16 missing children found dead in two years in Nepal

Source: Xinhua | 05-13-2009 13:34

KATHMANDU, May 13 (Xinhua) -- As many as 16 of the 4,871 children who had gone missing in the last two years were found dead, according to government statistics.

Of those who had gone missing 3,093 were later found and 1,778 are still missing from years 2006 onward, The Kathmandu Post reported on Wednesday.

"However, the actual number of those still missing could be lower because parents may not have reported to the authorities after children were found," said Laxmi Tripathi, of the Ministry of Women Children and Social Welfare.

Of the 16 who were found dead, five of them had been sexually molested, says data prepared by the National Center for Children at Risk, a government body under the ministry. Nine of them were found dead in 2006/07 and seven in 2007/08.

While the number of children that went missing in 2006/2007 stood at 2,982, the number of missing in the 2007/2008 stood at 1,889.

In the capital Kathmandu Valley alone, 2,129 went missing in 2006/07 and 1,423 were reported missing in 2007/2008. However, more than 80 percent of these children were eventually found.

There have been cases of lost children being found in India but the extent of this is not known.

Editor:Zhang Yun