Over 50,000 people reunited with families at Maha Kumbh, says UP govt

Mahakumbh: More than 50,000 people who were separated from their families amid the massive crowd of devotees at the 45-day Maha Kumbh were successfully reunited with their loved ones, the UP government said on Sunday.

According to a statement issued by the government, during the Maha Kumbh Mela, more than 66 crore devotees from every corner of the country and abroad took a holy dip in the Ganga and Sangam.

During this time, 54,357 people who were separated from their families were reunited. The number of women among those who got separated was higher.

This time, the state government had set up digital lost and found centres to quickly reunite the lost people with their families during Mahakumbh.

Through these centres, more than 35,000 devotees were reunited with their families during Mahakumbh.

During 'Amrit Snaan' -- 598 devotees on Makar Sankranti, 8,725 people during Mauni Amavasya, and 864 people on Basant Panchami were reunited with their families with the help of digital lost and found centres.

Apart from this, 24,896 people who were lost during other bathing festivals and normal days were also reunited with their families. In this way, 35,083 people were reunited with their families by the end of Maha Kumbh.

On the initiative of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, 10 digital lost and found centres were set up throughout the Maha Kumbh city, with state-of-the-art facilities like an AI-based face recognition system, machine learning, and multilingual support, the statement said.

On the other hand, non-governmental social organisations Bharat Seva Dal and Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Smriti Samiti also played an important role in reuniting lost people with their families.

According to Umesh Chandra Tiwari, director of the Bhool Bhatke camp of Bharat Seva Dal, by the end of Maha Kumbh, the camp had reunited 19,274 lost people with their families. Apart from this, all 18 children who got lost during the Maha Kumbh fair were also reunited with their families.