Delhi HC seeks ministry officials’ reply on plea regarding difficulty in tracing missing kids

The Delhi High Court (HC) has directed the additional secretary and joint secretary of the ministry of women and child development (MWCD) to be present through telepresence after the court was informed that parents were facing difficulties in tracing missing children using the ministry’s portal, which was started for this sole purpose.

A bench of justice Hima Kohli and justice Manoj Ohri also directed MWCD to file an affidavit within two weeks indicating the manner in which it proposes to carve out zones across India and then designate directors as nodal officers for each zone to track missing children.

The court was hearing a plea regarding missing children in which it has been examining ways and means to address the issue of tracing them and returning them to families.

On Friday, appearing for the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), advocate Prabhsahay Kaur informed the court that in a meeting on March 28, held in pursuance to the directions of the high court, several problems were pointed out with regard to the MWCD’s portal — www.trackthemissingchild.gov.in.

She also told the court that the ministry submitted during the meeting the data on 10, 617 children who have been matched with missing cases across the country using the facial recognition software (FRS).

However, of them, the identities of only 3,202 children have been verified as they are lodged at various child care institutions in different states.

Of the 3,202 children, only 127 have been traced but even they have not been restored to their parents.

Following this, the court came down heavily on the ministry and said, “It is a matter of grave concern that apart from the above 3,202 children whose faces have been verified, there still remain 6,415 children, whose faces are yet to be matched and verified. The MWCD must address this aspect and respond by filing an affidavit within two weeks.”

The court directed that the secretaries be available for proceedings through the telepresence facility on May 9 at 3.30pm.

The court said that using this facility will ensure that not only the stakeholders are present with their counsels, but even officials can are available for direct interactions.