Divya Cutinho
Daijiworld Media Network –Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Jun 15: It was an emotional scene at the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) office in Mangaluru when a missing boy was reunited with his family. The missing boy came face to face with his parents who came from Bengaluru with the help of Missing Child Bureau on June 8. The parents could not control their tears as they found their missing son after months of searching.
It was on May 9, a boy was found in Surathkal roaming suspiciously in the locality. The boy was first brought to Surathkal police station. The boy was said to be mentally unstable and was later taken to Child Welfare Committee(CWC) office.
The MCB co-coordinator Yogish then published the information about the boy in their website https://missingcitizens.org/.
The efforts of MCB co-coordinator in finding the identity of the boy succeeded when they found similar details published on MCB website of Bengaluru branch about a missing boy. Yogish then contacted the Begaluru MCB City co-coordinator Josephin Rani and after verifying the details they found out that it was the same boy who was found in Mangaluru.
During interaction with the boy, he had given contradictory details about his native place. He said that he came to Mangaluru to work in a milk diary and he was from Marathahalli.
The mother of missing boy said that they had lost hope on finding their son. "My son went missing in April 2018. I thank MCB co-coordinator for helping in reunite with our son. With your help we got our child back. We were tensed and depressed after he went missing. Even our neighbors were worried. Rumors regarding gangs involved in child trafficking in state which were being spread on social media scared us. God has saved us and we will remain thankful to MCB. We are extremely happy to see our son almost after a month."
Yogish said, "Children like Praneeth need special care and attention. Parents need to spend some time with their children at home by the end of day so that children don't feel isolated and open up about their problems with parents. We have asked them to write down all the information about him including his name, residential address, contact details of parents in a sheet of paper and keep it in his purse as it works as his identity proof in order to avoid these kinds of problems in future. We requested the parents to get their contact number tattooed on his hands so that when he goes missing he can be traced easily. Parents should also take care of children who remain at home when they go out for work. It's better to inform the neighbors and friends when children are left alone at home."
He further said that those who receive information about missing or found children in Dakshina Kannada district can contact the department.
“MCB needs co-operation from the police department to trace out the missing children in the district. If we get the FIR copies of missing children on time it would be helpful for us to trace the children as early as possible,” he said.
Missing Child Bureau district cell
C/O DCPU, 1st floor, DC office
State Bank
Mangaluru
Contact no: 8970301039
Missing Child Bureau Karnataka
Missing Child Bureau Karnataka is a project under Department of Women and Child Development. The primary goal of the bureau is providing effective solution to the problem of missing children in all the districts of Karnataka state and reduce the cases of missing children in the districts and developing a mechanism to deal with the problem and Establishing a System for collection, collation and sharing of information about missing and unaccompanied children and facilitating faster communication in order to identify, trace and repatriate them with their family by using effective Tools and Strategies.
The objective of the bureau is to establish structure and procedures for missing child search at the state and district level. The bureau needs to develop readily accessible and easy system to register all missing cases and unaccompanied children data and develop an easy search method, using the advanced technology and communication systems. It has to ensure linkages and arrive at a convergence with regard to the issue, information flow and tracing of missing children between the DWCD, Police, concerned Government departments and advocate in all level possible including research on relevant policies related to the unaccompanied children
To create awareness in various section of the people on MCB programme at regular basis. It also does support the police in its effort to search for the missing children and maintain the data of each child for follow up.