NEW DELHI: The Centre has set the wheels rolling to make the website for tracking missing children more user-friendly by putting up photographs projecting how they would look in the future.
The Women and Child Development Ministry, which runs the ‘Khoya Paya’ website for missing children, has roped in private experts to create a special software which will help give projections of how the children will look in a span of two years to five years.
This is being done as most children grow up very fast and when they are found, they look quite different, sources told Express. This will also help trace children who have been missing for some time and have grown up.
“The idea was mooted by Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, who found that it was a major hiccup in tracing children,” the sources said.
In India, out of all the children who go missing, 45 per cent remain untraced, according to government data.
The data shows that over 3.25 lakh children went missing between 2011 and 2014 (till June) at an average of nearly 1 lakh children going missing every year.
The “Khoya Paya” website was launched to help families trace the children, who have gone missing — often abducted for forced labour or sexual exploitation.
The portal allows parents to register details of missing children and citizens to report sightings.
The information is shared in real time with police and state authorities, who are mandated to register the complaint and investigate the case.
Several countries use such software in hopes of identifying missing children.