Operation Milaap to reunite missing kids with parents

Police have launched a drive in which teams are visiting children’s homes in the city to interact with inmates to seek information that could help them reunite with their parents.

The Crime Branch’s Anti Human Trafficking Unit has formed five police teams to go about the drive known as Operation Milaap.

Police on Thursday said the teams will visit every child at the 96 children’s homes in Delhi under Delhi government’s Children Welfare Committee. 

“We will interact with each child separately and take them into confidence. We will cajole them, persuade them and adopt any loving method that will make the children remember and reveal details of their families,” said Dinesh Kumar Gupta, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime).

Police have also received “unconfirmed and unverified” reports of a few of these homes deliberately keeping children lodged inside for very long so that incoming funds do not dry up.

These allegations have not been proven yet and police will be on the lookout for any possibility of children being forcibly retained at these homes, said Ravindra Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) while addressing a press conference on Thursday.

Legal actions will be pursued and appropriate authorities will be approached for necessary action if visiting police teams find any compromise on the mandate given to these shelter homes, said Yadav.

He further said DCP Gupta had been part of a discussion at the Home Ministry in which he even suggested the cancellation of license of any children’s home if found compromised.

The police teams, meanwhile, will try to link together every bit of information they receive while interacting with the children. “We will be on the lookout for details such as the child’s address, name of parents, or address. But we will try to find clues even if they just describe a place. It will be a tedious job,” Gupta told Deccan Herald.

Meanwhile, local police stations have been asked to screen and document all the children residing in the shelter homes, railway platforms, bus stands, on the streets and outside religious places.

Their photographs and other details will be taken by the policemen and compiled. They will then be matched with the database of missing children available with police in a bid to reunite them with their parents.