Month-long drive against child trafficking from July 1

A State-wide crackdown on child trafficking will commence from July 1, as part of Operation Muskaan-XI, a national initiative rolled out by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

The month-long drive aims to trace, rescue, and rehabilitate missing, trafficked, and exploited children across Telangana, said Additional Director General of Police, Women Safety Wing, Charu Sinha.

The Women Safety Wing has been designated as the nodal agency for this mission.

To implement this mission, 121 Sub-Divisional Police Teams comprising 706 police personnel have been deployed across various districts. These teams will work in tandem with key government departments such as Women and Child Welfare, Labour, Health, and District Child Protection units. In addition, child welfare committees and several NGOs have come on board to support the effort.

To streamline coordination, a State-level online convergence meeting was held at the CID office in Hyderabad on Friday. Several key stakeholders, including the Telangana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, State Legal Services Authority, Prahari Clubs, Public Health and Family Welfare Department, UNICEF, Divya Disha, My Choices Foundation, International Justice Mission, and AVA, took part in the meeting that was chaired by Ms. Charu Sinha. Officials from Special Juvenile Police Units and Anti-Human Trafficking Teams also joined the session virtually.

The discussions centred around tackling child labour, bonded labour, and child begging, with a strong emphasis on refining rescue protocols, streamlining inter-agency coordination, and reinforcing rehabilitation measures. The teams were also briefed on legal frameworks and trained in data handling through the Telangana State Child Protection and Welfare portal, which will serve as the central hub for monitoring and reporting rescues throughout the month.