Every 90 minutes, one child is vanished; the rise of missing child in Delhi
In broad daylight, while a mother was busy with household chores, something went terribly wrong. Her 5-year-old daughter, who had been playing just outside the gate, vanished. With every passing minute, panic tightened its grip. The sun began to set, yet there was no trace of the child. Her husband rushed to the nearest police station to file a complaint. The girl was last seen at 4:30 pm. CCTV footage later revealed that she had been taken away by a neighbour, Pintu, who was arrested within an hour. He confessed to kidnapping and strangling her, though the full nature of the crime remains under scrutiny.
This is not an isolated horror. It is one among countless stories of child kidnapping in Delhi, stories that no longer shock because missing children have become routine headlines in a metropolitan city where tragedies compete for attention amid relentless chaos.
The horror behind the numbers
While this particular child was reunited with her parents, the larger reality remains far more disturbing. Cases of missing children are often relegated to the margins of newspapers, struggling to find space among political scandals and celebrity news. According to data released by the Delhi Police on 9 July 2025, the scale of the crisis is alarming. By June 2025, a total of 8,971 children had been reported missing in the capital, over 5,000 of them girls. Law enforcement managed to trace 4,544 children, but 4,427 remain unaccounted for.
In stark terms, this means one child disappears every 90 minutes in Delhi. The most vulnerable age group is between 12 and 18 years. The gap between registered complaints and unresolved cases is deeply concerning because every missing entry represents a child whose fate is unknown, whose safety hangs in the balance, and whose family lives in unending uncertainty.
Understanding why children disappear
Rather than focusing solely on blaming investigative agencies or expressing outrage over rising numbers, it is imperative to examine why children go missing in the first place. The reasons are complex but disturbingly consistent. Children are kidnapped to meet ransom demands; trafficked by relatives or acquaintances for sexual exploitation and prostitution; forced to flee homes due to emotional, academic, or economic pressure; or lured away by the promise of employment.
Adolescent girls between 12 and 18 are especially vulnerable. Puberty, emotional transitions, and a desire for independence make them easy targets for manipulation. Fraudsters exploit their need for affection or financial security. Numerous cases reveal how boyfriends sexually exploit young girls and later sell them into trafficking networks in major cities. Others leave home chasing the illusion of a dream job, unaware of the dangers that await them. When the causes are evident, the solution must go beyond reaction, it must begin with education.
The first line of defence: awareness
A report by The Guardian highlights Sealdah Railway Station in West Bengal as one of India’s busiest transit points. Families often sleep on platforms while waiting for delayed trains. In those vulnerable hours, children slip away unnoticed. By morning, traces vanish, erased by well-organised trafficking networks. At the same time, thousands of children arrive alone at railway stations every night, driven by poverty, desperation, and false hopes of employment, unaware of the risks awaiting them.
Children under the age of 12 face different but equally horrifying threats. Incidents of newborns being stolen from hospitals, often due to a preference for male children, continue to surface. States such as Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh remain major trafficking hubs. When questioned, families often admit a painful truth: they simply did not know.
Girls are lured with promises of jobs, money, or relationships, and in the absence of awareness, they comply without understanding the consequences. This lack of education condemns both children and their parents to years of suffering. When trafficking crosses state borders, investigations become slower and more complicated, allowing perpetrators to escape justice while families wait endlessly for answers.
The crisis of missing children is not just a failure of policing; it is a failure of society. Until awareness reaches every household, until education equips children to recognise danger, and until communities remain vigilant, the numbers will continue to rise.
