8,178 went missing from State in 2017

One in every six children who go missing in the country is from West Bengal, an analysis of the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) points out.

According to the report titled Crime In India 2017, released earlier this week, there were 1,19,013 children missing in the country, of which 19,671 (16.5%) were from West Bengal alone.

West Bengal is followed by Madhya Pradesh, which recorded 14,158 cases. In fact, the number of children missing recorded in 2017 is marginally higher than what was recorded in 2016, both in the case of West Bengal and the country.

According to the report, the total number of missing children in the country in 2016 was 1,11,569, while the number of missing children from West Bengal was pegged at 16,881. For the year 2017 alone, the report highlights that 8,178 children went missing from West Bengal whereas 63,349 went missing from the country. West Bengal accounts for 12.9% of all missing children in the year 2017.

Meanwhile, when it comes to children traced or recovered in 2017, West Bengal has the highest success. In the year 2017, 3,055 missing children from West Bengal were traced, which accounts for 14.7% of all children traced (20,713) throughout the country.

“While the efforts of the State in tracing missing children is commendable. We have to look at the cases of human trafficking in accordance with the data of missing children. Looking only at the data of the NCRB on human trafficking may not give a clear picture,” said Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini, a national level organisation working against human trafficking.

Human trafficking

The NCRB report for 2017 records a significant drop in the number of cases of human trafficking. According to the report, 2,857 cases of human trafficking were recorded in the country in 2017. West Bengal recorded 357 cases, the second highest number of cases after Jharkhand, which registered 373 cases during the year. The data for 2016 shows that of the 8,132 cases of human trafficking recorded in the country, 3,579 cases (around 44%) were from West Bengal.

”There is an overall reduction of human trafficking cases by 67% in the country. There is also a significant increase in the conviction of perpetrators, which could be a deterrence factor in the reduction of the crime," said Saji Philip, Director of Operations, International Justice Mission, Kolkata. The number of convictions for cases of human trafficking increased to 249 in 2017 compared with 159 in 2016.