Campaign on missing children to begin in January

The Centre will launch from January 1 another month-long action to rescue and rehabilitate missing children and has sought whole-hearted participation of all states and union territories.

"Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi has written to chief secretaries of all states and union territories for wholehearted participation in Operation Smile-II from January 1, 2016," an official statement said on Monday.

Operation Smile-II is a follow-up on an earlier Operation Smile campaign launched in January 2015. Similarly, Operation Muskaan on missing children was launched in the country in July 2015.

"As many as 9,146 children under Operation Smile and 19,742 children under Operation Muskaan were rescued and rehabilitated," the statement said.

For motivating police in this endeavour, union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on October 7 awarded 44 police officials from different states for their commendable role during 'Operation Smile'.

During 'Operation Smile-II, all children residing in shelter homes, on railway platforms, roads/streets, at bus stands and religious places would be screened by trained police personnel.

Police personnel in every state would have to properly be trained before January 1, 2016, in the methodology to tactfully extract information from such children, the statement said.