According to official statistics analyzed by News18, at least 39 women—including minors—go missing in India every day, with 13 of them coming from Odisha alone. As of the conclusion of the 2017 calendar year, there were 1.60 lakh missing women who had not been found or recovered. By the end of 2022, it had increased by over 1.5 times to 2.31 lakh.
Data from the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) annual report “Crime In India” shows that a total of 70,549 women—including minors—have been put on the list of “missing persons” and are still unaccounted for.
News18’s analysis of the data reveals that the increase in missing women was greater among adults. 67,476 of the 70,549 women who vanished between 2017 and 2022 were older than 18, while 3,073 were younger. According to the data from that year, 1.29 lakh adult women were missing at the end of 2017, and by 2022, that number had risen to 1.97 lakh. During the same period, there were 33,798 more minor females than there were 30,725 earlier.
The research also shows that this increase is stable, with the number rising year between 2017 and 2022. Between 2017 and 2022, 14.41 lakh women—including minors—went missing, and 13.84 lakh of them were found. At least 24,715 women and girls in Odisha have gone missing and are still unaccounted for throughout this time. According to the 2017 data, 2,668 women in Odisha went missing and were never found. By 2022, that figure had climbed by more than ten times, reaching 27,383.
Taking second place with 10,162 more missing women was Madhya Pradesh. In Madhya Pradesh, the number of unaccounted-for missing women has increased from 25,597 in 2017 to 35,759 in 2022. Also, the state ranked second for the overall number of missing women. When it came to the overall number of missing women, West Bengal ranked top in both 2017 and 2022 with 33,083 and 38,848 respectively.
Maharashtra, however, has experienced an increase in population. The state’s overall number of missing women decreased from 27,949 in 2017 to 23,342 in 2022. Maharashtra was the state with the second-highest percentage of missing women in 2017, however by 2022, it was ranked fourth. The figures have similarly decreased in Telangana, from 3,031 to 1,653. Odisha had the third-highest number of unaccounted-for missing women as of 2022.
The NCRB gathers information from Indian states and union territories. 3.83 lakh persons are missing in the nation, according to the most recent report on the 2022 statistics, which was released in December 2023. Among them are 1.52 lakh men and 21 transgender people. Women make up the majority of those on this list, including minors. In all, 2.97 lakh people were reported missing in the nation in 2017—of whom 1.37 lakh were male and 163 were transgender.
