Operation Vatsalya fails to bring smile on waiting parents' faces

Alappuzha: Even after the launch of Operation Vatsalya to track missing or abandoned children, the number of untracked children in the state is alarming. As per the Track Child 2.0' portlet, the whereabouts of 384 of 748 children went missing last year remain untraced.  The portlet opened in 2015 gives information from the Juvenile Justice Board, child welfare committees and police stations. The total cases of missing children registered with portlet are 2187, out of which they could trace 1414.      

District child protection officer Sabu Joseph said there are two projects to track them now - Vatsalya under the social justice department and Smile of the Union home ministry. "But the number of untraced children is increasing due to the absence of periodical follow-up of their operations," he said. The Operation Smile got momentum after the Supreme Court on April 17, 2015, slammed the Centre for laxity in dealing with the issue and expressed concern over the sorry state of affairs.  

The social justice bench comprising Justices Madan B. Lokur and Uday Lalit had slapped a penalty of Rs 50,000 on the Union ministry of women and child development for not filing a proper affidavit giving the status of missing children in all states. Zubair, a child rights activist, says neither Smile nor Vatsalya is currently active in the state carrying out regular inspections. The Operation Smile is functioning under a deputy superintendent of police attached to crime records bureau in every district. "But it lacks accuracy,” he says.