83 per cent of missing children reunited with families: MoWCSC

As many as 3,658 children went missing during the last fiscal year 2020/21, three thousand and nine were (3,009) reunited with their families, according to the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizen. The government, in coordination with the National Centre for Children at Risk (104), searched the missing ones and reunited them with their families or close kin, said the spokesperson at the Ministry Umesh Dhungana. Meanwhile, a total of 297 stranded children, 355 street children, and 58 children involved in risky and hazardous work were rescued as well as rehabilitated during the same period, informed spokesperson Dhungana. Among the missing ones and those not found must have gone to India making it hard for the concerned officials to search and rescue, according to the Ministry.

The National Child Rights Council continues to search, rescue, and rehabilitation of the missing children and stranded ones. Those rescued ones above 13 years are being sheltered at Sober Recovery Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre and those below 13 were being housed at Bal Awaj, an organisation in Lalitpur, said the Ministry. Concerned authorities try to find the families of the rescued children while the children whose families could not be ascertained were referred to designated shelters. They are being enrolled in the school and are completely taken care of by the government’s agencies.

As of mid-July this year, altogether 1,788 stranded, missing children (1,536 boys and 252 girls) have been rescued and rehabilitated since the campaign ‘Street Children-Free Nepal’ initiated in 2016, the Ministry said. Likewise, 868 children were reunited with their families, 214 were sent for vocational and skill-based training and 59 have already entered the job market upon completing their training, shared the Ministry.

Similarly, 50 children whose families were not found have been patronage by the concerned agencies. Council’s executive director Milan Dharel said that 188 rescued children above 18 years were living off themselves.