Following instructions from Director General of Police Gautam Sawang, the district and the city police along with Integrated Child Development Society (ICDS) and Child Welfare Committee (CWC) rescued 179 children by conducting raids at several places as part Operation Muskaan. The rescued children, include 60 girls. In the view of COVID-19, the police distributed masks and sanitisers to the children who were found begging or engaged in daily labour.
Under the supervision of Police Commissioner Manish Kumar Sinha, about 200 police personnel from all the police stations were formed in to 66 teams and took part in the operation. The teams have rescued 101 children, including 32 girls. The rescued children were provided breakfast, masks, sanitisers and produced before CWC.
The children were handed over to parents after counselling. Child Linea and Society for Education for Environmental Development Society (SEEDS) teams assisted the police teams.
Special teams formed by Superintendent of Police (Visakhapatnam Rural) B. Krishna Rao conducted raids at hotels, dhabhas, small scale industries, bus stands, railway stations and other public places. The police teams rescued 78 children, including 28 girls, aged from five to 15 years. Six children have been identified as natives of Odisha and Bihar. The police conducted counselling for parents of 65 children. Thirteen orphans were sent to Child Home.
