The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed deep concern over a news report claiming that a child goes missing in India every eight minutes, calling the issue “serious” and urging the Centre to strengthen mechanisms for tracing missing children and regulating adoption.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and R Mahadevan made the remarks while hearing a petition concerning unresolved cases of missing and trafficked minors. Justice Nagarathna noted, “I have read in a newspaper that every eight minutes, a child goes missing in the country. I don’t know if this is true or not. But this is a serious issue,” adding that the complexity of India’s adoption system often pushes people toward illegal alternatives.
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Union government, sought six weeks’ time to appoint a nodal officer who would handle missing children cases. The bench refused the request and directed that the appointment be completed by December 9.
The court recalled its October 14 order directing the Centre to instruct all States and Union Territories to depute nodal officers for missing children cases and provide their names and contact details for publication on the Ministry of Women and Child Development’s Mission Vatsalya portal.
It had earlier mandated that any complaint received on the portal must be automatically shared with the respective state nodal officer to ensure immediate action.
The bench also reiterated its earlier observation that the absence of coordination between police authorities in States and Union Territories hampers the tracing of missing children. It had advised the creation of a dedicated online portal under the Ministry of Home Affairs, with each state appointing an officer responsible for handling missing child complaints and disseminating information.
The matter stems from a petition filed by NGO Guria Swayam Sevi Sansthan, which flagged widespread gaps in the investigation of kidnapping and missing children cases. The NGO cited five instances from Uttar Pradesh last year where minors were allegedly kidnapped and trafficked by networks of middlemen to states including Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
The court has been monitoring the issue and directing systemic reforms aimed at improving inter-agency coordination, data sharing, and transparency in adoption and child protection mechanisms.
