Question : MISSING PERSONS

(a) whether cases of missing persons— men, women and children are increasing in the country including the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi;

(b) if so, the total number of such cases registered alongwith the persons traced/untraced and the steps taken to trace all the persons during each of the last three years and the current year, State-wise and gender-wise;

(c) the total number of women and children rescued from human traffickers and the action taken against such persons during the said period, State-wise;

(d) whether the Government proposes to evolve a Central mechanism for recording of missing/ found persons with the coordination of the State Governments and the Delhi Police; and

(e) if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI JITENDRA SINGH)

(a) to (e) As per the information provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) State/UT wise details of missing persons – men, women and children, cases registered, traced / untraced for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively are given at Annexure. However, data on total number of women and children rescued from human traffickers are not maintained separately by NCRB.

As per Seventh Schedule, ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects under the Constitution, and as such the primary responsibility of prevention, detection, registration, investigation and prosecution of crimes, including crimes against women and children, lies with the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations. However, the Union Government attaches highest importance to the matter of prevention and control of crime against women and children. Ministry of Home Affairs has sent detailed advisories dated 4th September, 2009 and dated 14th July, 2010 to all State Governments/UTs, wherein they have been, inter-alia, advised to adopt appropriate measures to improve the quality of investigations, minimize delays in investigations of crime against women and children, set up ‘Crime against Women Cells’ in districts. Majority of the States/ UTs have established ‘Women Cells’. Some States/UTs have also set up ‘All Women Police stations’ at district level and ‘Mahila /children help desk’ at police station level.

In a separate advisory on Advisory on missing children-measures needed to prevent trafficking and trace the children-regarding dated 31st January, 2012, it was specifically advised to the States / UTs to prevent children from being victims of any heinous or organized crime such as, victims of rape, sexual abuse, child pornography, organ trade etc.