New Delhi: The Ministry of Women and Child Development has developed web portals “TrackChild” and “Khoya-Paya” to track the missing and found children. The TrackChild Portal is implemented in association with various stakeholders including Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ministry of Railways, State Governments/UT Administrations, Child Welfare Committees, Juvenile Justice Boards, National Legal Services Authority, etc. and the “Khoya-Paya” has been integrated as a citizen corner on TrackChild portal. As per Section 2 (14) (i) of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act), a child who is found without any home or settled place of abode and without any ostensible means of subsistence is included as a “child in need of care and protection.” The primary responsibility in execution of the JJ Act lies with the State Governments. However Central Government is executing a scheme namely ICPS (now “Child protection Services”), since 2009-10, for providing financial assistance to State Governments/UT Administrations, on sharing pattern, for execution of the Act and with the objective to create a safe and secure environment for overall development of children in need of care and protection, including destitute children. These include placement in Children Homes if there is no family to look after the said child, or sponsorship support if the child is living with family (financial support for education etc) to ensure that their education can continue in an undisturbed manner. In the CCIs, children are provided age appropriate education either within the institution or outside in a formal education system through convergence with other schemes and programs of the Government or civil society.The other programmes and activities at these CCIs inter-alia include access to vocational training, recreation, health care, counselling etc.
The number of website hits reported on TrackChild portal from 1st January, 2012 to 28th December, 2017 are 13,94,43,896. The number of children tracked/rescued with the help of such tracking system/portals so far in the country, State/UT-wise is given below:
Details based on Entry time and Date Range 01-01-2012 to 28-12-2017 for the Missing, Recovered & Matched/Traced Out Children is as follows:
| Category | Missing | Recovered | Found (Matched)/ Traced Out |
| Total | 2,80,561 | 2,02,877 | 1,73,819 |
Apart from above this Ministry is also providing support for an outreach service for children in distress. This service is available through a dedicated toll free number, 1098 and can be accessed by children in crisis or by adults on their behalf from any place in the geographical location of India. Further Ministry is also collobarating with Ministry of Railways to rescue and rehabilitate children in difficult circumstances who come in contact with Railways by setting up child help desks at platforms. Currently, CHILDLINE service is functional in 412 locations and Child Help Desk (CHD) has been set up at 33 major Railway Stations. In addition, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been prepared for tracing of missing children, and has been circulated to all the States and UTs for further dissemination to all other stake holders such as Police, Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) Juvenile Justice Baoards (JJBs) etc. This SOP lays down the uniform guidelines for expediting the search and rehabilitation of a missing child all over the country.
