HYDERABAD: Over 3,000 kids across Telangana were rescued from child labour through Operation Smile-X, a month-long operation conducted to trace and rescue missing and trafficked children. Of these 3,000 kids, 719 children were rescued by the Cyberabad police teams alone.
While most of the children were rescued from child labour, the police were also able to trace and rescue seven children who were reported ‘missing’. The teams rescued young kids who went missing from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Warangal and Mahabubabad in Telangana, on separate occasions.
With 676 police personnel focusing on the operation, the police formed 120 teams of five cops (one sub-inspector and four constables, including a woman officer) to rescue children from railway stations, bus stops, traffic junctions, mechanic shops, brick kilns, tea stalls among other places.
The police worked in coordination with the Women Development and Child Welfare Department, Labour, Health, Child Welfare Committees (CWC), District Child Protection Units and NGOs to identify ‘black spots’ where most of the children were found in vulnerable conditions. The cops also used applications like Telangana Police, DARPAN and TrackChild portal.