97 children rescued as part of ‘Operation Muskan’ in Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam city police rescued 97 children as part of Operation Muskan held in the city on 4 January. In a joint operation between the police department and Juvenile Welfare Department, 97 children, including 85 boys and 12 girls, were rescued from different parts of the city by 84 police teams. The children were freed from labour jobs and begging.

89 of the rescued children were counselled and handed over to their parents while 8 children were sent to a juvenile home for shelter. District Probationary Officer Sri B.A.Satyanarayana, Sri P.Ramesh, Protection Officer-in-charge, Ms.Sulekha, Social Worker, Ms.Prameela, ORW (Out Reach Worker), Mr. David Raju, District Coordinator, and team members of Child Line were among those who took part in Operation Muskan held from 6 AM to 4 PM on Saturday in Visakhapatnam.

While 58 of the children belong to Andhra Pradesh, 39 hail from other states Bihar (9), Rajasthan (7), Uttar Pradesh (2), Telangana (8), Odisha (6), West Bengal (1), Karnataka (1), Chattisgarh (3), Jharkhand (1), and Madhya Pradesh (1).

In a similar drive held in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, around 330 missing and destitute children, including 90 girls, were rescued by the police. While some were reunited with their families, others were sent to rescue homes.

Operation Muskaan, also called Operation Smile, is an initiative launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to rescue and rehabilitate missing children.