Delhi High Court today directed the city police to give details of the number of children missing over the last four years and how many of them were recovered, as it suggested the involvement of beat cops and NGOs to ascertain whether any of them had fallen prey to human trafficking, flesh trade or begging.
Observing that it was a "serious issue", a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and R K Gauba asked Delhi Police to file a fresh report containing the statistics of the missing children and those recovered over the last four years.
The court also asked the police whether it had any software to match the description or photos received of missing children, with the pictures on record with other agencies and also the methods or software being employed by the cops now for this purpose.
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During the hearing, the court also suggested that the police can involve its beat cops as well as NGOs to see if the children found begging on streets or have fallen prey to human trafficking or flesh trade are those that went missing.
The court passed the orders and gave the suggestions while hearing a couple of petitions dealing with two missing minor children, one of whom is yet to be traced.
The court had on an earlier date observed that if the national capital, which is endowed with better infrastructure and other backups, fails to rescue child labourers, what would be the fate of other states.
It had also directed the city government to incorporate all previous directives and the fresh ones to be issued in the form of a booklet, directing that "every department and the officer concerned should mandatorily possess such a booklet in a bid to prevent any such officer from pleading ignorance of his own duties".
Today, Delhi Police placed before the bench a booklet it has come out with, as directed by the court.
