A Criminologist’s Diary-16

MISSING CHILDREN and THEIR FATE

In WALL-MART store at Dallas, I found a Board which contains two dozen photos of children from five years to fifteen years of age exhibited under a caption MISSING. I made an enquiry about the what, why and how of the MISSING and I thought that it was put by the police just like they publish the photographs of missing persons including children in railway stations, bus stands, newspapers and television networks. I was told that they were the photographs of the MISSING children from the WALL-MART store there. The parents go there with children and they are found to be deeply immersed in looking for items to be purchased by them. They may forget their children for a moment and the children may go here and there. Sometimes, the kidnappers of children cast their net and see to it that the children are kidnapped. Occasionally, they are found to be MISSING owing to other reasons as well.

At Thiruvananthapuram, when I visited a Mall, I was told by the employees there that sometimes, children would be found MISSING there too. The story was almost the same as we heard in the WALL-MART store at Dallas. People may be alike in all countries and cultures. The human nature may be the same everywhere down the millennia. But, most unfortunately we read in newspapers and listen in T.V. telecasts that the children kidnapped by beggars disfigure them for the purpose of begging. There is a Malayalam movie ' Kakoothikavile Appoppanthadikal" in which a similar story is depicted. When I saw it years ago, I thought that it was only a fiction. But the news appearing in these days confirm the saying (cliché in fact) that 'facts are stranger than fiction'.

What happened to that child in Alappuzha,Kerala ? His case was investigated by the C.B.I. for a long time. Nothing is certain and nothing is proved! Are the kidnappers of children an organized group? For what purpose do they abuse or misuse our children? The number of children who is found RUNNING AWAY from their homes, schools etc. too is on the increase! The number of young girls kidnapped too is incredibly high. Girls of tender age elope with their lovers or fake lovers or go with people who promise them employment, chance to act in films, T.V. serials, song albums, modeling, anchoring etc. too is found to be on the upward trend. Although the girls thus kidnapped, promised employment are seen sometimes in brothels, found dead and their dead bodies thrown as anonymous, abused for blue film production and other pervert sex works in sex industry. The boys are seen sometimes among the pickpockets, hooch producers, and illicit traffickers of girls, carriers of drugs and among those involved in all other sorts of nefarious activities. Are our parents aware of these evils and do they take appropriate steps to check the problem? Do they need information and if so, what do the education, police, N.G.Os and the Governments do in this regard? Think about it and think about it loudly.