Operation Smile: Cracking the puzzle of missing children

Whenever a child goes missing, general perception is that he is abducted by an organised child trafficking racket. If it is proved that he is not abducted and just missing because of some reason the perception suggests that he may be entrapped in some racket that's why it is difficult to trace him. But Ghaziabad police's unique effort, The Operation Smile, in which it rescued 227 children from different parts of country in just one month time period, throws light to some different and more important aspect of the horrible story of more then 1 lakh missing children per year in India.

Out of these 227 children more then 90% left their homes due to some pressure from parents, they just left their homes and later lost their way. Most of these children are from moderate economic background where child education and child care is a costly affair, says Dharmendra Singh SSP Ghaziabad, the man behind the operation. The operation shows that a great number of missing children are staying near railway stations and another big chunk of missing children are found with NGOs, shelter houses and in other recognized organisations. Police can easily trace these children form public places and NGOs can send them back to their parents but it is become virtually impossible as there is no proper coordination among NGOs, police of different states and districts and the agencies related to child rights.

The innovative approach
An innovative way of thinking broke this vicious circle. It all started on September 14, 2014. Ghaziabad Police conducted a rescue operation for child laborers and rescued 51 odd children from the life of child labor. Then Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Dharmendra Singh realized that if one such raid can liberate so many children of other cities from Ghaziabad, why it should not get rescued the missing children of Ghaziabad from other places. Police gathered the data of complaints regarding missing children in Ghaziabad and such 127 complaints were listed.

After getting the list, Police updated the photographs of the children and replaced poor quality photographs with high resolution photographs. 'This was the most important effort to start with' added DSP Ranvijay Singh, coordinator of the operation Smile. Then a complete brochure of missing children was published and circulated to all centers, NGOs, Commissions related to child rights through out the country so they can provide information about the child if they had or found the child. Dharmendra Singh said, 'Then we analyzed the past record of rescue of children. We found that most of the children missing from Ghaziabad were found from Delhi, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Hardwar and Deahradoon. second fact was- children were found from railway stations, near temple and mosques and from NGOs.' 38 dedicated teams with more then 150 policemen were deputed solely for tracing and rescue of children. These policemen used their smart phones, Facebook, What;s Up, video chating and all other popular information technology apps to speedily trace the child and to reunite him with his family. They identified the child with their high resolution photographs. Clicked another photo with their smart phone and What's Up it to their relatives for cross verification. In some cases they arranged a video chat between child and family with help of a cop at another end. And the end result was they were able to trace 80 children missing from Ghaziabad and 147 children from other districts and even other states. This was a result beyond imagination for the police, but the question remains why a child goes missing?

Father's anger made Mohit a ragpicker

Take the case of Mohit (13) of Vijaynagar, Ghaziabad. He was rescued from Jaipur Railway station by Ghaziabad police on October 10th this year. Mohit, now sitting with his family of three brothers and 2 sisters along with his mother, narrates the story - I left the home with one of my friends as I was afraid of the beating by my father. we left home and went to the railway station. Then we caught a train and next day we found ourselves in a city called Jaipur. My friend came back in few days but I couldn't manage it. A lady took me to her house and put me in to rag picking racket. Since then I started picking the used water bottles and other garbage from railway station and earning around Rs 500 per day but handing over the money to the lady. Mohit two times tried to come back to home but both times he had to go back from Ghaziabad railway station as he didn't recognize the address or route of his home. 'The lady renamed him as Javed and when we tried to rescue the child she made a scene. And even the child said that She is her Aunt. It was a complex situation,' remembers Sub Inspector Manik Chandra Varma of Ghaziabad Police. Rina Devi, mother of Mohit said 'The bond of 3 years developed a relation of affection in a homeless child, but later he recognized us.' Rina became mentally unstable after loosing her first child, and now her condition is better. But Rajkishor, the father, whose fear made the child flee from the home is still a drunkard and was not available for any communication.

Mohit is not a single such case. Ghaziabad police rescued more then 70 children from Old Delhi Railway station, Hanuman Mandir Old Delhi and Hazarat Nizamuddeen Railway station, all the public places. Most of these children were staying in open and were either in rag picking business. Some of these children became drug edict. But when police traced them and got some information from them about their parents and native place a window opened, says Ranvijay Singh, Circle Officer Ghaziabad police and coordinator of operation Smile. After getting the clue regarding their homes dedicated police teems traced their parents across Uttar Pradesh and in some cases other parts of the country. Most of the children were reunited to their families, but there are cases where either parents or the child is not willing to reunite with the family. Reasons from family side are mostly second marriage of mother or father, while from child's side poor living condition and beaten by parents at home.

Children trapped with NGOs
The missing children which are staying with recognized NGOs or Children centers are suffering from different trauma. Once a Child is found by an NGO it is believed that NGO will sooner or later send it back to his/her house. But Operation Smile found more then 30% of its missing children from these centers. In most of the cases children from Ghaziabad and even from some other parts of NCR are staying in NGOs at Delhi for years. A NGO in Mayur Vihar phase 1 area of Delhi found it difficult to reunite a child with his family in Ghaziabad at distance of hardly 10 KMs. Take the case of 8 year old girl Durgesh. Some 4 years back Durgesh was playing outside her house in Khoda colony of Ghaziabad and all of a sudden went far away. She lost the way to her house and get lost. Her parents filed a complaint. Since then no action was taken. But when Operation Smile started and Police took the high resolution photographs of the girl things began to change. Ghaziabad Police Head Constable Asagar Ali was searching for the girl in different centers in Delhi. On October 12 this year he went to Asharan Ovara center at New Sultanpuri Pilagadhi, Delhi 56. He showed the photograph of the girl to a lady in the center and she eventually said- yes, she is Durgesh. Rest of the story can be scean in the video clipping in Ali's smart phone- Durgesh Mother saw her from a distance among several children. She eventually recognized her and started crying. Then Durgesh allowed to come to the lady. Mother and daughter met after 4 years and hughed each other. Both of them were crying and scene was more emotional then the stereotype scene of Hindi movies of 1970s where families ought to reunite after 14 or 20 years. Ali still believes it was the best reward in her entire carrier.

Waiting for Smile 2
Children like Mohit or Durgesh are now reunited with their families but there are still more then 40 children who are waiting for their families. These children are rescuded by Ghaziabad police but their parents are still not traceble. These children are staying in different Child homes in Ghaziabad. SSP said, "If other states also take this issue on priority then it will be easy to get these children back to their parents. In that case we will have more enriched national data bank and greater coordination among police forces.'' He is right but the task is not easy. The harsh reality is this that National Crime Record Bureau, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and other agencies related to child rights even don't have data regarding missing children. Despite the Supreme Courts tough stand and Bachapan Bachao Andolan Head Kailash Satyarthi getting the Nobel for peace, Missing Children are lesser priority for police and administration. Ghaziabad Police changed its priority for just one month and more then 200 families got a smile on their face, which was lost forever. Can other districts replicate the same process as the technology is available? We have to wait for Smile 2 for greater smiles.