Missing women: Are they anyone’s concern?

W Chandrakanth

Each year, police stations across the country receive thousands of reports of missing persons. These missing reports relate to persons of all ages and gender. A definition of missing person on Wikipedia states that “a missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and fate are not known”.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) defines a missing person as: “Anyone whose whereabouts is unknown whatever the circumstances of disappearance. They will be considered missing until located and their well-being or otherwise established”.2 Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has defined missing child as “a person below eighteen years of age, whose whereabouts are not known to the parents, legal guardians and any other persons who may be legally entrusted with the custody of the child, whatever may be the circumstances/causes of disappearance”.

Fortunately, many of those who are reported to police as missing are located within a short span of time. There are however, others who are never found or who are, eventually, identified as victims of crime or misfortune. Besides, there are persons missing but not reported to police or inquired into.

Some young people run away from home due to unbearable conditions of abuse and maltreatment. They become vulnerable to trafficking, violence, drug addiction, pleasure business and other risks of exploitation and involvement in crime.

Many missing persons have met with tragic end such as homicide, suicide, or accident. And very many among these end up getting trafficked. However, it is not always easy to ascertain whether someone’s disappearance is intentional or unintentional.

The victims of human trafficking may include male and female, adults as well as children. Human trafficking may take place within the country or beyond. Labour and sexual exploitation are two prominent reasons for trafficking. A review of the same suggests that low levels of education, low employment prospects and lack of opportunities are also the reasons for women and men to venture out in search of better living conditions.

In hearing a writ petition in the matter of Bachpan Bachao Andolan V/s Union of India, the Supreme Court has given specific directions regarding missing children. Accordingly, in case of complaint, the same should be converted into a First Information Report.

Before getting into the statistics, one has to keep this background in mind to analyse the same. The issue has been raised often by Pawan Kalyan, leader of Jana Sena in Andhra Pradesh nowadays. He keeps accusing the present State Government of doing nothing even though about 30,000 women have gone missing from the State in the last three years.

Pawan Kalyan's interest in this claim – or in the charge that he leveled against the Jagan government – seems to be limited to his politics. It is also claimed that an official has tipped him off the same to needle the Jagan government. But, how does it serve the purpose?

These details of missing women or persons are compiled every year and released as crime statistics by the National Crime Records Bureau. There are other agencies too that keep a track of the same and publish the compilations.

Local Telugu media used it to highlight the same to some extent but there was no cause except politics and hence it got buried soon. In fact, the case of these missing women and children should be the concern of the Parliament and our investigating agencies. Very highly networked and skilled crime syndicates are behind the disappearances.

Who are these women who are disappearing? Rather going missing? A study of the statistics reveals that most of these children and women are from the disadvantaged sections of the society. In majority cases, these are the women who have poor rural backgrounds and struggle to eke out their living. Even those women who are literate to some extent and working in small time professions and jobs form a chunk of it.

It is believed that most of them - particularly the very young and young ones - end up in pleasure houses. These are hooked by smart operators with offers of better prospects. And they, usually, don't return home or contact their people due to the stigma attached to such lives.

The moment a complaint is lodged with the police stations, there will be an initial presumption of either abduction or trafficking, unless, in the investigation, the same is proved otherwise. To prevent children and women from exploitation, the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a number of advisories on missing children as well as trafficking of human beings.

Some of the important advisories are: The Advisory on “missing children measures needed to prevent trafficking and trace the children'', Advisory on the Supreme Court's directions by the Ministry of Women and Child Development on “Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)” etc.

A panel constituted for the purpose In its report submitted to the, has, inter-alia, recommended that: ‘National Crime Records Bureau and its State Counterparts i.e. SCRB should be directed to analyse the data on missing persons (especially on women and children) so that areas prone to persons being trafficked can be identified. This data and analysis should be made public’.

The UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) Global report 2018 on trafficking in person indicates that the vast majority of the detected victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation are females, and 35 per cent of the victims trafficked for forced labour are also females, both women and girls.

At the same time, more than half of the victims of trafficking for forced labour are men. The common cause of trafficking is forced marriage, child labour, domestic help and sexual exploitation etc. As per data on missing persons in Crime in India, a total of 2,90,439 people in 2016, 3,05,267 people in 2017, and 3,47,524 people in 2018 have been reported as missing.

As per Crime in India, a total of 1,74,021 women in 2016, 1,88,382 in 2017 and 2,23,621 in 2018 have been registered as ‘missing’. If we look at the Statewise picture of women missing during 2016-2018 (3 years) we see that Andhra Pradesh reported the missing women as 4,454, 5,225 and 5,792 respectively.

Arunachal Pradesh reported 50, 90 and 12 women as missing and Assam, 2,850, 2,302 and 4,087 in these three years. Bihar had 5,218, 6,020 and 7,775 women, Chhattisgarh, 6,649, 7,383 and 9,412, Goa, 235, 274 and 234 and Gujarat 7,105, 7,712 and 9,246.

Haryana reported 3,554, 4,780 and 5,311 cases, Himachal Pradesh 568, 852 and 1,179, Jammu & Kashmir 943, 1,044 and 1,335, Jharkhand 501, 361 and 399, Karnataka 8,092, 8,757 and 9,567 and Kerala reported 4,926, 6,076 and 7,839 cases of missing women.

Others like Madhya Pradesh (21,435, 26,587, 29,761) and Maharashtra (28,316, 29,279, 33,964) tell us a different story altogether. Why doesn't anyone care for them? Now that Manipur has taken centre stage of our political discourse, let us note that even Manipur has reported 178, 139 and 161 women missing during the three years.

Every State in India is reporting these missing women. Beti Bachao, Beti Padao? These figures are even higher in states like Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Governments talk of welfare governance a lot nowadays. The total missing women during the period as reported in the whole country are: 1,61,311, 1,75,598 and 2,09,615. And it is ever increasing. Our 'Bitiya Ranis' are vanishing sir. Please find some time for them. Or do you wake up if we say: A huge chunk of your votes are missing sir. Please note.