CUTTACK: It's not Bidyadhar Patri of Bhadrak district alone waiting for his father Anand Patri to be released from a Pakistan jail where the septuagenarian defence personnel has been lodged as a prisoner of war (PoW) since 1965.

Many unfortunate fathers like Rabindranath Mohanty of Choudwar and Bichitranand Dash of Salipur of the State are also spending the days with the hope that their missing sons, who were in Indian army would come back home one day.

Bidyadhar was in Wagah border earlier last week to receive his father who was expected to be released by the Pakistani authorities on December 22.

But he had to return empty-handed, as there was no news of his father's whereabouts.

The Union External Ministry, however, has assured that Bidyadhar's case would be taken up with Pakistan authorities again.

The Union Home Ministry is learnt to have taken up initiatives with Pakistan authorities for the repatriation of Choudwar youth Sukant and Salipur youth Shyamsundar. So also Chittaranjan Das, another youth from Ganjam district, is also believed to be languishing in Lahore central jail since 1999.

Untraced

Be it Sukanta, Shyamasundar or Chittaranjan, many youths from the state, particularly from the coastal districts, are missing after the super cyclone of 1999.

While many of them are still untraced as families give up hope after some days of reporting the matter to police, many other missing cases are going unreported. The families did not even register a case in the local police stations, senior police officials at the headquarters here said.

According to figures available from the police headquarters, more than 5000 persons are reported missing from the state during the last five years.

A majority of the missing persons are youths, including young girls.

All-time high

A maximum number of 783 persons were reported missing in 2004 while around 700 persons went missing on an average in 2002, 2003 and 2005.

The exact missing persons for the year 2006 has not yet been ascertained but sources indicated that the figure would be an all-time high this year.

While parents tantrums, failure in examinations and frustrations of not getting a job are said to be the key factors for which the children run away from home, social scientists believe nucleus and self-centered families, sibling rivalries and gender identification also contribute immensely for this cause.

Nucleus families

Psychiatrist Gopal Kar believes that most of the children who run away from home are from nucleus families, which have become order of the day for the social drift caused due to rapid industrialisation.

He said joint families always represent a complete society in which each child identifies himself or herself with one or more family members. In nucleus families this scope is limited, opines Kar.

Police officers culling probable causes for children running away from homes say, ``pressure of study, family disturbances, frustrations and love intrigue are also some other reasons that boost the number of missing persons in the State.''

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