Anti-trafficking cell needed in all districts to help parents find their lost children
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Chennai: In just a month's time the TN police, in a coordinated and sustained effort, managed to trace and reunite over 1,000 lost kids with their parents. “Operation Muskaan was done just for a month. Unless we have anti-trafficking cell in every district dedicated to track lost children and prevent human trafficking we can't bring smiles on the faces of parents who run from pillar to post looking for their lost children,” noted a senior police official.
He had a reason to say that because he had seen the smiles and gratitude on the faces of children and parents throughout the month when so many of them were reunited. In Tamil Nadu, according to available government data, on an average over 1,800 children go missing every year. And only half of them are traced. The other 50 per cent of them are gone forever.
Statistics from Operation Muskaan is really encouraging. From the existing complaints of 932 missing children till July, 424 kids were traced and reunited with their families. Apart from that, during the month, 1,066 children were traced from public places during the operation. Of them, 661 were reunited with the parents while the rest 405 were sent to various children homes.
“It was a sustained effort from all agencies. We just coordinated it,” said Mr Mahesh Kumar Agarwal, inspector general of police, when asked about the anti-trafficking cell’s contribution. Being a special drive, police teams were deployed in all districts to collect details of all children in homes, jails and streets.
“Missing complaints were matched with the available children. There were kids from Chattisgarh, Jharkand and Kerala. We managed to send them back home. Children in their teens just take off from home after picking up fights with parents but after getting down from the train they don’t know what to do. At that time they will be very vulnerable. We managed to send home many such girls and boys before they fall into wrong hands,” noted Raja Srinivasan, DSP, anti-trafficking cell, CB-CID. If a designated team of ATC with all powers of a police station is constituted in all districts, the police can bring more smiles to people’s faces, an officer said.
“Muskaan was an exception when police at all districts cooperated because it was monitored from the top. We can’t expect such dedication in the coming months unless there are special cells in every district,” he added.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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