The Supreme Court on Friday asked the central government to draft Standard Operating Procedures to trace missing children across the country. The court noted of suggestions of NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan and asked the Ministry of Women & Child Development to integrate the functioning of websites – khoyapaya.gov.in and trackthemissingchild.gov.in – meant for tracing missing children. The bench was hearing a PIL filed by the NGO on the large number of missing children across the country.

A hundred thousand children go missing in India every year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. The apex court had earlier criticised the ministry for its casual approach towards missing children and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on it for not complying with its directions, reported the Press Trust of India.

Khoyapaya.gov.in was launched in June this year by the government, designed to let people post information about missing children, report a sighting of a missing child or search the database for information about missing children. Track the Missing Child was launched in 2008 and can be updated by two-thirds of the country’s police stations and 5,000 children’s homes, but the public cannot upload information to it.