Why Missing Persons in India Is a Growing Crisis
Introduction
As you all know, India is a land of diversity; a place of breathtaking beauty and stark contrasts, of profound peace and occasional chaos. So, here in this blog, we are going to talk about some dark truths about India’s missing persons: the missing parts of India.
As per official data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), on average, over 200,000 people go missing in India every year, including children, women, and men. Around 50–60% of the missing people are found, but what about the rest? Many cases go cold due to a lack of leads, poor reporting, or the involvement of human trafficking networks.
This means a significant number of people are likely victims of sinister crimes. They may have been killed, or captured for modern slavery. Imagine that you might be walking on ground where someone is buried after being brutally murdered or raped. Don’t you think they deserve the justice of at least being found?
On March 6, 2025, a group of travellers including both foreigners and locals fell victim to a horrific crime near the Tungabhadra canal. Among them were two women: a 27-year-old Israeli tourist and a 29-year-old Indian homestay owner. Both were gang-raped, and one of the male tourists was killed. The incident shook the nation and quickly became headline news.
But here’s a chilling thought: what if they hadn’t been in a group? What if it had been just one woman, traveling alone? Would this case have ever come to light, or would she have simply disappeared: raped, murdered, and buried, without a trace?
Least and Most
India has 28 states and 8 Union Territories. Among these, Maharashtra has consistently reported the highest number of missing persons in India, with figures often reaching over 30,000 to 35,000 annually. On the other end of the spectrum, states like Sikkim and Nagaland report the least number of missing person cases in India each year.
But have you ever wondered, why does Maharashtra top this list? What’s really happening behind those numbers?
Let’s investigate.
Before getting into the crimes we have to understand where these missing people end up.
The Vanishing: Where Do India’s Missing People End Up?
In every missing person’s case, hope is the first emotion. But for those who are never found, that hope is eclipsed by a grim reality. The silent crisis of India’s missing persons is not a series of isolated tragedies, it is a direct reflection of some of the darkest criminal enterprises operating in India today.
This section seeks to answer the haunting question: for the thousands who vanish without a trace, where do they end up? The answer, tragically, is in a number of devastating scenarios.
Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery
This is the single largest threat to missing persons in India, particularly for women and children. India is home to the highest number of people living in modern slavery globally, with an estimated 11 million individuals trapped in various forms of exploitation.
- Forced Labor: Men, women, and children are trafficked for bonded labor. They are forced to work in harsh conditions in brick kilns, agricultural fields, or quarries to pay off a debt that can never be truly repaid.
- Sex Trafficking: Thousands of women and girls go missing each year only to be forced into commercial sexual exploitation. They are often lured with false promises of jobs in cities and then trapped in brothels or other venues.
- Child Trafficking: Children are especially vulnerable. Data from the NCRB consistently shows that a majority of missing children are girls, many of whom are either trafficked for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, or forced begging. Organizations like CHILDLINE India have documented cases where children are abducted from public places like railway stations, never to be seen by their families again.
Forced Marriage and Organ Trafficking
While less frequent, these are two other horrifying fates that await some missing individuals.
- Forced Marriage: In some cases, young girls are kidnapped or sold into forced marriages, particularly in regions with an imbalanced gender ratio. These victims are often completely isolated from their families and communities, making them incredibly difficult to trace.
- Organ Trafficking: Though verifiable statistics are limited, official reports from the government have acknowledged cases of trafficking for organ removal. These instances are a reminder of the extreme exploitation that can occur.
The reality is that for every missing person who is found, another remains a ghost, a hidden face in a nation of a billion. To understand their stories, we must first investigate the root causes and methods behind their disappearance.
How They Vanish: The Root Causes of Disappearance
To really understand the extent and seriousness of the missing persons issue in India, we need to look past just the statistics and dig into the reasons and methods that lead to these disappearances. It’s a complicated problem, but both official reports and firsthand observations highlight a few major factors that put people at risk of going missing.
1. Exploitation and Deception by Trafficking Networks
Trafficking is a major factor contributing to a large number of disappearances in India. Criminal organizations use advanced techniques to kidnap and exploit people.
- False Promises: A common tactic is to lure victims particularly women and girls from rural areas with false promises of well-paying jobs, better education, or a new life in a city. These individuals, often driven by poverty and a desire for a better future, are easily deceived and subsequently trapped.
- Abduction and Kidnapping: As per NCRB statistics, kidnapping and abduction rank among the top reasons for people going missing, particularly women and children. These are often not random acts but are carried out by organized gangs for purposes of sexual exploitation, forced marriage, or bonded labor.
- Domestic and Inter-state Networks: Traffickers operate both within states and across state lines, making it difficult for law enforcement to track victims. Major railway stations and bus terminals often act as hotspots for these activities, where runaways and at-risk individuals are easily targeted.
