Lok Sabha Question No. 1955 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-01
Subject: Missing Juvenile Girls
Ministry: HOME AFFAIRS
Asked by: Goddeti Madhavi, Beesetti  Venkata Satyavathi, Geetha Viswanath Vanga

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1955

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 1 ST  AUGUST, 2023/ SRAVANA 10, 1945 (SAKA) MISSING JUVENILE GIRLS

1955.

SHRIMATI GODDETI MADHAVI: DR. BEESETTI VENKATA SATYAVATHI: SHRIMATI VANGA GEETHA VISWANATH:

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a)  whether  the  Government  is  taking  any  measures  to  run  a  search programme  to  find  juvenile  girls  who  are  missing  and  if  so,  the  details thereof; and

(b) the progress made in this regard and if not, the reasons therefor?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI AJAY KUMAR MISHRA)

(a)  &  (b):'Police'  and  'Public  Order'  are  State  subjects  under the  Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. The responsibility of maintaining law and  order, protection of life and  property  of the citizens including investigation and prosecution of crime against citizens including children rest with the respective State Governments. The State Governments are competent to deal with such offences under the extant provisions of laws.

Further,  Ministry  of  Women  and  Child  Development  has  issued  the 'Standard  Operating  Procedure (SOP)  for  cases of  missing  children'  to

assist Police, Child Welfare Committees and Juvenile Justice Board in dealing with the cases of missing and found or recovered children. The objective of the SOP is to put in place guidelines while dealing with cases of  missing  children  and  to  work  in  coordination  with  the  concerned stakeholders and respond with urgency to issues of missing child.

For  providing  outreach  services  to  missing  children  and  needy children,  the  Ministry  of  Women  and  Child  Development  operates  Child Helpline No. 1098, which is operational 24/7. Apart from this, Railway Child lines  at  major  railway  platforms  are  also  being  operated  to  provide assistance to any needy child.

Ministry  of  Women  and  Child  Development  has  also  initiated  the 'TrackChild  Portal',  which  enables  tracking  of  the  missing  and  found children.  Under  this,  logins  have  been  provided  to  the  Police  Stations, Juvenile  Justice  Boards  and  Child  Care  Institutions  whereby  they  are required to update the information, on the portal, about missing and found children  regularly.  One  component  of  Track  Child  Portal  is  the  'KhoyaPaya',  where  any  citizen  can  report  for  any  missing  or  sighted  children without losing much time.

The TrackChild portal is also integrated with the CCTNS (Crime and Criminal  Tracking  &  Network  Systems)  of  the  Ministry  of  Home  Affairs which  allows  interoperability  in  terms  of  matching  of  F.I.Rs  of  missing children with data base of TrackChild to trace and match missing children by the concerned State/UT police.

In addition, Ministry of Home Affairs has been issuing advisories to States/UTs  to  deal  with  crime  against  children.  These  advisories  are available on MHA's website at: https://www.mha.gov.in.

*****