79 child beggars rescued under project Muskan

Titled Muskan 3, the operation began on July 1 and will go on till the month-end. A special team from each police station, comprising inspectors and sub-inspectors under the supervision of Assistant Commissioners was formed for the operation and, till date, 79 children have been rescued. Most of the rescue operation was carried out by women police. 

On Wednesday alone, 25 children were rescued and admitted in juvenile homes in a special drive, in which higher officials visited the spots in person. Muskan means smile and the operation has been so named in order to bring the smile back on street children’s faces. This is the third such operation being conducted. 

While two children were rescued in Adyar police station limit, three more were rescued in Ashok Nagar. Inspector Durgadevi, who was part of the rescue team in Ashok Nagar, said they approached the children in plain clothes in order to not scare  them. “Even then, some children identified us and ran away,” she said. While those children who were found hawking on the roads were rescued, she also found some children bunking school and roaming around on the roads; she sent them back home to their parents. 

District Child Protection Officer Siva Jayakumar, who was also part of the operation, said that only two of the children rescued are from Tamil Nadu, and most of the others were from Andhra Pradesh. “The women, along with children come to Chennai in search of their husbands and eventually settle in some corner here. So, the screening should be made more strict on border areas to prevent such intrusion,” he said. 

Though no arrests have been made this time, the kin of the children too have been sent to homes with a warning, said a top police official. “It is not wise to separate the child from the guardian, so we have kept them together and will observe them,” the official added. 

At the end of the operation, the identity of the rescued children will be compared with that of missing children and if identities matched, they will be handed over to the parents. Durgadevi said that even after July 31, people can call 1098 to report about street children.