PANAJI
More than half of the children reported as victims of kidnapping and abduction in Goa over the last five years remain untraced, according to data provided by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in the Lok Sabha. The data, based on National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) records, shows that 304 children remained non-traced, accounting for 51.4 per cent of the 591 children covered under the recovered/non-traced figures between 2020 and 2024.
Goa registered 591 cases of kidnapping and abduction of children between 2020 and 2024. The annual number of cases being registered rose from 35 cases in 2020 to 80 in 2024. The number of child victims also increased from 36 in 2020 to 86 in 2024, touching 71 in 2023. According to the data, 287 children were recovered alive, while 304 were listed as non-traced during the five-year period. The number of children listed as non-traced was 41 in 2020, 47 in 2021, 68 in 2022, 61 in 2023 and 87 in 2024, making the latest year the highest in the period. The Centre said efforts to improve tracing of missing children have been strengthened through technological and inter-agency mechanisms. The TrackChild portal for missing/found children and the Khoya-Paya application for missing/sighted children have been integrated with the unified Mission Vatsalya portal and the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS).
This integration enables matching of FIRs relating to missing children with the TrackChild database, allowing State and Union Territory police to trace and match missing children. The Ministry has also advised States and Union Territories to treat every missing-child case with utmost urgency, register FIRs promptly, launch immediate search and rescue operations, strengthen inter-State and inter-agency coordination and closely monitor investigations to ensure safe recovery and prevent trafficking or exploitation.
