KATHMANDU: A 15-year-old girl left her house in Sarlahi and lost contact after a quarrel with her parents. After searching for neighbors, relatives, and friends, the parents informed Maiti Nepal and the police. A month later, she was found in Pune, India.
Bina Sapkota, 21, of Chitwan has been missing since July 30. Studying in London, she came home on vacation. I was preparing to return in a few days. She left home at 4:30 pm and did not return. 'Who says where we saw, who says where. We have searched everywhere, while searching, we collide with the police and the administration. The daughter has not been found anywhere, 'said her father Jayeshwar.
According to the police, an average of 22 women, adolescents, and girls have been missing in recent times. About 10 of them are found. More than half are on the police's missing list. From the fiscal year, 2074/07 to mid-June 2077/78, 27,433 women, adolescents, and girls across the country went missing. Of them, only 10,962 have been found. The number of missing is increasing every year. Of the 5,981 people who went missing in the fiscal year 2076/77, 7,561 went missing in the first 11 months of last year.
According to Nepal Police Spokesperson Basanta Bahadur Kunwar, the number of missing women, adolescents and girls are increasing due to their involvement in criminal activities such as trafficking, trafficking, family mismatch, love affair, and misuse of social media. Some who are lost are found dead. A 22-year-old girl from Dhading is an example of this. The body of Roka was found 10 days later in a forest near her house. Sujita Bhandari, 23, of Chitwan was found dead in the forest nine days later.
When someone goes missing, the family calls the police. The police collect the photo, identity card, and address of the missing person and send the information to all the districts and borders. According to the police, those who are involved in criminal activities and do not want to come in contact with their families are not easily found. The family did not inform the police when they were found. The police do not have a follow-up mechanism. "Due to lack of resources, we have little practice of follow-up and updating. Even if a missing person is found dead, the data is not updated. Due to this, the number of missing persons is high," said police spokesperson Kunwar. He claimed that the police headquarters was working sensitively to make the data collection and updating work effective at the grassroots level.
According to the police, teenagers and girls are being smuggled to India to work in the entertainment sector. On Monday alone, a joint team of Parsa Police and Maiti Nepal Birgunj Periodical Home rescued and returned four young women who were hired to dance in an orchestra in India. One of the four was already dancing in an orchestra in India. She had taken the two to India saying that she would get attractive money.
According to Khadka, executive director of Maiti Nepal, women and girls from weak and poor families are more likely to be lost. Women and girls are more likely to be missing than men, and women and children are less likely to be found. In the last three years, 27,433 women and 39.95 percent of the missing girls have been found. During the same period, 11,642 men and children were missing and 40.15 percent were found.
Manju Gurung, strategic advisor and former chairperson of Paurkhi Nepal, an organization of returnees from foreign employment, says that there are many reasons for missing more women and girls. "If you are lost in foreign employment, you may leave the company you are working for, become addicted, not be able to meet the needs of your family when you do not earn as much as expected, and may not be in touch with your family during treatment in serious accidents," she said. It has also been found that women and girls are used in the field of entertainment and pornography. She said that along with poverty, socially, economically, culturally, politically and traditionally discriminatory subcultures are also missing and missing women and girls from weaker sections, castes, and communities.
