Lost children are back home and so are smiles

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 7

The Haryana Police launched Operation Muskaan on July 1 to find children, who had gone missing, and unite them with their parents. The police have got an encouraging response and a large number of children have been rescued. Nevertheless, the police are having a tough time in taking many of these children back to their parents as children do not remember their identity.

A majority of the missing children claimed to be traced by special police teams are yet to be reunited with their families. These children have been handed over to the operators of shelter homes. The Tribune takes stock from several districts.

Rohtak

The Rohtak range police authorities claim to have traced 270 children. As per the office of the Rohtak range IGP, 116 children were found in Sonepat district, 95 in Panipat, 45 in Rohtak and 14 in Jhajjar till Monday.

Of the 45 children, including 11 girls, found in Rohtak, 20 have been reunited with their families, while the remaining are lodged at shelter homes. The nodal officer for the campaign said several young or mentally challenged children could not remember their addresses. In, 60 children have handed over to their families in Sonepat district, while some children have been sent to Bal Vikas Grah.

Faridabad

In Faridabad, the police have found 54 children, including 15 girls, up to the age of 15. Since 2010, 92 children have been reported missing in the district.

Jind

As for the Jind police, they have recovered 43 minor children. Among them are four girls in the age group of 5-14 years, the remaining are boys in the age group of 4-15 years. Most of the children are from Uttar Pardesh and Bihar.

Bhiwani

The police have rescued 22 minor children, including two girls, from factories and public places in a week. “Some children were sent by their parents to work in factories to earn money,” said a police officer.

Rewari

Three among the eight children recovered are girls and one of the girls has been reunited with her family. The 6-year-old girl was weeping at a bus stand when a police team was searching for lost children. During counselling, she disclosed the names of members of her family. They were called to Rewari and the girl was handed over to them.

“Two boys found at a Rewari railway station and Konsivaas road have been reunited with their families. The remaining five children, including two girls, have been put up at home for destitutes — Aastha Kunj in Rewari and Aastha Kiran in Dhaaruhera. They were recovered from Nayiwala Chowk, Parasram Colony, Circular road and near Peer Baba ki Majaar,” said a nodal officer.

Yamunanagar

Khushi of the district’s Badhi Majra village had gone missing when she was alone at home on July 3. Her father, Shamim, had gone to work, while her mother, Salma, went outside the house for a while.

A team of Operation Muskan, comprising members of the police department, state crime branch, district child protection unit and child welfare committee, found the girl from near a petrol pump of Jagadhri on July 4 night. The team made efforts to trace the parents of the girl and succeed to reunite her with parents after a few hours at 2.30 pm.

Bholenath of Shahpur in Gonda district (UP) and Shambhu of Kocha Kasimpur in Gonda district were reunited with their families.

District Child Protection Officer Richa Budhiraja said, “The team of Operation Muskan has traced 43 children in the district. Of them, 10 children have been reunited with their parents.”

Karnal

Of the 97 children found in the district, eight have been handed over to their parents. The police are making efforts to trace the parents of the remaining 89 children. The police denied the involvement of a gang of human trafficking in cases of traced children. They have uploaded the details of all 97 children on several websites, resulting in the tracing the parents of eight children.

Panipat

The police have recovered 95 children from the district and, out of them, 17 have been handed over to their parents.

Sirsa

The police in Sirsa have reunited four children with their parents. Among the four children are Abhishak (3) who went missing from his home in a slum area at Kalanwali when his parents had gone to work. Sarabjit Kaur (14) from Matdadu village was found in Dabwali, while Kajal (7) from Kirti Nagar in Sirsa was found from the town. They, too, were reunited with their parents. A police party is on its way to Patiala to reunite Rahul with his family, while another team will go to Kaithal and Delhi to take Mahiya and Sonu to their homes, respectively.

Fatehabad

In Fatehabad, the police have found Badal (15) from Papiha park, Yash (15) from a bus stand, Neeraj Kumar (16) from Model Town and Rahul (10) from Gaushala, Tohana. All of them were reunited with their families. Bimla Devi of Uttar Pradesh was relieved after finding her son Ram Murat (15), who went missing on July 3 from Pipli Chowk.

At the Child Welfare Committee’s office in Mini-Secretariat, Devi said: “Her son came to Kurukshetra with his brother-in-law about 10 days ago. In July 3, I was informed my son had gone missing. I am happy to see my son again.” They would return to Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.

Kurukshetra

So far, 33 children, including 10 girls, have been recovered from the district. Eight of them have been handed over to their families.

Ambala

The authorities have tracked 164 children in the district and reunited nearly 105 of them with their parents. They were found at railway stations, bus stands and hospitals. Some were found working at dhabas and other commercial establishments.

Gurgaon

In first four days of Operation Muskan, more than 51 children have been traced. Of these, 11 have been united with their families and more than 20 have been sent to shelter homes. The 24 special teams formed by the police have been visiting malls, light points, temples, markets and roadside eateries to search for children. Each child is being questioned about his whereabouts and then parents and guardians are contacted to verify the details.