Bhubaneswar: More than 6,000 children went missing in Odisha in 2024, with girls accounting for an overwhelming 87% of the cases, according to Crime in India-2024 report, released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on Thursday. Across the country, a total of 98,375 children were reported missing in 2024.The report revealed that 6,223 children below 18 years of age went missing in the state during 2024, marking a 4.8% increase from 5,938 in 2023. The figures point to a worrying long-term trend, as the number of missing children has more than doubled over the last five years.The NCRB data showed that Odisha recorded 2,899 missing children in 2020. Since then, the number has risen by 114.6%, reflecting a steady increase in cases every year. The data further indicated that adolescent girls consistently formed the majority of missing children.The report further stated that 7,272 children remained untraced in Odisha in 2023. Taken together with the fresh cases reported in 2024, the total number of missing and untraced children stood at 13,495 during the year. Of them, authorities were able to rescue 3,566 children in 2024.Interestingly, officials managed to trace more boys than girls.Child protection experts said adolescent girls have traditionally been particularly vulnerable to trafficking, forced marriage, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude and migration-related risks.The issue of missing children was raised in the assembly in March, with chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi informing the House that the state witnessed a significant rise in such cases over the past two years. The data presented by him showed that 6,838 children were reported missing in 2024, a figure that rose to 8,206 in 2025. While rescue operations helped trace 5,942 children in 2024, the number stood at 6,036 in 2025.Experts attributed the increase partly to better registration of complaints, digitised tracking systems and greater public awareness. However, child rights activists said the figures also reflected continuing concerns related to trafficking, child labour, forced marriage, sexual exploitation and migration.“There are two sides to this coin. One, if the numbers are rising every year, it points to gaps in surveillance and rescue drives. Special operations are being carried out to rescue children, but why are children going missing in the first place? Second, there has been a rise in elopement cases among adolescents, and social media is driving it,” said Benudhar Senapati, a child rights activist working on rescue and rehabilitation issues.The govt’s standard operating procedure for missing children states that upon receiving information about a missing minor, police must register an FIR under Section 137 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita after a preliminary probe. The data for 2024 also showed that 6,815 children were reported kidnapped during the year, of whom 6,208 were girls in the 16-18 age group.
