Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
Nagpur ranked 6th in kidnapping and abduction of minors (aged below 18) cases among the 19 metropolitan cities of India in 2021. About 410 cases of kidnapping and abduction of minors were registered in Nagpur last year, of which 332 victims were girls, revealed data of National Crime Record Bureau.
The cases of kidnapping and abduction of minors decreased in Nagpur in the past three years. However, the number is still high with the population ratio. As against 536 kidnapping cases in 2019, the cases dipped to 334 in 2020 and again rose to 415 in 2021.
According to NCRB, Nagpur recorded 16.6 kidnapping rate while Mumbai saw 8.6 kidnapping rate and Pune recorded 11.3 kidnapping rate. The kidnapping rate describes the number of kidnapping cases reported to law enforcement agencies per lakh population. It means that 16.6 minors in each one lakh population are victims of kidnapping in the city.
The data stated that two children - boy (1) and girl (1) - below the age of six were kidnapped and abducted in 2021. About 19 children - boys (11) and girls (8) - between the age group of six and 12; 49 boys and 140 girls between the age group of 12 and 16; and 17 boys and 183 girls between the age group of 16 and 18 were kidnapped and abducted in Nagpur. Gender-wise, most victims were girls. About 332 girls were kidnapped while 78 victims were boys, according to the data.
Experts on the issue said that the cases of kidnapping are on the rise in Nagpur and its become difficult for police, in some cases, to trace the victims. In many cases, girls went missing with their boyfriends. Parents of most of these missing girls are daily wage workers, he said and added that proper communication with parents could resolve the issue. The police observed that the investigation in missing persons cases is very difficult, especially in the age group of 0-12 years. During investigations, the police hit a wall as there are no leads to explore and no clues to explore, he said.
Joint Commissioner of Police Aswati Dorje took an initiative to reverse the trend and organised seminars for the teenage girl living in the slums. The minor girls were given lessons about the bad touch and good touch along with cases of kidnapping cases.
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