The latest report of the National Crime Registration Bureau (NCRB) has revealed an alarming picture of missing children in Assam, which has raised serious concerns across the state. According to official statistics of 2024, a total of 2,880 children and adolescents are missing in Assam alone. According to the report, human trafficking, unscrupulous gangs, domestic violence and economic deprivation are the main reasons for frequent occurrence of such crimes across the country.
This aggregate statistical analysis of the state shows that the number of missing children is significantly higher among girls than among boys. According to the NCRB, a total of 2,880 children have gone missing from Assam, including 644 boys, 2,234 girls and two third gender children. A total of 1,47,175 children under the age of 18 will go missing across India in 2024, with West Bengal having the highest number of cases at 22,742. Assam’s location in the northeast is considered highly sensitive in this regard, although there are positive reports that no children will go missing in the neighboring state of Mizoram.
According to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and related experts, several serious social and economic factors are behind the disappearance of such a large number of children. Taking advantage of the financial plight of poor families, traffickers often take children away from their homes with the lure of better education or employment, and then force them into risky labor, domestic work or the sex trade. In addition, cases of disappearance are increasing as many children run away from home on their own because they cannot cope with hostile or unstable family environments, parental separation or domestic abuse.
Currently, the State Police Administration and Child Protection Committees are running various awareness campaigns to prevent this serious problem Several crime branches, special task forces and NGOs in different districts are working together to recover missing children but strict legal action is still in process at the government level to eradicate these inter-state criminal networks.