Operation Smile-XI TG Police rescues 4,357 kids in anti-trafficking drive

Telangana Police, successfully carried out Operation Smile-XI, a month-long initiative aimed at tracing and rescuing missing and trafficked children. It was conducted between January 1 and January 31, 2025. The operation saw a total of 4,357 children rescued across the State.
The drive was executed by 126 sub-divisional police teams, comprising 706 police personnel, in coordination with multiple government departments and NGOs.  
The operation focused on identifying vulnerable pockets where children were at risk, including industrial units, brick kilns, railway stations, bus terminals, traffic junctions and other areas known for child labour and trafficking.
The Rachakonda police teams played a significant role, rescuing 912 children, while a substantial number of 1,793 children belonging to other states and even neighbouring countries like Nepal were also identified and secured.
Among the rescued were 68 streetchildren, 30 victims of forced begging and 3,940 children engaged in child labour, including those working in hazardous conditions in brick kilns and other industries.  
To strengthen their efforts, Telangana Police utilised the DARPAN facial recognition application, which helped trace 422 missing children by matching their photographs with police databases.
 During the operation, 36,691 children’s details were compared with missing persons’ records, leading to a remarkable tracing success rate of 89 per cent for missing persons and 91 per cent for children.
These figures are significantly higher than the national average of 53 per cent for adults and 63.3 per cent for children.
 A total of 1,038 FIRs were registered leading to the arrest of 1,040 accused persons with 1,602 children rescued in these cases.
Rehabilitation of rescued children was a priority, with 3,905 children reunited with their families while 452 were admitted to rescue homes for further care and protection. Additionally, 367 children were reintegrated into schools.