New Delhi, 24th April 2009: Hundreds of parents and family members of missing children from Delhi came onto the streets today to protest. The desperate and angry crowd was especially frustrated with politicians and Loksabha candidates contesting in Delhi for not addressing the issue. Chanting slogans and carrying placards in their hands, they shouted slogans such as, “Why don’t you bring back our children; do you support traffickers? We lost our children, we are losing hope. Give us justice and you get our vote. Vote for people who save children. Get back the missing children”.  The march and demonstration on parliament street was organized through Bachpan Bachao Andolan; a peoples’ movement for child rights.

A deeply aggrieved father of 13 yrs old Anubhav was in tears as he carried his son’s photo.  With deep agony and despair, he asked, “Where should I go now? Since my son was stolen a year ago, I have been running from pillar to post.  I have mentioned the names of suspects in my police report but no action has ever been taken.  No senior police officer has time to listen to me despite my writing many letters.” 

Another man, Mohd. Azhar, narrated his tale of woe, “My 10 years old daughter Guria has been missing for than one year. When I went to the police station the police officer asked me for bribe, but I am so poor I could not afford it.  With the help of some community people an FIR was eventually lodged. However, I have no clue about police actions. I am spending all my earnings and my time in search of my daughter”. Among others were Meenadevi whose two and a half year old daughter was sold by an illicit liquor trader; Devi Thakur whose three year old son was kidnapped and is being held to ransom for fifty thousand rupees; and Gayasuddin, who has been able to gather some information about his twelve year old son missing since 2004, but for which no action has yet been taken. 

Mr Kailash Satyarthi, Founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) said, “We are not talking here about adults who fall in love and elope, far from it, this is about organised crime for whom poor slum dwellers are the victims.  Furthermore, ‘missing’ is completely the wrong word and instead we should be talking about children being ‘trafficked’ and ‘kidnapped’ for prostitution, bonded labour, forced beggary, child marriage and the organ trade. Unfortunately the capital of the largest democracy in the world has become the epicenter for this criminal activity.  What a shame that in a city where six children go missing every day, most Lok Sabha candidates don’t have a single word to say on the issue”.  

According to a BBA report in 2007, traffickers are selling children in India for amounts that are often lower than the cost of animals, and most of them end up working as laborers or commercial sex workers. While buffaloes may cost up to 15,000 rupees ($300), children are sold at prices between 500 and 2,500 rupees ($10 and $50). Children are cheaper than buffaloes.

Mr Ramashankar Chaurasia, Chairperson of BBA, said that “BBA took up the issue of Nithari well before the authorities took it seriously, and before it was exposed in the media. We have made several complaints to the Lieutenant Governor and other authorities about these missing children, but the concrete results are yet to come”. 

BBA and the parents of the missing children have also submitted a memorandum to the President of India demanding: -

• A regular monitoring plan with time–bound reporting to be submitted to the appropriate authority.
• The establishment of a legal definition of trafficking in accordance with, and in conformity with, international norms and treaties. (Most children in such cases are victims of trafficking and India does not currently have any comprehensive law or even a clear definition on the issue of trafficking despite trafficking in human beings being prohibited as a fundamental right).
• The deployment of a special police officer in all police stations to deal with complaints of missing and trafficked children, and to deal with all forms of child exploitation.  Such officers must be properly trained and sensitized on child related laws and issues.
• The appointment of an independent Commissioner to investigate and facilitate the speedy action in the cases of missing and trafficked children.
• Provision to allow the National Legal Services Authority to take appropriate measures on these issues.
• The creation of a procedure whereby immediate action can be taken against those police personnel who decline to register cases pertaining to offences committed on children, and also against those who fail to investigate these complaints and make no genuine effort for the recovery of the children.

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