Mumbai, February 21 The Mumbai police achieved a 99% success rate in tracing missing children in the city last year, officials said on Saturday.
In 2025, the city police solved 2,165 out of the 2,182 cases of missing minors, reuniting the traced children with their families, they said.
So far this year, the Mumbai police have registered seven cases involving missing children aged up to five years, and have successfully traced all of them, the officials said.
To streamline investigations, the police department has classified missing minor cases into five age categories: 0-5 years, 5-10 years, 10-14 years, 14-16 years, and 16-18 years.
In 2025, about 55% of the cases involved boys, while the rest involved girls, according to officials.
They stated that 178 minors have been reported missing in Mumbai so far in 2026. Of these, 161 children, or approximately 90%, have been traced.
A total of 17 minors, including eight boys and nine girls, remain untraced. All of these missing minors fall within the age range of 16-18 years. Special teams have been deployed across the city to trace the remaining minors.
Officials said that in one case, a single child was traced and brought back home multiple times after repeatedly running away. Each time, the police registered a case as per procedure and ensured the child's safe return.
Currently, three to four dedicated teams are working in different parts of the city, a senior official said, adding that the department aims to trace the remaining 17 minors as soon as possible and reunite them safely with their families.
Earlier this month, the Mumbai police had stated that certain social media handles were misrepresenting data and engaging in rumour-mongering regarding cases of missing and kidnapped children.