India's Missing Children: Supreme Court Orders Nationwide Data Collection and Coordinated Effort

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In a significant move to combat the rising number of missing children cases, the Supreme Court has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to appoint a nodal officer to coordinate with states and union territories for consolidating a central repository of data on missing children complaints, recoveries, and cases pending prosecution. The court's order, passed in a public interest litigation, aims to tackle the issue of inter-state crime syndicates involved in child trafficking. The Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan, directed the MHA to appoint a nodal officer within two weeks to facilitate the collection of accurate statistics on missing children and their restoration to parents or guardians. The court also ordered states and union territories to provide updated information on missing children cases for the past five years, up to December 31, 2025, and allowed six weeks for the collation of data. The court's decision comes after the Centre informed the court that it had deliberated with states and union territories on the need for each state/UT to nominate a nodal officer for the purpose of collecting data on missing children. The information is available on the Vatsalya portal operated by the Centre. The Supreme Court also directed the directorate of prosecution in each state/UT to forward details of all missing children cases pending before courts to the MHA's nodal officer. The court granted six weeks for collating all the data and posted the matter for hearing on February 10. Appreciating the progress made by states and union territories, the bench said, "Appointing nodal officers is a good development. We need to also indicate how they will go about tracking missing children." The court further directed nodal officers to be appointed in all districts for better coordination in tackling such crimes. The Supreme Court's order is a significant step towards addressing the issue of missing children in India. According to the Crime in India 2022 Report, the all-India figure of "unrecovered child victims" of kidnapping and abduction from previous years is 51,100. The court's decision aims to strengthen the existing mechanism to trace and recover missing children, and to ensure that the data collected is accurate and up-to-date.