New Delhi: More than 13.13 lakh girls and women went missing in the country in three years between 2019 and 2021 and most of them were from Madhya Pradesh, as per government data.In 2021, 375,058 women above the age of 18 were reported missing across the country, and this included at least 90,113 girls below the age of 18.According to Union home ministry data tabled in Parliament last week, 10,61,648 women above 18 years of age and 2,51,430 girls who were minors went missing between 2019 and 2021 across the country.The data has been compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).In Madhya Pradesh, 1,60,180 women and 38,234 girls went missing between 2019 and 2021, according to the data provided to Parliament.In Maharashtra, which records the second-highest numbers of missing women and girls, 1,78,400 women and 13,033 girls went missing in the period under review.In Odisha, 70,222 women and 16,649 girls went missing in the three years.Among the Union Territories, Delhi recorded the highest number of missing girls and women. In Delhi, 61,054 women and 22,919 girls went missing between 2019 and 2021. In the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, 8,617 women and 1,148 girls went missing in the same period.The government also told Parliament that it has taken “a number of initiatives for the safety of women across the country,” which include the enactment of The Criminal Law (Amendment), Act, 2018, for effective deterrence against sexual offences. The law focusses on punishment of the guilty, and prescribes even more stringent penal provisions, including death penalty, for the rape of girls below the age of 12 years, than before.The home ministry also said it had launched the National Database on Sexual Offenders on September 20, 2018, to facilitate the investigation and tracking of sexual offenders across the country by law enforcement agencies.The ministry in a press release said, “It is the responsibility of respective state governments to maintain law and order, including investigation and prosecution of crimes against women.”Safety of women has been an issue that BJP governments have increasingly been on the back-foot about, especially given the slogan ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’. The recent reports of rampant sexual violence in Manipur, with the BJP chief minister saying “100s of such incidents” are there, as well as what critics term the protection afforded to BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh who heads the WFI, despite a prolonged stir by women wrestlers and serious charges of sexual molestation, have only been some of the recent examples of pressure on the Union government and BJP state governments.