NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has found that most of the missing children are trafficked through trains. To stop this, the investigators started a programme called Operation Khoj. “It is a programme wherein the unattended railway children are rescued and rehabilitated with a proactive approach,” said Deputy Commission of Police Sanjay Bhatia. With an objective to rescue trafficked children and rehabilitate runaway children and prevent them from becoming victim of drug abuse, the police have rescued 2,961 children in last three years. In 2012, the police had rescued 1,030 children. In 2013, the total number of children rescued was 1,113 and in 2014, 755 were brought back home while only 63 have been found so far this year. “We face various difficulties while rehabilitating rescued children. There is lack of infrastructure, lack of finances, lack of sensitivity of other departments and support from family,” said Bhatia.
In a bid to trace and rehabilitate, the police have also started a new programme called Operation Milap. However, it is limited to children living in various children’s homes in Delhi and adjoining states—Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The Crime Branch of Delhi Police managed to rescue a total of 57 children under this programme in the last two months. “Our team checks each and every child in the children’s homes and makes all-out efforts to get any clue about their parents or home so that they can be restored properly,” said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police. The local police in all districts of Delhi are being asked to screen and document all the children residing in the shelter homes, railway platforms, bus stands, roads and religious places. “Their photographs will be taken by the concerned police officials and documentation will be undertaken to link them properly,” he said.
In the meantime, Union Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said that there are at least five to six lakh children across India who either use railways or arrive on railway stations, and are either runaway or abandoned or trafficked children and are in need of assistance.
The minister said the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Ministry of Railways have developed Special Operating Procedures to be implemented by the railways to ensure care and protection of such children in contact with the transport behemoth. The stations will also have child help desk, kiosk and booths with a telephone facility to call child helpline 1098.