Taking cognisance of a report published in The Pioneer on September 28, Director General of Police, Anand lal Banerjee, has directed all the district police chiefs to launch ‘Operation Smile’ in a concerted effort to search for the missing children.
The Pioneer had earlier reported how ‘Operation Smile’ launched by the Ghaziabad Police had borne positive results and brought smiles on the faces of 13 families by reuniting them with their missing children.
Pointing at the magnitude of the problem that the Ghaziabad cops’ drive had brought to fore, the DGP was requested to direct all the district police chiefs to launch a similar drive as it would be a boon for thousands of families that had ‘missing’ near and dear ones if serious attempt was made to search them. Since the report was published, the Ghaziabad cops have succeeded in searching 38 more missing children of various age groups, taking the number of ‘traced’ kids to 51.These children were found to be working in inhuman conditions in restaurants, dhabas, fruit vends, tea stalls and other such places. Ten of these children were working as child labourers and were produced before CWC, Ghaziabad. There are more than 127 children still missing from Ghaziabad.While issuing the directive to launch ‘Operation Smile’ in all the districts of the State, the DGP pointed out that the ‘missing’ children could be living in conditions similar to the kids traced out by the Ghaziabad cops.He said the operation of the Ghaziabad police was an eye-opener for the cops as it brought out the plight of the runaway and ‘missing’ children.
“The police should take a resolve to address this issue and bring smiles to thousands of faces,” he added. Banerjee said he felt the necessity of the drive after seeing the trauma of parents who keep coming to the police stations to enquire about their missing kids, and the cops do not spare sufficient time to recover the missing children,
The DSP said that like in Ghaziabad, where 38 teams were formed for the special drive and they went to major cities and other places in search of children, all district police chiefs should constitute teams chalk out strategy for the search operations. Besides, he said, the teams should share information with local non-governmental organisations and shelter homes about the children missing from the district to involve more persons in the search.