Over 30 000 children get lost in Russia annually

Chairman of the interregional public organization “Children are Russia's Future” Leonid Chekalin reported official statistics at a press-conference in Moscow: over 30 thousand of children and teenagers get lost every year. He said the police registered 190 instances of children trafficking over the past 5 years.

The Interior Ministry states there are from 500 thousand to 2.5 million of homeless children. Two thousand of children and teenagers commit suicides every year; 2 million of school age children are illiterate.
 
Statistically, there were 41 thousand of criminal groups consisting of children and youth in Russia two years ago. Leonid Chekalin adds the showing is unfortunately twice as much as the number of scout organizations. 

President of the Russian Education Fund Sergey Komkov spoke at the press-conference and complained that financing of fighting homelessness will be curtailed by 1.7 million rubles in 2005 (15 or 20 per cent taking inflation into consideration). Sergey Komkov says today the police are reluctant to fight homelessness because policemen often attribute unsolved crimes to homeless children.

The Fund chairman states the homelessness problem may entail lamentable consequences if not settled within the nearest 2-3 years. Indeed, “huge uncontrolled lumpen mass of criminals may be actually dangerous for any political system,” Sergey Komkov says.