Ministries join hands to locate missing kids

In an effort to locate missing children in the country, the Ministry of Women and Child Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Railways in May this year and also launched a web portal for the same. Millennium Post had reported this story titled ‘Railways help sought on missing children: Maneka’, this year in March 14 edition. Talking to Millennium Post for this story the minister had said, “We are working with the Railway Ministry for the initiative and this is perhaps for the first time since independence (after railways <g data-gr-id="23">was</g> set up) that such a step has been taken. We discovered that the 5 lakh missing children in our country could be divided into – runaway children and missing children.”

Giving information regarding the MoU which the two ministries have signed, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, “The Ministry of Women and Child Development has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Railways on May 19, to enhance association and co-operation in the implementation of jointly prepared Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and to ensure the care, protection, security, well- being of run-away, unaccompanied and trafficked children who come in contact with the railways.”

“The Ministry has also decided to set up Child Help Desks/Kiosks on the platforms of 20 major stations, initially with the help of Ministry of Railways. These help desks will assist Child Help Groups comprising of Station Superintendent/Station Master, the <g data-gr-id="22">SHO(GRP),Inspector(RPF)</g> and SSE(works) for rescue and rehabilitation of children in difficult circumstances,” the minister added.

She also informed the Upper House that the Ministry of Women and Child Development, with the assistance <g data-gr-id="20">form</g> Department of Electronics and Information Technology, has launched a web portal Khoya-Paya on June 2 for reporting and searching of missing children. “The web portal ‘Khoya-Paya’ will have information of missing and sighted children. So far approximately 2700 users have registered on the portal and around 1500 have downloaded mobile application for usage through their mobile phones. Around 1500 cases of missing/sighted children have been reported and 140 cases of missing children have been closed on the portal,” she said.