By Binny Yadav
When records tied to compensation proceedings for victims of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein surfaced in the United States—referencing children from deeply vulnerable backgrounds, including an Indian girl—they illuminated a brutal truth: poverty can become a pipeline into global systems of sexual exploitation. Organised abuse thrives on invisibility.
At the very moment when the world confronts how underprivileged children can be commodified for the pleasure of the powerful, India faces an unsettling parallel at home. More than 1.62 lakh children were reported missing in 2022 alone, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Tens of thousands remain untraced each year.
Against this grim backdrop, the Supreme Court has issued a pointed warning. The question before it is stark: Is India’s missing children crisis merely a collection of individual tragedies—or evidence of organised criminal networks operating across the country?
A BENCH SEEKS PATTERNS, NOT PAPERWORK
Hearing an ongoing matter on missing children, a bench, comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, directed the Union government to analyse nationwide data from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2025, mapping disappearances region-wise and statewise. The Court’s central query was blunt: “Is there a pattern emerging from the data received so far?”
States and Union territories have been instructed to furnish comprehensive data under the Mission Vatsalya framework. Non-compliance before the March 10 hearing, the Court cautioned, could invite “serious measures.”
This is not a routine procedural review. The Court is seeking to determine whether recruitment zones, transit routes, and destination hubs reveal a coordinated architecture of trafficking, forced labour, sexual exploitation, or illegal adoption.
FROM PRESUMPTION TO PATTERN
The current proceedings are build on the landmark ruling in Bachpan Bachao Andolan vs Union of India (2013), which fundamentally reshaped India’s legal response to missing children. The judgment mandated that every missing child complaint be treated as a cognisable offence—investigated as kidnapping or trafficking unless proven otherwise.
Subsequent Standard Operating Procedures reinforced the requirement: immediate FIR registration, prompt investigation, and time-bound search operations.
Yet, more than a decade later, the top court appears concerned that while procedures exist on paper, systemic patterns may be unfolding beneath them.
THE SCALE OF DISAPPEARANCE
The numbers are staggering:
1,62,449 children reported missing in 2022.
Seventy to seventy five percent were girls.
A majority belonged to the 12-18 age group.
Tens of thousands remained untraced at year’s end.
Between 2018 and 2022, cumulative missing child reports exceeded half a million.
Government advisories acknowledge that missing children face heightened risks of trafficking, sexual exploitation, forced labour, illegal activities, and cross-border crime.
In registered trafficking cases, minors—especially girls—constitute a significant proportion of victims.
URBAN MAGNETS, INTER-STATE CORRIDORS
Major cities function as both destinations and transit points for trafficked minors. In Delhi alone, over 7,800 children were reported missing in 2022—one of the highest urban figures nationwide.
Many were later traced in neighbouring states such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan, suggesting organised inter-state movement. Railway stations, bus depots, and informal labour markets often become entry points into exploitative systems.
Child-rights organisations report that rescued minors frequently surface in domestic servitude, begging rackets, sexual exploitation, forced marriages, or hazardous labour—revealing the economic supply chains that sustain trafficking.
STRUCTURAL WEAKNESSES ON THE GROUND
Despite legal mandates, enforcement capacity remains uneven. Rural districts—often the origin points of disappearances—face acute shortages of trained investigators and forensic resources. Anti-Human Trafficking Units vary widely in effectiveness.
The ground-level gaps include:
Insufficient trained personnel.
Limited cyber and forensic capabilities.
Weak inter-state coordination.
Understaffed police stations.
Poor regulation of placement agencies.
Such vulnerabilities allow traffickers to operate across jurisdictions with relative impunity.
DATA WITHOUT OUTCOMES?
India has developed digital platforms intended to track missing children through real-time data sharing among police, child welfare committees, and courts. Guidelines emphasise that data must be uploaded promptly and updated regularly, including details of recovered children and case status.
However, experts question whether these platforms translate into effective rescue or prosecution. Ravi Kant, National Convenor of Just Rights for Children (JRC), a coalition of over 250 NGOs working across 451 districts, offers a stark assessment. According to him: “There is no problem in data collection or updating. The portals are functioning merely as post offices—receiving information without producing outcomes.”
Kant argues that because child protection is a Concurrent subject, responsibility largely rests with state governments, which possess infrastructure and manpower, but often fail to prioritise missing children investigations. He calls for central monitoring of Anti-Human Trafficking Units and agrees with the Supreme Court’s observation that child trafficking in India operates as organised crime.
THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY NETWORKS
Civil society organisations remain crucial actors in tracing missing children and supporting families. Just Rights for Children works through partner organisations across India, including networks associated with Bachpan Bachao Andolan (also known in collaborative contexts as the Association for Voluntary Action). Government advisories themselves emphasise coordination with NGOs, local bodies, and community groups to identify vulnerable children and assist in recovery operations.
Tracing a child does not dismantle trafficking networks. Conviction rates in trafficking-related offences remain uneven due to evidentiary challenges, witness intimidation, and prolonged trials.
The Supreme Court’s directive to provide data on prosecution status suggests concern that India may be rescuing victims without punishing perpetrators while allowing criminal enterprises to persist. Judicial precedents have consistently held that safeguarding children is intrinsic to the right to life and dignity under Article 21. Failure to prevent trafficking or exploitation therefore raises constitutional questions.
The disappearance of a child is not merely a statistic; it is a collapse of the State’s protective promise. When global scandals expose how vulnerable minors can be exploited by powerful networks, and domestic data reveals hundreds of thousands of disappearances over a few years, the urgency becomes undeniable. As March 10 approaches, India faces a moral and constitutional reckoning. If the Court’s fears are borne out, the country’s missing children crisis will stand exposed not as a series of tragedies, but as evidence of a deeply entrenched system of organised exploitation, one that can be dismantled only through sustained political will, institutional accountability, and societal vigilance.
—The writer is a New Delhi-based journalist, lawyer and trained mediator
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