Operation Muskaan, a special drive being taken by the police to trace the missing children in Andhra Pradesh, reunited many children who separated from their parents.
Some children, who were missing during journeys, kidnapped and those run away from homes due to poverty and disturbed family conditions, were stranded in the homes run by NGOs. Many of them were working as child labourers, bonded child labours in houses, garages, shops, restaurants and other establishments.
"Following the directions of the Supreme Court to prevent children from abuse and exploitation, the sixth phase of Operation Muskaan has been taken up. Police have been conducting raids on many establishments for the last three days,” said Director- General of Police (DGP) D. Gautam Sawang.
“We rescued 2,546 children, of which 703 were girls, and restored 2,378 children to their parents. COVID-19 tests were conducted for 701 rescued children, and 31 child labours of other States were relieved from the clutches of their owners. In the last four year, police rescued nearly 11,000 children under the Operation Muskaan,” the DGP told The Hindu on Friday.
Reunited
A nine-year-old boy, B. Srinivas, of Palakol of West Godavari district was rescued with the help of Women Development and Child Welfare (WD&CW), Police and ward mahila samrakshana karyadarsulu.
Following the directions of SP K. Narayan Naik and Narsapuram DSP K. Nageswara Rao, a team, led by SI J.V.N. Prasad, reunited a boy, Srinivas, with his mother B. Sri Lalitha and brother, Prabhakar, in a Child Care Institution, in Vijayawada on Friday, said Palakol Town CI Ch. Anjaneyulu.
The boy after seeing his mother hugged, kissed and broke out. I want to come back and stay with you, said Srinivas, who was studying fourth class.
“We traced the boy, who was missing four years ago, with much difficulty. This is the first such case we tracked after joining the job. The reunion of the mother and the boy gave immense satisfaction to us,” said Palakol ward mahila samrakshana karyadarsulu S. Jyothi and B. Jahnavi.
Krishna district Superintendent of Police M. Ravindranath said two siblings -- P. Kondababu and P. Pujitha -- who lost their parents, had stopped education due to poverty and had become labourers.
“I was moved on hearing the pathetic story of the siblings, who want to study, and decided to adopt them. We admitted them in a CCI in Machilipatnam. The two children thanked the DGP for taking up the drive under ‘Operation Muskaan’ and giving a fresh lease of lives for them,” the SP said.
