A disturbing revelation from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled state came to light, thousands of women and girls have gone missing, but a vast majority of cases have remained unreported.
According to official data, over 31,000 women and girls have been reported missing out of the total 28,857 women and 2,944 girls in the state between 2021 and 2024, with an average of 28 women and three girls disappearing every day.
The data were revealed in the state assembly after Congress MLA and former home minister Bala Bachchan raised a query while flagging concern about the disturbing trend.
Alarming statistics from Ujjain
The most alarming statistics have emerged from the MP’s Ujjain city, where 676 women have gone missing in the last 34 months, but shockingly, not a single case has been registered with the authorities.
In other districts, the lack of reporting is mirrored as well, with only 724 missing cases officially registered across the state, despite the surge of disappearances.
Indore has reported the most missing women, with 2,384 cases. In Indore alone, 479 women have been missing for over a month, but only 16 cases were registered.
While the Sagar district has reported the highest number of missing girls, with 245 cases.
The lack of reporting in Ujjain and other districts suggests that many families may be hesitant to file a missing persons report either due to social stigma, fear of repercussions, or a lack of trust in the authorities.
NCRB 2023 report
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, presented by the Home Ministry in parliament in July 2023, more than 13.13 lakh girls and women went missing in the country in three years between 2019 and 2021, and most of them were from Madhya Pradesh, followed by West Bengal.
As per the data, 10,61,648 women above 18 years and 2,51,430 girls below that age went missing between 2019 and 2021 across the country.
In Madhya Pradesh alone, 1,60,180 women and 38,234 girls went missing between 2019 and 2021.
The government also informed Parliament that it has taken some initiatives for the safety of women across the country, which include the enactment of The Criminal Law (Amendment), Act, 2013, for effective deterrence against sexual offences.
The government has launched the Emergency Response Support System, which provides a pan-India, single internationally recognized number (112)- based system for all emergencies, with computer-aided dispatch of field resources to the location of distress.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Sayima Ahmad | 
