The National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday issued a notice to the Tamil Nadu government in connection with reports of the rising number of incidents of missing children in the state. It was reported last week that on average, at least five children go missing every day in Tamil Nadu. Statistics from the State Crime Record Bureau show that 656 children up to 15 years of age went missing from Tamil Nadu in 2015, compared with 441 in 2014.

Data from the National Tracking System for Missing and Vulnerable Children, which functions under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, revealed that 260 children were already reported missing this year, and the police had rescued only a third of them, The Times of India reported. In the past month, 171 children were reported missing, with only 55 of them traced by the police.