Nation-wide drive to trace missing kids from Jan 1

Encouraged by the success of two such initiatives earlier this year, a fresh campaign to reunite missing children with their families and guardians will be launched across the country on New Year’s day.

‘Operation Smile-II’ will run from January 1 to January 31, 2016, with the Home Ministry having decided to come up with the initiative following the success of two similar programmes earlier this year when 9,146 children were rescued and rehabilitated under ‘Operation Smile’ with a further 1,972 children recovered under ‘Operation Muskan’.

“It is felt that a similar campaign, ‘Operation Smile-II’, from January 1 to January 31, 2016, be rolled out throughout the country as a follow up to the earlier campaigns,” Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said in a letter to chief secretaries of all the states.