Monday, 08 April 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The police enrolled 378 children into schools under a month- long drive Operation Mukti that ended on March 31. The anti human trafficking units (AHTUs) in all districts rescued 892 children with the help of other departments and agencies concerned. These children mainly included beggars, rag pickers and balloon sellers. Out of these 892 children, 507 are boys and 385 are girls. The police so far have enrolled 378 children in schools that include 225 boys and 153 girls. The process of enrolling the remaining children is ongoing, the officials said.
They informed that the police rescued maximum children from Haridwar, Dehradun and Nainital with 261, 121 and 114 children respectively. The least number of such children were found in Bageshwar, Uttarkashi and Rudraprayag with six, three and zero children respectively. The officials said that during this drive, the police found no active gang involved in forcefully making these children beg or work. However, the police did find six children forced into child labour who were later rescued. The police registered two cases against the employers and took action accordingly. Besides this, the police also registered two cases against eight adults involved in beggary, the officials added. They said that the main objective of the campaign was to effectively prevent beggary, child labour, and crimes against children and to make the public aware of not giving alms to children and motivate them to get an education and for their rehabilitation as per the rules.
The teams organised events under the drive in various public places like main junctions, marketplaces, cinema halls, bus stations, and railway stations besides schools and colleges. They informed that this operation was started in 2017 and since then, the police have rescued a total of 8,562 children from beggary out of which, 3,981 children have been enrolled in schools.
