Over 17 Lakh Women Went Missing Under PM Narendra Modi’s Rule? A Fact-Check
As per the official NCRB data, 2,31,143 females remained untraced till 2022.
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A post is doing the rounds on social media platforms claiming that around 17.49 lakh women have gone missing in the country in the past 11 years, since Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office.
Quoting the number, an X (formerly Twitter) premium user named '@BhavikaKapoor5' said that the government has not taken any action or launched any investigation.
What are the facts?: As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data available from 2016 to 2022, the total number of missing females (including girls and women) was 16,15,797.
However, it should be noted that the majority of the females were soon traced.
As per the 2022 data, 2,31,143 women, who had gone missing, remain untraced.
How did we find that out?: We went through the official website of NCRB to verify the veracity of the viral post. It should be noted that the figures for missing persons is available from 2016 and the latest one is from 2022.
Team WebQoof compiled the data set for persons (gender-wise) who went missing during 2016-2022, which can be found in the chart below.
The total number of missing males for the said duration was around 8.62 lakh, while around 16.15 lakh females were reported to be missing.
However, it should be noted that a majority of these people were subsequently traced. This figure is missing in the viral post.
Figures in 2016-18: The NCRB data showed that around 1,74,021 females went missing during 2016. The table also included the number of females who had gone missing in previous years (before 2016), which was around 1,40,653.
In 2017, 1,88,382 females went missing which increased the number of total missing females to 3,60,951. It should be noted that 2,00,357 females were successfully traced in that year.
Towards the end of 2018, 1,74,833 females were untraced.
(Swipe right to view all screenshots.)
The data show people missing gender-wise in 2016.
The data show people missing gender-wise in 2017.
The data show people missing gender-wise in 2018.
The data show people missing gender-wise in 2019.
The data show people missing gender-wise in 2020.
The data show people missing gender-wise in 2021.
What were the figures in 2019-21?: Around 2,48,397 females went missing in 2019, out of which, 1,62,939 were traced in the same year. The untraced figure (including previous years) remained at 1,99,490 females.
The NCRB data showed that total 4,23,655 females were missing in 2020 (including previous years). In that year, a total of 2,24,043 females were traced.
Towards the end of 2021, the number of untraced women was 2,03,893.
(Swipe right to view all screenshots.)
The last available data: The data shared by NCRB in 2022 is the latest data available, which showed that a total of 4,97,393 females were missing as of that year.
The total number of females traced was 2,66,250. This meant that around 2,31,143 females remained untraced as of 2022.
The data show people missing gender-wise in 2022.
(Source: NCRB/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
Why is the claim misleading?: Team WebQoof found the viral claim to be misleading because it did not carry the proper context.
While it is true that over 16 lakh females went missing between 2016 and 2022, the claim missed mentioning that that the majority of them were traced.
As established earlier, the total number of missing women currently are 2.3 lakh, which includes women who went missing before 2015.
Conclusion: It is evident that the viral claim about the number of women missing from 2014 to 2025 lacks proper context and is misleading.
(Data sourced: NCRB: All India level, Gender and Age-group-wise Number of Persons Reported Missing and Traced [Dataset]. Dataful.)
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818 , or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)