The Himachal Pradesh Police under a special campaign in March has traced 214 missing women and children.

An official spokesperson said here on Monday that missing persons especially women and children are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, hence steps are being taken to recover them.

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As per the directions of Director General of Police, Sanjay Kundu a special campaign was launched by HP police during March, 2023 in the state to trace missing women and children, and during the special campaign, all out efforts were made by the police to trace missing women and children, he said, adding that special teams of police personnel were constituted for the purpose.

Of the 214 traced missing persons, 33 were children, 181 females, he said.

According to the police data there was a backlog of 1117 persons missing including 30 children and 989, till 1 March this year and 173 persons (30 children and 143 women) alone were reported missing during the month of March, 2023, taking the tally of missing persons to 1290 (children 158 and women 1032).

As police during March had managed to trace 214 persons,  1076 (125 children and 951 women) still remain untraced.

The most populous district Kangra in Himachal Pradesh witnessed the highest number of women missing till 31 March which included 324 women and so far 22 women have been traced, while 302 continue to be untraced.

The district also witnessed the highest number of children 39 missing and 4 children have been traced in the month of March, whereas 35 children still are untraced.

Whereas the least populous Lahaul and Spiti had recorded the lowest number of missing persons backlog only 3 women, while there were no children missing. However, they have still not been traced.

According to police the reasons for the persons having gone missing were found to be social media interactions, distress in personal life and family environment, married women not able to adjust with in-laws, neglected childhood, love affairs and for economic reasons and better lifestyle.