India, March 16 -- It's a humid March afternoon, ideal for a restful siesta. But Shama, 40, has dropped her chores and is running frantically through the grimy lanes of Gaibi Nagar, Bhiwandi. She is drenched in sweat, her breathing heavy with panic, as she searches for her three-year-old daughter, who has suddenly vanished from the neighbourhood.

Shama's older daughter had taken her younger sibling to a shop to buy chocolates. After having their fill, they decided to play in a nearby ground, but in a blink of an eye, the toddler went missing. Realising her absence, she rushed home to inform her mother. Since then, Shama has been searching for her.

"I thought he took her," she told this reporter in a faint voice, still shaking.

A week a...