Muskaan XII: 6,307 kids, police say
Telangana Police say Operation Muskaan-XII rescued 6,307 children statewide. The month-long MHA-driven drive traces missing kids and pulls child labourers out of work; the full breakup and outcomes aren’t published yet.
The operation’s headline figure has been released; the detailed breakup and follow-up outcomes are awaited.
Telangana CID DG Charu Sinha said police teams rescued 6,307 children across the state during Operation Muskaan-XII, a month-long campaign that ran this monsoon to trace missing children and remove kids from labour and exploitation. The figure, carried in a report citing her August 1 statement, lists 5,892 boys and 415 girls, with 3,447 from Telangana and 2,860 from other states and Nepal. According to that report, 124 sub-divisional teams with 620 personnel checked railway stations, bus stands, temples, brick kilns, mechanic shops and tea stalls.
Operation Muskaan/Smile is a Ministry of Home Affairs initiative that Telangana Police run every July, aimed at tracing missing children, rescuing child and bonded labourers and reuniting children with families or placing them in care, the Women Safety Wing says. A June launch note set Muskaan-XII for June 24–July 31 with coordination across Anti-Human Trafficking Units and child-welfare bodies. Separate reports during July show Hyderabad units tracing individual missing children under the drive.
What isn’t on the record yet: a district-wise table, category-wise breakup, outcomes after rescue, or the source document behind 6,307. Telangana Police have the numbers; publishing the sheet would help more than a slogan — especially while the BJP-led Centre loves a scheme name and the Congress is busy elsewhere explaining basics like child labour to its own states. The children need the follow-through, not the photo-op.