Hyderabad: Over 2,400 kids — streetkids, missing children, child labour and orphans — have been rescued from across Telangana during the “Operation Muskaan” programme. With nearly 580 children rescued in just a month, Khammam stood first across the state of Telangana. Hyderabad stood next with over 530 children rescued, followed by Medak with nearly 400 kids.
Operation Muskaan was a month-long programme jointly carried out by police, departments of labour, revenue, women and child welfare amongst others.
Nearly 1,630 of the rescued children have been reunited with their families by the child welfare committee following counselling of parents. “It will take 10 to 15 days to reunite around 190 of the rescued kids who are from Bihar, UP and Jharkhand,” regional joint director department of women development and child welfare K. Rajya Lakshmi said.
Most of the rescued kids were boys. The women and child department aims to keep an eye on drop-outs in schools. “Out of 2,474 rescued kids, only 30 were girl children, which shows that more boys are being trafficked for child labour,” Ms Lakshmi said.
Members of Child Welfare Committee, study the status of the family and other criteria before sending the child back to their family.
“Some of the kids couldn’t be sent because of some problem back home. We will encourage sponsoring of their education by good Samaritans and NGOs. CWC will decide on the same,” Ms Lakshmi said.
“Eleven out of the 531 rescued from Hyderabad are orphans and thus Don Bosco home of Hyderabad has been given the responsibility to take care of them,” said Imtiyaz of District Child Protection Unit, Hyderabad.
“Operation Muskaan” has been completed for now, but the DCPUs will be endowed with the responsibility to monitor the progress of the kids who have been reunited.
