Every year over 3000 children go missing in Pakistan, but recent acts of extreme violence against children have led the government to consider innovative measures. During a cabinet meeting, the prime minister instructed to develop a mobile app to address complaints against missing children on a priority basis.
The ‘Mera Bacha Alert’ app would help trace cases of child abduction and missing children. The data once entered would be directly transferred to the police, and any progress including a child’s recovery can be monitored. There have been several incidents that challenge notions that our society is unsafe for children, but the red flags are often ignored forcing us to reconsider the ugly truths once again.
Despite technological advancements, reporting and investigating missing children remains an arduous task. There are very few resources allocated to locate missing children. The lack of coordination between law enforcement agencies is the biggest hurdle to the recovery of children. The new app will end this hindrance.
Currently, there is no database or website where parents can report missing children. In European societies, missing children are reported to child protection societies and a profile is promptly drawn. In Pakistan, there is a child protection and welfare bureau in every major city tasked with the reunification of children but remains ineffective and even a regular meeting is seldom held.
It is the state’s responsibility to recover missing children and punish the perpetrators, but there is also a need to identify the reasons why children go missing. Runaways constitute the largest portion of missing who escape strict parent control and a repressive environment at school. They are often abducted by criminal groups to be exploited for financial gain, while many fall prey to horrific sex trafficking.
Families should realise that children have psychological needs and need attention. They should be made aware of the child’s whereabouts and ensure that an adult accompanies them in public. The state must also ensure that social services are more responsive to the needs of children.
Minor victims suffer from long-lasting physical and psychological trauma. There is a need to identify risk factors if a child is being targeted. Educational institutions and families must provide tools to children to ensure safety and prevent such abductions. Parents should a foster a relationship with their child that ensures communication and confidence sharing.
In a child does go missing, then it should be reported immediately as the first 24 hours are the most crucial. There is a need to disseminate missing child posters to targeted areas to help generate leads and engage the public in their search; society plays an important role in such circumstances.
For long-term cases in which a child has been missing for two years or more, there is a need for age progressions to decipher what their faces might look like today and increase the likelihood of recognition. These cases should be publicised on local media through anniversaries of a child’s disappearance to keep the case prominent. Law enforcement agencies should be trained to recover missing children urgently as a delay shows misplaced priorities.
