The Supreme Court has said that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) should give special attention to children during a disaster as they were the "most vulnerable victims" of such occurences.
The court also observed that rescue of missing children and their restoration was of "considerable importance" and directed the Ministry of Women and Child Development to inform all state commissions for protection of child rights to monitor the standard operating procedures on missing kids.
"The NDMA should give special attention to children in the event of a disaster since they are the most vulnerable victims of a disaster that may strike at any time," a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said.
The bench also directed that in event of any information about trafficking or exploitation of children, "appropriate cases should be registered by the police and necessary follow up action be taken".
The court was also told that the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) does not contain any data on missing children.
"Since the NCRB is not a party in this petition, we are not inclined to issue any direction to the NCRB to publish the data on missing children. However, we request the NCRB to look into this aspect and include it in the data that is published annually by it," the bench said.
The counsel appearing for the petitioner told the court that an IT professional has developed a mobile application on facial recognition of missing children and they would take his assistance so that the government is able to make use of his expertise.
The bench listed the matter for hearing on December 7 on the issue of facial recognition of missing children.
The court was hearing a plea which has raised the issue of missing children and their exploitation.
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