766 children traced in Rohtak region under Mission Muskan

The police claimed to have traced 766 children from Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonepat and Panipat districts under the Operation Muskan, aimed at bringing the abandoned children back to their families.

The police claimed to have traced 766 children from Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonepat and Panipat districts under the Operation Muskan, aimed at bringing the abandoned children back to their families.

Inspector general of police (Rohtak range) Shrikan Jadhav said that 375 children had been traced in Panipat, 165 in Sonepat, 120 in Jhajjar and 106 in Rohtak.

The police have managed to trace the parents of 566 children, but are facing problems in searching the parents of the remaining 200 children, who have been kept in the various shelter houses and orphanages of the region.

Interestingly, most of these 200 children, who are in the age group of 8 to 12, are not aware about their parents as they were abandoned when they were too small.

"We are facing problems in finding out parents of these children as they cannot tell anything about their parents. They don't even know their original names and their friends call them with names christened by them", said a police officer associated with Operation Muskan.

"We are making our best efforts to find out their parents and if we fail, they will have to stay in the orphanage, where they will get all the facilities like, education, food, clothes and shelter," he added.

According to some local residents, though families of the missing children are generally happy when they meet their missing children, in several cases wherein parents are forcing their children for begging, the former raise objections when the police try to wean them away from this social evil.