2018 year of reunion: 4,636 kids traced and reunited with their families
New Delhi: The year 2018 has brought smiles on the faces of 4,636 children who were traced and reunited with their families. The Delhi Police visited shelter homes, railway stations, bus stands under Operation Smile-II and Muskan-II.
Meanwhile, to check whether children are forced to beg on the streets of the city by some organised gang, the Crime Branch has conducted the survey at various intersections.
"The survey did not reveal the involvement of organised gang behind begging," police said.
According to Delhi Police data, the Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of Crime Branch rescued 691 children and restored under Operation Milap.
"11 kidnapped persons (seven minors) were recovered and restored with their respective families," said Delhi Police.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Joy Tirkey stated that in many cases there were very fewer clues as children did not able to reveal concerned addresses.
"In many cases, after having lots of interaction with children, they disclosed their village name then their family were traced and later, reunited," said DCP Joy Tirkey.
In many cases, the Crime Branch team visited different states' shelter home to trace other kids. In the year 2017, as many as 4,047 and in 2016, 5,059 kids were traced and reunited.
"Around 6,921 kids in 2016 and more than 6,000 children reported missing in 2017," the police data added.
The Delhi Police data further claimed that in 2017, as many as 15 girls including two minors rescued from GB Road and one accused arrested whereas last year, 12 girls rescued from the brothels.
"27 children were rescued and handed over to the concerned police stations in different complaints last year," Delhi Police annual report claimed.
The scheme 'Pehchaan' also continued last year and children from underprivileged sections photographed in order to maintain a data bank which could be used to trace the child in case he/she was ever reported missing.
As many as 1,89,979 kids have been photographed under this scheme so far.
The city police acquired a Facial Recognition System and integrated it with the missing children/persons and found children/person module of Zonal Integrated Network system (ZIPNET) to track the missing children from
Delhi.
"Some children were residents of far-away places in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh," police said.
Each child had a different story to tell. Some had been abandoned while others had left home after being scolded by their family members.
Most of the children boarded train without ticket and had reached railway stations in Delhi by default. Several kids belonged to the economically backward strata of society and some of them were school dropouts.
