“Operation Muskaan” Launched In Telangana To Trace Missing Children:- To trace missing and destitute children and to reunite them with their parents, the State Women and Child Welfare Department has started implementing “Operation Muskaan” from Monday, said KRS Lakshmi Devi, Joint Director, Department of Women Development and Child Welfare.

Launching the campaign in all the districts of Telangana, she said the campaign would be a continuation of Operation Smile organized in previous years. The campaign would continue till July 31. The main aim of the programme is to prevent child trafficking and rescue children from persons who tried to engage them in begging, human trafficking and other antisocial activities.

“The main aim of the operation is to rescue these children, produce them before the Child Welfare Committee and take a decision about reuniting them with their parents, provide education or send them to child welfare homes,” Lakshmi Devi said.

Before sending the child back to their family, the Members of Child Welfare Committee will study the status of the family and other criteria , she added.

Under the programme, specially trained police teams would screen all children residing in shelter homes, railway platforms, bus stands, roads and religious places. They would also extract required information from these children, she said.

Operation Muskaan is a month-long programme jointly carried out by the Police, the Departments of Labor, Revenue and Women and Child Welfare among others.

SUPRAJA