West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu Reported Maximum Child Missing Incidents In 2023: NCRB
Traffickers often exploit the vulnerabilities of people by making false job promises, offering better living conditions and support to their families, etc., states the report.
Published : October 4, 2025 at 8:01 PM IST
New Delhi: The recently released data by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that West Bengal registered the maximum number of missing children below 18 years in 2023, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, contributing to a 9.5% rise nationally. A total of 91,296 children, including 22,460 males, 68,835 females and 1 transgender, were reported missing in 2023 from across the country, against 83,350 in 2022.
The data reflects that as many as 14,667 children went missing in West Bengal in 2023, followed by 12,091 in Madhya Pradesh and 7,826 in Tamil Nadu.
However, the nationwide recovery rate of such missing children stands at 65.9% with Kerala topping the list at 95.9%, followed by Andhra Pradesh at 85.7%, Tamil Nadu at 80.3% and Madhya Pradesh at 69.8%. According to NCRB, against a total number of 2,352 missing children in Kerala in 2023, as many as 2,369 have been recovered, which reflects that several of the unreported missing children have also been traced.
In Andhra Pradesh, as many as 4,331 missing children have been recovered against a total number of 4,433, while 8,233 children have been recovered in Tamil Nadu against a total of 7,826 missing children in 2023. The recovery data also includes children who went missing in the previous year.
Similarly, 2,183 cases of human trafficking were registered in 2023 as compared to 2,250 cases in 2022, registering a decline of 3%. A total of 6,288 victims have been reported to be trafficked in 2012, including 2,687 children and 3,601 adults.
The report shows traffickers often exploit the vulnerabilities of people by making false promises of a new job, better living conditions and support to their families, etc. "Such promises may appear legitimate to people, but they make many men, women and children easy prey for exploitation," the report states.
To strengthen the law enforcement response against trafficking in persons, the Ministry of Home Affairs has released funds to the states and UTs from time to time for setting up Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) in all districts. "They are tasked with investigating human trafficking cases and building up databases on such cases, including those of criminals involved. Rs 100 crore from the Nirbhaya fund has been allocated for setting up new AHTUs and for strengthening existing AHTUs. As per data provided by states and UTs, 815 AHTUs are functional so far, and 20 states and UTs have achieved their target of setting up AHTUs in all districts," the report mentions.
As many as 2,183 cases of human trafficking have been registered by AHTUs of states and UTs in 2023, with Maharashtra topping the list (388 cases), followed by Telangana (336 cases) and Odisha (162 cases).
A total of 2,687 victims below 18 years have been trafficked in 2023, whereas 3,601 victims have been trafficked during the same year.
Interestingly, 6,043 victims have been rescued by the law enforcement agencies in 2023, and 2,580 victims below 18, including 1,619 male and 961 female, have been rescued in 2023, whereas 3,463 victims above 18 have been rescued during the same period.
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