Gone missing: 2,376 children go missing in Karachi in 2013

Police failed to rescue any of the children with only 173 FIRs registered against the disappearances.

KARACHI: Out of the 2,736 children who went missing in Karachi last year, FIRs of only 173 were registered at different police stations, according to an annual report on missing children by a non-government organisation.

“If a child (under 18) goes out of contact with family or guardians, he or she is considered a missing child,” said Muhammad Ali, head of Roshni Helpline, quoting the definition of a missing child from the Sindh Child Protection Act, 2013 and the United Nation’s Convention on Child Rights (UNCRC).



According to the civil society group, around 2,736 children went missing within the jurisdictions of 114 police stations in the city in 2013. The police recorded 984 complaints but had included 811 of them as non-cognizable cases and subsequently registered FIRs of only 173 missing children.

Ali explained that the data in the report was also gathered from mosques as the “police did not record every case that was brought to them.”

Around 1,113 announcements of missing children were made in mosques in different areas. “Mosques were the parents’ first choice for making announcements to plead for the recovery of their children,” said Ali.

According to the report, amongst the missing children in 2013, around 65.25 per cent were boys, while 34.75 per cent were girls. The majority of the children belonged to the six to 14 years’ age bracket. The report claims that the most vulnerable areas, with the highest number of children reported missing, were Taimoria, Mobina Town, Jamshed Quarter, Mehmoodabad and Aziz Bhatti. Most of these areas comprise slums and narrow alleyways. Meanwhile, the police failed to take any concrete steps to rescue the children. It was mostly the efforts of the children’s families that helped recover 312 such children, bringing the recovery rate to a mere 17 percent.

“It is unfortunate that the police do not take swift action when a complaint of a child’s disappearance is brought to them. They make excuses and delay the process,” lamented Ali.  “By the time they act, the child has been moved to a distant place, away from the parents reach.”  The organisation has introduced a four digit number, 1138, where families may immediately report incidents missing children. “There is no other complaint cell which records cases. Our service registers complaints and also connects parents to the relevant departments.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2014.