By Our Correspondent, Bhairahawa, Apr. 4: The data provided by Rupandehi District Police Office shows that 106 children went missing in the past eight months from the district. Of these, 72 have been found.

Since the beginning of the fiscal year 2020/21, missing complaints of 92 girls and 14 boys have been reported in the police stations across the district.

According to the district police, missing complaints of 207 children (141 girls and 66 boys) were recorded in 2018/19 and 229 (137 girls and 92 boys) in 2019/20. Of these, 195 and 192 children were found in those years respectively.

“In most of the cases, the children leave the houses on their whims, without informing their parents,” said Bhimarjun Adhikari, Chief at the Women and Children Help Centre of the Rupandehi District Police.

When a family files a missing complaint at the nearby police station, authorities and families start searching on their own, using the available resources. While some are found right away; others only after quite a while.

“However, even when the family find their children, they normally don’t inform the police, which is why information ‘child found’ don’t get updated,” said Adhikari.

“If the missing child is not found right away, chances are that s/he may have been trafficked. Many such children have been rescued time and again in the past,” said Nabin Joshi, an officer-involved in rescuing Nepali children from India.

As the Nepal-India border is porous, children can cross the border unhindered at any time. Concerned stakeholders have demanded stringent measures, including surveillance, in border area if the country is to witness less number of missing children.