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Haryana police help reunite over 12,000 missing children, adults in 2022
The DGP said that police teams visit public places like bus stand, railway station, and religious places, besides shelter homes to search for children who may have separated from their parents
: Haryana Police traced and reunited 12,616 missing children and adults, including 7,777 females, in 2022, director general of police (DGP) PK Agrawal said, attributing this “achievement” to police teams’ dedication and initiatives beyond their call of duties.
“Police have also tracked and rescued 886 child beggars and 1,372 child labourers who were found doing menial jobs for livelihood,” the DGP said in a statement.
While 11,424 missing children and persons were traced by the police’s field units, 1,192 missing children and persons were rescued and reunited by the Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTU) of the State Crime Branch between January and December 2022.
Referring to how Haryana police had been able to rescue and reunite such a large number of missing persons/children, the DGP said that police teams visit public places like bus stand, railway station, and religious places, besides shelter homes to search for children who may have separated from their parents.
“Our trained persons screen all the missing children and extract required information from them to reunite them with their families. These drives are mostly carried out in coordination with child welfare committees and other concerned departments. Our aim is to find missing children, who run away from home, are abducted or those gone missing and reunite them with their families. The drive will be intensified further,” said the DGP.
The DGP said that police provide care and protection to children and adults who went missing and could not be identified immediately. They are then put in shelter homes after being produced before the respective child welfare committees.
“This has also helped us in preventing child trafficking and saving innocent lives from begging, forced marriages, forced labour and employed as domestic workers,” the DGP said, urging people to stay vigilant and actively participate in community policing activities, including providing inputs in search of missing persons.
He said that mediums like social media can be really helpful in finding people. “It just takes us a few seconds to click and circulate the picture of the posters detailing missing persons. We never know if our single message would contribute in reuniting a missing person with his family,” he said.
