On promise of out-of-turn promotions, cops trace 1,440 missing kids since early August

In sharp contrast, only 3,336 missing children were traced by the Delhi Police through entire year of 2019. In the first seven months of this year, too, before the incentives were announced, only 1,189 children had been traced, shows data released by the Delhi Police.

After the Delhi Police announced incentives, including out-of-turn promotions, to motivate its force to trace more number of children who have gone missing, a total of 1,440 kids were traced since early August -- a period which also saw another 1,222 children being reported missing.

Eish Singhal, the Delhi Police spokesperson, said a slew of efforts in a planned manner helped the police carry out the large number of trace and rescues of missing children. (File Photo. Representative image)

In sharp contrast, only 3,336 missing children were traced by the Delhi Police through entire year of 2019. In the first seven months of this year, too, before the incentives were announced, only 1,189 children had been traced, shows data released by the Delhi Police.

Eish Singhal, the Delhi Police spokesperson, said a slew of efforts in a planned manner helped the police carry out the large number of trace and rescues of missing children. On August 7, Delhi Police chief SN Shrivastava had issued an order asking each police station to constitute a special team to trace missing children.

“These children mostly belong to the lower strata of society. The detailed action plan included forming special teams in each police station and having the district deputy commissioners of police (DCPs) lead the exercise,” said Singhal.

For example, constables and head constables who traced 50 or more missing children in a 12-month period could become eligible for an out-of-turn promotion. The children rescued by them should have been 14 years of age or less and they should have rescued at least 15 children below the age of eight years.

Similarly, those who trace 15 children, at least five of them below the age of eight years, would be awarded the Asadharan Karta Puraskar, said Singhal.

Since this plan was put into action in August, the police said they have traced 1,440 children to date, a period during which another 1,222 children went missing. In 2019, a total of 5,412 children had been reported missing and 61.64% of them were traced. This year, so far, the number of missing children is 3,507 while the recovery rate is 74.96%, Singhal said.

While there were many stories of police walking the extra mile to reunite children with their parents, one stood out as it had transpired during the Covid-19 lockdown.

It so happened that the police came across a six-year-old physically challenged child in a shelter home in north-east Delhi. The police went about tracing the child’s journey to that shelter home and eventually got to know that be had been reported missing from nearby Bhajanpura in November 2017 after being separated from his parents for over two years.

“When we finally got to know of his parents, we found out that they had moved back to their village in Bihar. They were so impoverished that they didn’t have the money to even visit Delhi to be reunited with their child,” said Singhal.

The police offered to pay their travel expenses to Delhi.

But when the boy’s father reached Delhi, he got caught in the lockdown that came into effect on March 25.. “Until the lockdown was partially lifted by end-April, we paid for his stay here in Delhi. He was finally reunited with his son,” said the DCP.