Childhood and innocenceTo make it easier for families to trace children, a website www.missingchilsearch.net was launched in 2007 in collaboration with Unicef.
The site allows parents to upload photographs and ask for help. At present there are 47 active NGOs across India registered with the website and about 17 NGOs from AP are also registered with the website.
“This site has not got wide publicity and is not known widely. Moreover, there is no chance that a layman can upload a photo or can use the internet for that matter. Most of them approach us and we fill in the details for them. Also, Unicef has now stopped funding the site,” said Mr Kabir who works for Bala Tejasu, a city-based NGO.
Another NGO, Don Bosco Navajeevan, has had some success with the site. Eight-year-old Kedarsetti Manikanta of East Godavari district went missing from his aunt’s house in Sanathnagar in 2008.
His father Mr Rambabu approached us. “In March 2011, he came to us. We searched for him on www.missingchilsearch.net and traced the boy’s location. He was traced on March 16 in Vijayawada,” said Mr Raja Reddy of Don Bosco.
–Agencies