Mobiles blamed for disappearance of women

The state authorities in Kerala are blaming mobile phones for the disappearance of young women, minor girls and boys. The number of cases has been alarmingly high in the past couple of years. The statistics at the State Crime Record Bureau paints a shocking picture of the scenario. According to the bureau's estimate as many as 2,236 women went missing in 2011 as against 121 in 2001. The number shot up 18 times in the past decade. About 50 per cent of them are housewives. The number of missing girls during this period jumped from 47 to 454 and the number of missing boys grew five-fold from 71 to 350. Investigations revealed that several are falling into traps set by racketeers. The probe also proved that almost all the cases involving missing people can be traced to cybercrime, said a top police official. Kerala is one of the states where cellphone density is the highest in the country. While the population of the state is 35 million plus, the number of cellphones currently in use is 25 million. Data provided by cyberpolice show that 90 per cent of the people aged above 16 possess cellphones. Almost 30 per cent of these people have more than one cellphone and about 40 per cent own more than one SIM card. A lot of girls were falling for traps laid by anonymous texters and callers. Even housewives fall for these traps, said a senior officer in the cyberpolice department. Usually family problems cause adult women to fall prey to anonymous callers. These cases are reported once the worst happens, he said.