Prateek Tanmay
Chandigarh Police traced 243 missing children during 2024, but 302 children remained untraced at the end of the year, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, which shows that less than half of the missing children on record in the Union Territory were recovered during the year.
The NCRB’s 2024 report shows that Chandigarh started the year with 327 children who had gone missing in previous years and were yet to be traced. During 2024, another 218 children were reported missing, taking the total number of missing children on police records to 545.
Of these 545 children, 243 were recovered or traced during the year, while 302 remained untraced as of December 31, 2024. The recovery rate stood at 44.6 per cent, lower than the national average of 67.1 per cent.
The data shows that girls accounted for a majority of the missing children recorded in Chandigarh. Of the 545 children on record during the year, 354 were girls and 191 were boys.
Among the children traced during 2024, 181 were girls and 62 were boys. At the end of the year, 173 girls and 129 boys remained untraced.
The NCRB data also points to a significant backlog of missing persons cases in Chandigarh across all age groups.
According to the report, 2,694 missing persons from previous years remained untraced at the beginning of 2024. Another 871 persons were reported missing during the year, taking the total number of missing persons on police records to 3,565.
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Of these, 888 persons were traced during the year, while 2,677 remained untraced at the end of 2024. The recovery rate stood at 24.9 per cent.
The data further shows that females accounted for a larger share of missing persons cases. Of the 3,565 missing persons on record during the year, 1,997 were females and 1,568 were males.
Nationally, 98,826 of the 1,47,175 missing children on record during 2024 were recovered or traced, translating into a recovery rate of 67.1 per cent.
