KARACHI – A survey has revealed that 3,090 children reportedly went missing in Karachi in the year 2010. Child and women rights NGO, Roshni Helpline, said in its annual report out of these missing children, 2,472 (80 percent) were boys and 618 (20 percent) were girls.
“If children are out of touch with their family or guardians, we define them as missing,” said Muhammad Ali, president of the Roshni Helpline. “Everyone below the age of 18 is internationally defined as a child,” he added.
The report is compiled on reports gathered from 100 police stations in 18 towns of the city.
The majority of the missing children – 78 percent – belonged to the age group between 12 and 18, while remaining 22 percent are below 12 years of age.
About 34 percent of the missing children were studying in formal schools or madrassas, 30 percent were only students of madrassas while the remaining 26 percent had dropped out of schools or madrassas.
In many of these cases, the parents or guardians had reported the missing children to the Roshni Helpline, which helped them in lodging these cases at the police stations.
The rate of recovery of the missing children remained two percent. In some cases children have been recovered after a month
3,090 children went missing in city in 2010: survey
