For the records: 32 girls go missing from Uttar Pradesh every week

At least 32 girls went missing on an average every week in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, according to State Crime Record Bureau data provided in response to a query under the Right to Information Act on missing children.

At least 32 girls went missing on an average every week in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, according to State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB) data provided in response to a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act on missing children.

“While the actual figures of missing children in Uttar Pradesh remain high, the rate of registration of first information reports is fairly low.” (Representative image/Shutterstock)

Child rights activists fear many of the missing girls may have been trafficked. “According to the data, at least 1,675 girls were reported missing at police stations across the state’s 75 districts in 2017,” said child rights activist Umesh Kumar Gupta, who had filed the query.

“At least 435 girls were reported missing in the first three months of 2018. Many of these children may have been trafficked,” he said, quoting the RTI reply.

Gupta said in Deoria, where the manager of a women’s shelter home and her husband have been arrested for allegedly pushing women into prostitution, 14 girls went missing in 2017. Nine others went missing in the first three months of this year, he added.

“While the actual figures of missing children in Uttar Pradesh remain high, the rate of registration of first information reports (FIRs) is fairly low. This is despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that immediate FIRs be lodged in cases of missing children and no laxity should be shown at police stations.”