Parliament Question: Alarming number of missing women in Maharashtra

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3033 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18.03.2026 ALARMING NUMBER OF MISSING WOMEN IN MAHARASHTRA

3033. SMT. PRIYANKA CHATURVEDI:

Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

(a) whether Maharashtra reported 93,940 women missing over two years (128 daily), if so, nationwide implications thereof;

(b) breakup of age groups, rural-urban, trafficking suspected, family disputes, voluntary migration, deaths, traced alive, details thereof;

(c) whether NCRB maintains a consolidated "missing women" database with annual trends, outcomes tracking;

(d) coordination between police, helplines, shelters and anti-trafficking units for prompt search;

(e) accountability when the majority of women remain untraced, investigations closed prematurely; and

(f) whether the situation of 128 women disappearing from one State demands systemic overhaul, if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI SAVITRI THAKUR)

(a) to (f): ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. The responsibility to maintain law and order, protection of life and property of the citizens including investigation and prosecution of crime against women including Missing Women rests with the respective State Governments and UT Administrations; they are competent to deal with such offences under the extant provisions of laws.The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles data on missing persons as reported by States and UTs and publishes the same in its annual publication “Crime in India”. The data includes unrecovered/untraced missing persons from previous years, persons reported missing during the year, total missing persons, persons recovered/traced during the year and persons remaining untraced (including previous years). The data is available on the Bureau’s official website at

https://www.ncrb.gov.in/, under the Missing Persons chapter of the “Crime in India” publication.

The latest published data pertains to the year 2023.

NCRB maintains gender-wise data (Male, Female and Transgender) on missing persons for those above 18 years and age-group wise data for persons below 18 years. The same is published in the “Crime in India” reports. However, information on parameters such as rural-urban classification, trafficking suspected, family disputes, voluntary migration, deaths etc. is not maintained by the Bureau.

States and UTs Police can upload details of missing persons, including women and children along with photographs, in the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) application. The data is available for search to all States and UTs police and Law Enforcement Agencies through the CCTNS central search functionality.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a number of advisories to the State Governments and UT Administrations from time to time to take necessary steps for tracing missing children and for prevention of crimes against women and children. These advisories are available on the website of the Ministry of Home Affairs at www.mha. gov.in.

The Government of Maharashtra has undertaken several initiatives to trace missing women and children. Since July 2015, the annual campaign Operation Muskan has been implemented to trace missing children (both recorded and unrecorded cases). Under this campaign, 14 operations have been conducted so far during which 43,591 missing children have been traced. Recently, Operation Muskan-14 was conducted from 20.01.2026 to 20.02.2026 during which 2,398 children were traced.

Special efforts to trace missing women and girls have also been undertaken since 2025. Under this initiative, Operation Shodh-1 was conducted in three phases from 17.04.2025 to 15.05.2025 during which 5,066 missing women and 2,067 children were traced. A special search campaign for children, Operation Shodh-2, was conducted from 01.11.2025 to 15.11.2025 during which 704 missing children were traced. Further, Operation Shodh-III is currently being conducted across the State from 06.03.2026 to 21.03.2026 to trace missing women and girls. From 2012 to December 2025, out of 1,37,211 missing children in the State, 1,31,737 children (96.01%) have been traced, including 91,095 out of 95,104 missing girls (95.78%).

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