Between January 1 and 15, 2026, Delhi recorded 807 missing persons cases—an average of nearly 54 people disappearing every single day. Of these, 509 were women and girls, while 298 were men, underscoring a stark gender imbalance. Alarmingly, minors accounted for a significant share of the total, with adolescent girls forming the most vulnerable subgroup. Even within the first fortnight of the year, the scale and composition of these figures point to a persistent and complex challenge confronting the national capital.
What the Numbers Say: Patterns Over Time
Delhi Police data shows that the early 2026 figures are not an aberration but part of a long-running trend. In 2025, a total of 24,508 missing cases were registered across the city. Women and girls constituted about 61 per cent of these cases, while children made up nearly one-fourth. Among minors, teenage girls dominated the statistics, reflecting heightened exposure to trafficking, coercion, and domestic stress.
Looking back further, 2024 recorded close to 23,800 missing persons cases, again with women forming the majority. Over the past decade (2016–2025), Delhi has logged more than 2.5 lakh missing cases. Although around 70 per cent were eventually traced, over 50,000 cases remain unresolved, accumulating year after year. The steady rise has been linked to rapid urban migration, socio-economic precarity, and Delhi’s role as a transit hub for inter-state movement.
Why Women and Adolescents Are Most at Risk
Analysts point to multiple drivers behind the skewed demographics. Women and girls are disproportionately affected due to factors such as trafficking networks, forced or impulsive elopements, domestic violence, and economic vulnerability. Teenagers, particularly girls aged 12 to 18, often leave home following family conflict, peer influence, or abuse, making them susceptible to exploitation. Districts with dense migrant populations, especially in outer and peripheral zones, consistently report higher numbers of untraced cases.
Delhi Police Strategy: Technology Meets Ground Policing
To counter the challenge, Delhi Police has adopted a layered response combining technology, field operations, and community engagement. A cornerstone of this effort is the ZIPNET portal, an inter-state digital platform that integrates missing persons data with unidentified bodies and recovered individuals across multiple states. Facial recognition tools linked to CCTV networks at transport hubs further assist in real-time identification.
Special drives such as Operation Milap focus on door-to-door verification, photo circulation at public places, and coordination with shelters and hospitals. Police stations are instructed to register missing complaints promptly, often within hours, rather than waiting the earlier mandatory 24-hour period. Community policing initiatives and school-level awareness programmes also aim to reduce delays in reporting and improve early intervention.
An Urgent Call for Scale and Sensitivity
While Delhi Police has achieved moderate success in tracing a majority of missing persons each year, the sheer volume of cases—particularly involving women and children—signals a deeper urban safety and social protection deficit. Technology and policing can only go so far without parallel investments in prevention, rehabilitation, and inter-state coordination. As 2026 begins on such a grim statistical note, the challenge for policymakers is not just to trace the missing, but to address why so many continue to disappear from India’s capital in the first place.
(With agency inputs)
