MISSING, EVEN THEIR PHOTOS

Cops do not have photos of nearly 40%of the kids gone missing in the city; children cell does not have sketch artistand tracing them is difficult without this vital clue
Thirteen-year-old Devi went missing when she went to beg at Subhash Bridge. After seven days her father Manojbhai Somajibhai from Nut commu nity lodged an FIR at Sabarmati police station, but as he did not have any picture of his daughter, he could provide only the physical description.

Six-week-old Vikas went missing with his mother and despite repeated attempts, they remain untraceable. FIR was lodged at Ellisbridge police station but in this case, too, the family could not provide any picture of the child.
These two cases only represent the tip of the iceberg.
The data published by National Crime Records Bureau place Ahmedabad third on the list of cities, after Delhi and Bangalore, with the highest number of cases of children gone missing. In 2013, as many as 344 children were went missing from the city.
More shockingly, in 38 per cent of the cases, the families concerned did not have photographs of the children which could help in better investigation and tracing them. Further, the police do not have the requisite infrastructure to make credible sketches of missing children for more efficient search.
The website of CID (crime), Gujarat, reports that 331 children went missing in Ahmedabad between 2007 and 2013. Of these, 126 do not have photographs. Sadly, no initiative has been taken by the police to make sketches of these children and this is hindering the efficient rescue operation, claim child rights activists.
“Without a photograph how can anyone track children? It is a crucial source of information. Due to poor financial background, these children don't have any identity proofs and photographs,“ said Rajesh Solanki of city-based rights organization, Dalit Hak Rakshak Manch.
Agreeing with the fact that sketches would be helpful in cracking such cases, K Modi, Crime Branch inspector, told Mirror that like in cases of rape, murder and robbery where they make sketches of the accused if pictures are unavailable, they would do the same in the incidents of missing children.
Enquiries with police stations revealed that no police station had artists to make sketches, specifically for these children. When this correspondent spoke to a few police officials, they blamed it on the lack of fund.
Echoing the same, Solanki said, “A senior officer from CID crime confessed there was no fund for the same. When I ana lysed the budget allocation, I did not find any allocation since 2003.“
To know the details of fund, he filed an RTI application in July at the missing cell. Instead of replying to his application, the cell forwarded it the inspector of Crime Branch. After two months of wait, Solanki received the response on Saturday, confirming his findings on the lack of budgetary allocation.
When Anil Pratham, IGP, CID Crime was asked for the reason for not taking initiative to provide sketches of these children o the website, he said, “Most parents who come to register complaints don't have photographs. But in some case we do ask artists to make sketches. In fact, like other cases we have a plan to create a database of sketches of missing children which would be helpful to us.“
Incidentally, within the state, Jamnagar police does not the have photographs of any of its 36 missing children, Kutch has photographs of only 18 per cent children and Surat 60 per cent.