Delhi Police reunited 333 children with their families this year under ‘Operation Milap’

The children were reunited as part of the crime branch’s ‘Operation Milap’ – an initiative that began in 2014 and has helped over 4,300 children so far.

The Delhi Police’s crime branch has this year reunited 333 children with their families after they separated from their parents in other states and landed up in the national capital.

As per this drive, the police visit public places like railway stations and bus stands and institutions such as children’s homes to search for children who may have separated from their parents.((Photo: Gokul VS/Hindustan Times))

The children were reunited as part of the crime branch’s ‘Operation Milap’ – an initiative that began in 2014 and has helped over 4,300 children so far.

As per this drive, the police visit public places like railway stations and bus stands and institutions such as children’s homes to search for children who may have separated from their parents.

“Many of these children had separated accidentally while a few of them had run away from their homes. They either land up at the children’s home or are loitering at public places,” said Rajiv Ranjan, additional commissioner of police (crime branch).

As part of the procedure, the police interact with these children to match their details with the database of all kidnapped or missing children. The availability of a facial recognition system in the recent years has made the task easier, said Joy Tirkey, deputy commissioner of police (crime branch).

If the details still don’t match, the police persuade the children to either share the details of their home and families or recollect information that may help reunite them with their parents.

While all those 333 children belonged to other states, the crime branch on Monday said that this year they have also recovered 57 persons who were either kidnapped or had gone missing from Delhi.

Of these 57 people, 14 were minors and 37 were women, said the police. The Delhi Police released the figures on Monday after they made 15 of these recoveries in the last week alone.

The ‘Operation Milap’ is carried out by the crime branch’s ‘Anti Human Trafficking Unit’ (AHTU). Last year, the AHTU had reunited 708 children as part of this drive.