Mumbai: The state home department on Tuesday informed the legislative assembly that 93,940 women had gone missing from the state over the past two years, of whom 67,458 or 71.81% had been traced or had returned home. The number of minor girls who were reported missing during the same period was 23,429, of whom 18,770 or 80.11% had been traced, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also handles the home department, said in a written reply to the lower house.
The women and minor girls were rescued under Operation Muskaan, a nationwide initiative launched by the ministry of home affairs for rescue and rehabilitation of missing children.
According to the data presented in the assembly, 41,193 missing children were traced from across Maharashtra between 2015 and 2024. ‘
Of the 45,662 women who went missing in 2024, 30,877 had been traced, while out of 11,316 girls who went missing the same year, 8,475 had been found. In 2025, 48,278 women went missing while 36,581 were traced; and 12,113 minor girls went missing, of whom 10,295 were traced.
Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Raigad and Chhtrapati Sambhaji Nagar accounted for a bulk of the cases of missing children aged 15-18 years. At least 4,989 children went missing from these locations in 2024 and 2025, of which 4,813 had been traced, data from the home department showed.
“95% children aged 15-18 years who were reported missing have been traced in 2024 and 2025,” Fadnavis said in the written reply.
Under Operation Muskaan, missing cells had been set up in all units of the state police, and these cells had traced 5,066 missing women and 2,771 missing children during 13 special drives between July 2015 and December 2024, Fadnavis said in the written reply. The 14th drive under Operation Muskaan was undertaken between January 20 and February 20, in which 454 boys and 947 girls were traced until February 16, the chief minister said in response to questions raised by Mangesh Kudalkar, Prashant Thakur, Sameer Kunawar, Atul Bhatkhalkar and others.