A man holds up a photo of his children. Three of his daughters are missing. (TOI Photo) |
The latest cases occurred less than a week ago. On February 11, as many as six teenagers went missing on the same day. "We filed a police complaint, but cops took no action," said Rajkumar Dhingane, a social worker from the area.
Police say the children of New Sanjay Amar colony, the largest JJ cluster in east Delhi housing 15,000 people, have been willingly eloping. But residents point out that barring the latest incidents, most of the missing kids are below 15 years, which makes the elopement theory unlikely.
Babulal, a rickshaw-puller whose three daughters disappeared three years ago, says the helplessness of knowing that they could be in trouble and still not being able to help them, eats him from within. "My daughters, Nisha and Ashu, twins who were seven when they went missing, and Sushila, 6, had gone out to play and never returned. I filed a police complaint and went searching for them, but all in vain. I still hope that one day, my daughters just return home and everything will be alright," he said.
Worried parents losing hope
Tansukh Lal’s daughter Poonam, 15, disappeared on January 27. "My daughter had gone out with two women my wife knew. They were from the neighbouring Bhikam Singh Colony. Neither Poonam, nor the two women, ever returned. Police say that Poonam may have eloped. Even if she has, why don’t they just find her for me?" said Tansukh. Similarly, auto-driver Satyadev’s 3-year-old daughter Lado had gone out to play sometime in December 2008 and never came back. "We filed a police complaint but no policeman ever came home to even check on her," he said.
Meanwhile, with each passing day, parents of the six teenagers who went missing on February 11 are losing hope. "We went to the cops to complaint. However, no action seems to have been taken so far," said Saroj, the mother of one of the missing girls, Pooja. Billu Singh, father of Durga, who too went missing on February 11, said that he doesn’t care if she eloped but just wants her to come back home.
DCP (east) Anand Mohan said four out of the six children missing since February 11 were in relationships and the two couples appear to have fled with their friends after planning it through. "However, considering that they were minors, we registered a case of kidnapping and are trying to trace them," he said. Another senior official added that teams were sent to neighbouring states to trace them.
According to a report compiled by Bachpan Bachao Andolan, 102 children, mostly in the age group of 6-17 year, have gone missing in the last two-and-a-half years from areas in Sangam Vihar, Madanpur Khadar, Badarpur and Nangloi in the city. As in the case in New Sanjay Amar colony children, no action was taken in most of these cases. So where have all the children gone?
The cops are not alarmed. They say Nithari was a one-off incident and there is not much evidence to suggest that the same is repeating itself in Delhi.
"There is no pattern to any of these cases. Mostly, parents of these children are daily wage workers and are barely educated. Many times, children just wander off and forget how to get back home. Sometimes, they return to their native village with the help of someone. Many minors elope by choice. Around 60% of these cases are worked out," said Delhi Police PRO Rajan Bhagat.
He said the police would get worried if some organized gang of traffickers was behind these disappearances.
"But there is no evidence to suggest that," he added. According to another senior officer, regular studies are conducted by Delhi Police to look for a pattern in the cases of missing children. "We have not observed any pattern so far," he said.
