Bengal accounts for one in every five missing children in India: CRY

Kolkata, May 24: One in every five missing children in India is from West Bengal, which reported 14,671 cases of missing children in 2014 or more than 21 percent of the total cases reported in the country, said NGO CRY - Child Rights and You on Tuesday. “Going by the data shared by the ministry of home affairs during the parliamentary session, West Bengal was among the four states which together accounted for more than 60 percent of the missing children in the country. “To be more accurate, the state reported 14,671 cases of missing children in 2014, which is more than 21 percent of the total cases reported in India. In other words, one in every 5 missing children in India is from Bengal,” a CRY statement said. Citing tiol Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, the organisation highlighted Bengal was among the top five states in the country in kidpping and abduction (K&A) of children and accounts for six percent of such cases in the country. “Cases related to kidpping and abduction of minors in the state has grown by 608 percent over the last five years. Number of K&A cases in 2010 was 332 and over the last five years it rose to a whopping 2,351 in Bengal,” the statement said. The organisation also drew attention to the gender skewing among missing children, as revealed by the home ministry data. (IANS)