More than 19,000 children have been lost from India'scapital alone since 2009, pointing to a widespread problem with humantrafficking -- though the government says most of the missing kids run awayfrom home to escape "cruel parents."
As reported in 2009, the disappearance of children is hardlya new phenomenon in India. But the police are either incapable or unwilling todo much about it, often parroting the government's recent claim that the bulkof the missing are runaways, and their parents do not report it to the policewhen they return. At that time, according to police data, about 13,000 childrenhave been reported missing over the past three years.
Apparently, the problem has only grown worse.
Over 19,000 children went missing in the capital since 2009,of whom 3,305 remain untraced: 1,731 girls and 1,574 boys, the Union homeministry has told Parliament, a UK paper reported.
But even though child labor remains rampant throughout thecountry, the home ministry has listed human trafficking last out of 11 reasonsthat children disappear, the newspaper said.
Escaping cruel parents was the number one reason cited forchildren going missing, but the home ministry also listed pressure to do wellin studies and elopement among the factors responsible for the disappearance ofchildren in Delhi, the paper said.
Elopement was also cited as one of the primary reasons --though anti-child labor activists scoffed that many of the missing kids wereyounger than 12 years old. At the same time there was a strong suspicion thatthe main character on the subject probably knew that her husband had sold thegirl to traffickers.