2. Socio-Economic and Domestic Factors
Many individuals go missing due to deeply personal and socio-economic reasons, which often leave them vulnerable to exploitation later on.
- Poverty and Migration: A significant number of people from impoverished regions migrate to urban centers in search of work. Without strong social networks or a clear support system, they can easily get lost or fall victim to deceptive schemes. Many children and teenagers run away from home to escape abuse, poverty, or family conflicts. Reports from organizations like CHILDLINE India highlight that family disputes and physical abuse are major reasons for children leaving their homes, putting them at extreme risk.
- Lack of Awareness: A general lack of awareness about the dangers of human trafficking, combined with low literacy rates in certain regions, makes it easy for traffickers to operate without suspicion.
By looking into these root causes, we can begin to understand the true complexities of India’s missing persons crisis. But understanding the ‘how’ is only half the battle. We must now turn our attention to a more critical question: who is truly behind these disappearances, and why do they continue to operate in the shadows?
Who Hides in the Shadows?
The people involved in human trafficking and disappearances aren’t just one type. They can be anything from small local players to big, organized crime groups that work across states and even countries.
There are organized crime networks, trafficking is one of the world’s largest organized crimes, and India is no exception. These networks are highly structured, with recruiters, transporters, exploiters, and financiers. They exploit the anonymity of large cities and porous borders to move victims and clean money, making them incredibly difficult to track. The success of these networks is often enabled by corrupt officials. In some cases, corrupt law enforcement or government officials may protect traffickers and brothel owners from arrest. This kind of complicity damages public trust and creates a protective barrier for illegal activities.
Traffickers often hide their true activities. They might pretend to be legitimate job recruiters, marriage brokers, or placement agencies to earn the trust of vulnerable people and their families. They also use the anonymity of the internet and social media to locate and groom potential victims.
Why They Are Not Caught?
Even though India has strong laws on the books, their enforcement is often inconsistent. The lack of standardized procedures to identify trafficking victims means that many are arrested as criminals (e.g., for prostitution) rather than treated as survivors. Additionally, gaps in legal frameworks make it difficult to prosecute cases of enforced disappearance.
Victims are the primary source of evidence, but a lot of them are either too scared or unable to testify against their traffickers. They deal with a huge fear of retaliation, social stigma, and the trauma of having to relive their experiences. The lengthy and complicated legal process, along with the absence of victim protection programs, often discourages them from stepping forward.
Since traffickers transport victims across various states, having effective police coordination is crucial. Unfortunately, flawed and insufficient evidence can really slow down investigations, giving perpetrators a chance to slip away.
The Unheard Stories of the Vanished
After a person goes missing, their life as it was known ceases to exist. The time after they vanish is often filled with a sudden and harsh loss of freedom, replaced by a terrifying reality of exploitation and mistreatment. The story of a missing person, especially for those who are never found, is one of a life spent in the shadows, where fundamental human rights are taken away and hope fades into a distant thought.
For those who are trafficked into forced labour, life turns into a never-ending cycle of exhausting work in terrible conditions. In places like brick kilns, farms, or quarries, victims are often trapped in debt bondage, made to work long hours for little or no pay. They exist in filthy environments, lacking basic necessities like clean water or proper sanitation, and face physical violence and constant threats from their captors. These people are treated like property, with their freedom and dignity completely stripped away.
For women and girls trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation, the experience is traumatic. They suffer through unrelenting physical, sexual, and psychological violence, which leads to serious and lasting physical problems, along with mental health challenges. Survivors often talk about losing all sense of control, feeling disconnected from themselves, and struggling to trust anyone. The psychological toll is huge, with many experiencing high levels of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that can linger for years, even after they are rescued.
The true measure of this tragedy isn’t in the statistics, but in the lasting silence of those who vanish. For survivors, the journey doesn’t wrap up with being saved. They return as ghosts to a society that often meets them with stigma, their recovery a long battle against trauma and the ever-present fear of being re-trafficked. Their existence is a powerful, living testament to the crisis. This is a call not just to find the missing, but to hear the unheard.
“This is more than a crime report, it is a human tragedy unfolding silently across a nation of billions. We have given a voice to the hidden faces and their heartbreaking stories, in the hope that no one has to become a missing part of India again.”
References:
[1] https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/country-studies/india/
[2]https://www.data.gov.in/ministrydepartment/National%20Crime%20Records%20Bureau%20(NCRB
[3] https://childlineindia.org/en/about
[5] https://www.amnesty.org/en/projects/enforced-disappearance-in-south-asia/
[6]https://www.antislavery.org/impact/stories/bindu/
[9] https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1782640
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