Delhi hit an ignominious century this month!
A whopping 100 children have gone missing from the capital in the first 12 days of the month.
Sixty-five of the 100 minors who went missing so far this February were girls, one more than what was recorded for the whole of last month. A total of 122 children went missing from the capital last month.
Altogether, 222 children have gone missing this year so far, which amounts to five cases per day. The number of children going missing could rise over last year's figure of 1,179 if one goes by the rate of such incidents this year.
"There is a surge in the number of children going missing this month. We are investigating all the cases. We don't see any pattern in this and there is no organised gang operating in the city," a senior police official said.
According to Delhi police statistics, Outer Delhi topped the list with 20 followed by West Delhi (19), South East Delhi (12) and South-West Delhi (11).
The figures for other districts are: North-East (8), North-West, East and South (7 each), North (5) and Central Delhi (3).
The Outer and West districts also topped the list of missing girls with 12 cases each. Eight each girls went missing from South-East and South-West districts, the official said.
The statistics showed that February 4 was the date when the maximum number of 14 children went missing. "There were five days - February 1, 3, 4, 5 ands 9 - when such cases were in double digits," the official said.
While on February one, 10 cases were reported on February three it was 11. The figures for February five was 10 and on February nine was 11.
February 11 reported nine cases and seven cases were reported yesterday, the official said.
Last year, North-West district had registered the highest number of missing children cases with 250 followed by South-West district (154) and East district (121).
On January 27, parents of around 50 children who had gone missing in the past few years had approached Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta seeking a better police intervention in their cases. Gupta have assured them all help in tracing the children.
According to Delhi police, a total of 41 minors, including a new-born baby and a one-year-old boy, were found abandoned in the capital this year so far. Last month alone, 24 minors were found abandoned.
