In a 2017 op-ed titled “ Why Do So Many Indian Children Go Missing? ”, reporter Sonia Faleiro wrote, “Several factors account for the disap...
In a 2017 op-ed titled “Why Do So Many Indian Children Go Missing?”, reporter Sonia Faleiro wrote, “Several factors account for the disappearances, but perhaps none more so than destitution. At least half of India’s minors are said to live in acute poverty. Looking for a missing child requires time, manpower and resources, and the police force in India is short on all of those.” There are varied estimates about the number of children who go missing in India every year, but any figure in the range is astounding.
As Bala Chauhan reported in 2018, “The truth behind missing children and childhood in India is buried in child trafficking, child sex tourism, pornography, child labour intensive industries such as bangle making, beedi rolling, brick kiln, which largely employs bonded child labour.”
This reality forms the premise of Deepa Anaparra’s debut novel, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line. Children begin to disappear from a Delhi slum, and the police have few leads. As his classmates and neighbours vanish, one child named Jai believes his time watching crime shows on television has prepared him to solve a case the police can’t. The novel alternates between Jai’s narration, the final moments of the missing children before they vanish, and a chorus of voices from the local community...
