India Supreme Court orders centre, states to trace 55,000 missing children
(August 17, 2012) India’s Supreme Court issued notice to the federal and all the
state governments on Thursday on a public interest litigation seeking its direction
to them for tracing 55,000 missing children in the country. Agreeing to hear the
public interest litigation, a bench headed by Justice Aftab Alam sought response from
the Centre and States on the issue of the missing children. “The State police machinery
has failed to trace the missing children resulting in total extinction of life of
these children,” said advocate Sarwa Mitra who filed the petition at the nation’s
highest court. “Further there is mutilation or amputation of arms, legs or pulling
out of eyes or destruction of any other organ of the body of these children which
lead them to spend miserable lives and compel them to engage in begging, flesh trade
etc,” Mitra said in his petition. The petitioner also submitted that, “The State
police has failed to investigate the cases of kidnapping and had failed to trace the
missing children which is a total denial of right to life and liberty of these innocent
children. “Almost all the states have failed to solve the kidnapping of 55,000 children
by organised gangs,” Mitra said in his petition, adding “these unfortunate children
are also forced into bootlegging, smuggling, prostitution etc.” The petition also
said, “There is selling and buying of children for illegal acts, sexual exploitation
and child trafficking.”