Bhubaneswar: Six more children were rescued on Monday in Operation Muskan-III, a dedicated campaign to trace missing children in and outside Odisha. The children were rescued with the help of Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU), Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP).
Earlier on Sunday, seven children, including five boys and two girls, were rescued with the help of Nayapalli and Capital police. They are currently lodged at two open shelters – Ruchika Social Service Organisation and Vishwa Jeevan Sangha – in the Capital city.
Similarly on July 15, six children, working as child labourers at Khandagiri Square, had been rescued by a joint team of the State Crime Branch and Commissionerate Police. They were later sent to an open shelter home at Jatni.
Total children rescued in the first phase of Operation Muskan-III till date from Bhubaneswar is 19 while as many as 489 children, 427 boys and 62 girls, were rescued across Odisha.
While the first phase will be carried out within Odisha the second phase will focus on rescuing and tracing missing children from Odisha in other parts of the country. The second phase will be launched from July 31.
It may be mentioned that eight special teams have been formed to trace, rescue and rehabilitate missing children under the operation which would continue till August.