KOZHIKODE: A nine member team from Odisha, comprising women and child development department and police officials is in Kerala to trace and repatriate children from the eastern state. Their programme, Operation Muskan has this time so far located two, a 17-year old boy in Thiruvananthapuram and a girl in Kannur who is also a sexual abuse survivor. Kishore Martha, a legal probation officer from Bhubaneswar, said last year they had repatriated 18 children from Kerala. “Most of them are trafficked for child labour. A few inadvertently reach here by boarding a wrong train or leave home on minor issues,” he told DC.
“In the last two years, close to 500 children from other states were repatriated from Kerala. But, the majority of them are from Jharkhand-Assam belt,” said Thiruvananthapuram district child protection officer Subair K.K. Most of the children fall under the category of children in need of care and protection (CNCP). Those who fall under the child in conflict with law (CCL) group have to be produced before the child welfare committee and fulfil procedures before repatriation. According to Mr Martha, the project had repatriated 981 kids in 2015, while in 2016, the figure rose to 2,610, out of this at least 193 children rescued from outside Odisha.
