims in the serial killing in Noida all came from poor families of migrant workers.In the same city it took the police only five days to save the three-year-old son of the chief executive of Adobe India who was kidnapped for ransom in November last year.The police are most reluctant to register First Information Reports (FIR) for kidnapping till a ransom demand is made. But this rarely happens in the case of poor children who may have been lifted for begging or prostitution or other violation like what happened in the Noida killing.India has adopted several laws on protection of children including the freshly passed Child Marriage Act, Domestic Violence Act and child labour protection Act but so far no law on missing children.To cope with the problem, the Women and Child Development Ministry is considering founding a national commission for children which will exclusively cater to complaints related to children with similar legal power with the National Commission for Women

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=245230

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

TILL TODAY I COULD UNDERSTND WHY PEOPLE BLAME POLICE FOR EVERY THINGH.NO ONE GO TO THE POLICE BEFORE PRODUCING CHILDREN FOR THEIR ADVICE.WHEN YOU DONOT HAVE RESOURCES THAN WHY ARE YOU PRODUCING A LOT OF CHILDREN LIKE ANIMAL AND LATER ON CREATE PROBLEMS AND BLAMING POLICE DEPT FOR NOT THEIR PROPER CARING.MY ADVICE IS PRODUCE A LOT OF KIDS AT YOUR OWN RISK .NO BODY WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS LOSS.