13.13 lakh girls, women went missing between 2019 and 2021: Govt data
New Delhi, Jul 30: More than 13.13 lakh girls and women went missing in the country in the three years between 2019 and 2021, with Madhya Pradesh accounting for the highest at nearly two lakhs, closely followed by West Bengal.
According to the Union Home Ministry data, tabled in Parliament last week, 10,61,648 women above 18 years and 2,51,430 girls below that age went missing between 2019 and 2021 across the country.
The data was compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
In Madhya Pradesh, 1,60,180 women and 38,234 girls went missing between 2019 and 2021, according to the data provided to Parliament.
A total of 1,56,905 women and 36,606 girls went missing from West Bengal in the same period. In Maharashtra, 1,78,400 women and 13,033 girls went missing in the said period.
In Odisha, 70,222 women and 16,649 girls went missing in the three years while 49,116 women and 10,817 girls went missing from Chhattisgarh in the said period.
Among the Union Territories, Delhi recorded the highest number of missing girls and women.
In the national capital, 61,054 women and 22,919 girls went missing between 2019 and 2021 while in Jammu and Kashmir, 8,617 women and 1,148 girls went missing in the said period.
The government also informed Parliament that it has taken a number of initiatives for the safety of women across the country, which include the enactment of The Criminal Law (Amendment), Act, 2013, for effective deterrence against sexual offences.
Further, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018, was enacted to prescribe even more stringent penal provisions, including death penalty, for the rape of girls below the age of 12 years.
The Act also mandates completion of investigation and filing of charge sheets in rape cases in two months and trials to be completed in another two months.
The government has launched the Emergency Response Support System which provides a pan-India, single internationally recognized number (112) based system for all emergencies, with computer-aided dispatch of field resources to the location of distress.
Using technology to aid smart policing and safety management, Safe City Projects have been sanctioned in the first phase in eight cities -- Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai.
The home ministry launched a cybercrime reporting portal on September 20, 2018, for citizens to report obscene content.
The home ministry also launched the National Database on Sexual Offenders on September 20, 2018, to facilitate the investigation and tracking of sexual offenders across the country by law enforcement agencies.
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Trump returns from China; terms meeting with Xi as 'G-2'
Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump returned from a visit to China, describing his discussions with President Xi Jinping as a meeting of leaders of "two great countries".
Trump landed at the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on the outskirts of the US capital on Friday evening, claiming to have struck important trade deals, including one for China's purchase of 200 aircraft from Boeing, with a promise for another 750, as well as agreements benefiting the American agriculture sector.
The US President reached here after a brief refuelling stop at Anchorage in Alaska.
“It’s the two great countries. I call it the G-2. This is the G-2. I think it’ll go down as a very important moment in history,” Trump told Fox News in an interview after meeting Xi on Thursday.
The Washington Post reported that Trump’s remarks put China on an equal footing with the US, exactly what Xi had aimed to achieve with the visit.
“Over two days of meetings here, the carefully choreographed pageantry and the reciprocal gestures of friendship and respect between the world’s two most powerful men displayed a geopolitical dynamic that the Chinese have long craved and Americans had resisted," the Post said.
Trump told Fox News that the relationship with Xi was important and suggested that China may not resort to any aggressive moves over Taiwan, at least till he is in office.
“It’s not a takeover. They just don’t want to see this place — we’ll call it a place because nobody knows how to define it — but they don’t want to see it go independent,” Trump said.
“I don’t think they’ll do anything when I’m here. When I’m not here. I think they might, to be honest with you,” Trump said.
"I want them to cool down. I want China to cool down," he said.
"We're not looking to have wars, and if you kept it the way it is, I think China's going to be OK with that," he added.
The US President said he had invited Xi for a visit to Washington in September.
“Xi has done something Chinese leaders have been working toward for decades — bringing an American president to Beijing as an undisputed peer,” said Julian Gewirtz, who served as China director on the National Security Council under President Joe Biden.
“Xi used the opulent optics of the visit to make clear to the world that China and the United States are the two dominant, equally matched superpowers. There is no going back.”
Trump’s friendly statements toward Xi and the Chinese people were being amplified in China’s state-controlled media, sending the message that “we’re getting along better with the Americans,” John Delury, a senior Fellow at the Asia Society, was quoted as saying by The New York Times.
It was understandable that Trump wanted to be polite to Xi, but that the American president’s gushing approach “weakens Trump and the US”, R. Nicholas Burns, the ambassador to China during the Biden administration, was quoted as saying in The New York Times.
“Xi did not hesitate to warn Trump over Taiwan. Trump should not hesitate to be frank about our concerns, too,” he said.
Trump and Xi are expected to meet at least three times this year.
The US President has invited Xi to the White House in September.
Trump may travel to Shenzhen in China for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in November. And Xi could come to the G-20 summit in December in Miami.
“This is a summit again that was heavier on symbolism than it was on substance — focus on managing problems, not on solving the problems that exist between the US and China,” said Rush Doshi, former National Security Council deputy senior director for China and Taiwan in the Biden administration.
“The way that both leaders talked about the future indicates that this is going to be part of a process that will play out this year,” said Kurt Campbell, former deputy secretary of State in the Biden administration.
