Madhya Pradesh: 250 'missing' children traced and reunited with families

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh police along with other government departments officials have traced 250 children working at different places here and reunited them with their families under a drive "Smile" which was run from January 1 to January 31.

"We identified 250 children, who had mainly run away from their families, working at different places and putting up at stations, bus stands and other places in the district and reunited them their families. We have traced 5 more children and are making efforts to identify and contact their parents to unite them, "Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Bhopal Range, Sriniwas Verma told reporters here.

He said that special teams were formed that traced children. The teams searched different public places, Verma added.

The DIG said that majority of these children have left their places over trivial issues - like scoldings. Some of them were found to be hooked to drugs and didn't want to return home, he added.

Verma said that some children from West Bengal, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh who had run away from their families were found working.

"Their families were contacted after which they were reunited with their love ones," he added. In many cases, he said that the parents of the children had registered cases of their missing kids with police.

State police action has come after the Supreme Court last year directed the states to find out of the missing children, especially of the poor and chided MP for its apathy in dealing with this issue.