New Delhi (Gurpreet Singh): The Supreme Court of India has issued a notice to the Central Government, demanding a comprehensive response following a deeply concerning report highlighting that 1.47 lakh children are currently missing across the country. The top court expressed severe anxiety over data suggesting a growing, illicit nexus between unregulated commercial surrogacy networks and inter-state child trafficking syndicates.
A Bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and R. Mahadevan noted that significant systemic gaps in coordination between various state and central law enforcement agencies have allowed organised trafficking networks to exploit vulnerable minors. The court emphasized that a substantial number of these missing children fall prey to commercial exploitation, prompting a demand for immediate structural reforms from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
To curb the tracking failures that allow child trafficking to persist, the Supreme Court issued a series of binding interim directives. Police stations nationwide are now legally mandated to register a First Information Report (FIR) under the kidnapping and trafficking provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, the absolute moment a child or missing person report is received, completely bypassing preliminary inquiries. Law enforcement agencies must operate under the legal presumption of kidnapping or abduction from the very outset of an investigation to ensure rapid mobilization.
Furthermore, the Bench ordered the central government to establish a unified, all-India digital grid connecting every police station onto a single platform featuring a specialized portal dedicated to tracking human trafficking, missing women, and children. State governments have also been given a strict four-week deadline to ensure all Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) are made fully functional and equipped.
Addressing the rehabilitation side, the court directed that recovered children must be reunited with verified families within 24 hours of rescue. However, the Bench added a critical caveat: mechanical restoration will be withheld if family members or guardians are suspected of being complicit in the sale or trafficking of the minor. In such instances, the immediate custody and protection of the child will vest entirely with state-run Child Welfare Committees. To streamline long-term tracking, the court directed authorities to utilize biometrics and cross-reference rescue data with national portal systems to quickly establish the true identity of recovered minors.
