"Thirty-one children have gone missing from six districts of Kanpur mandal while 21 children have been missing from three districts of Jhansi mandal since January 1 this year," Ashutosh Pandey, IG Kanpur said.
Calling the issue of missing children a grave concern, Pandey wrote a letter to police officers yesterday asking them to investigate cases of missing children and submit a detailed report by July 5.
Urging officers to be sensitive while investigating these cases, Pandey said increased attention must be paid to find the missing children.
While many children willingly leave their homes, the issues such as extortion of children for money, child trafficking, sexual exploitation of girls cannot be overlooked, he said.