Few days back a two-year old child was found roaming aimlessly in the Jurda village of Chakradhar Nagar, Raigarh (Chhattisgarh). She was all alone. Sometimes she would sit near the water tank in the village and then suddenly she would stand and look around. Anyone could tell that she was separated from her parents and waiting for them to come.
It is generally difficult for a two-year old to remember the names of his or her parents or the address of her house. So, she could not ask anybody for help. Fortunately, at that time a police patrolling party passed through the village and they saw that girl near the water tank.
It didn’t require much calculation to discover that the girl was abandoned and needed to be reunited with her parents as soon as possible. The police team took the girl with them to the station and in no time a search operation was started for the parents.
Under the leadership of SP Raigarh Mr. Santosh Singh, and with the efforts of local police and people, the child was able to meet with her parents in just 24 hours. The case was not that easy because the child couldn’t cooperate with police due to her age but still they got success.
In conversation with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Singh explains how this became possible, as also an important role played by the social media for the breakthrough.
Whats App became the savior
After the girl was brought into the police station, all her medical checkups were done including the Covid-19 test. Mr. Singh said, “It was not easy to not make her feel comfortable in the police station. However, all the police personnel especially the Head Constable Satish Pathak took care of the child. He provided her food and talked with her so she didn’t feel scared of the place or people. After the tests the child was sent to Child Welfare Committee because at that time, we weren’t sure as how much time would it take to find her parents”.
As a first step, the picture of child along with relevant description was sent into all the major WhatsApp groups created by the Police Department.
SHO of Chakradhar Nagar Mr. Abhinav Kant said, “Our department has created Gram Raksha Samitis with 5-6 members in it. This helps in various crime and search operations. SP Sir has created a WhatsApp group also which is joined by the members of Panchayat, Raksha Samiti and various media persons. We circulated the photo in those groups and asked them to share it with their known ones. We also asked the police control room to share the description and picture of the child in all the local police stations.”
The Police officers didn’t sit out and wait. They simultaneously searched in the nearby areas where the child was found. The wait ended in few hours and they got a call which said they know child. The person who called was a neighbour of the child. He took his phone to the parents of the girl, they recognized their child and in no time they were in police station.
The whole operation to locate the girl’s parents was completed within 24 hours.
Financial help for the child
Mr. Singh said they had done several similar operations in the past, but this was different as the child was very small in age. He also mentioned that the parents pick trash and garbage for living and many times the child follow them wherever they go. On that day the mother didn’t have any idea that her daughter was following her, so she accidentally abandoned her in the village. The police officers are working towards providing financial helps to child through the government schemes which she is eligible for. Apart from this, Police will provide food and ration to her family as it was being provided to 35000 other people under the initiative by Mr. Singh.
