A staggering 45,000 children go missing in India every year and of these, 11,000 are never found.

"Generally, police do not give priority to these cases and a FIR is filed only if it is a case of suspected kidnapping or abduction. Lodging FIRs will lead to accountability of the real numbers of missing persons," says Sandhya Bajaj, a member of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).

Child rights activists say say that most of the cases of missing children are being taken not very seriously because showing concern leads to accountability on the part of law enforcement agencies. Priority is given to other serious crimes.

The NCPCR has asked all the states to send data of missing children, Bajaj says and adds that, "We are working on a procedure to inquire about the progress and status of cases of missing and kidnapped children. There should be some helpline where the relatives of the missing children can call to know the progress of the case."

Civil Society Organisation (CSO) records mention that only around 10 percent of the missing cases are registered with the police.

"If law enforcement agencies have registered all the missing children cases in Nithari, then the horrifying incident would not have happened. It is the lack of political will and interest which is causing increase in missing numbers," says Ranjana Kumari, Chairman, Centre for Social Research (CSR). 

While demanding a separate wing in police to deal with these cases she says, "Police should be given special training to deal with public and it's very unfortunate that when parents lodge complaints they are not treated in the same manner as influential families are."

Navshrisiti, a member NGO of Alliance for Peoples Rights, working on child rights conducted a small survey among parents whose children have gone missing. Some families were suffering this loss for over 5 years.

The survey reveals that a majority of the missing children are girls in the age group of 12-19 years and 80 percent of these belong to marginalised communities residing in slums and resettlement colonies.

National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures also show that out of 3,500 youngsters kidnapped till June this year, 2,294 are between 12-18 years and the rest are below 12 years of age.

"Non-registration of cases is a serious problem. More missing cases are recorded with the Child Helpline as compared to the police," according to retired veteran police chief Kiran Bedi.

However, a senior Delhi police official says that they pay equal attention to all cases of missing children and many times parents don't report to police if they found their child.

"The number is much higher than the records and its a serious issue and the root cause of trafficking, child labour and begging," says Bajaj.