Child tagging to help lost kids reunite with family

Crowds are infamous for kids separating from their parents and the issue has been the theme of many Indian movies. To end this problem, two young IAS officers here have come up with a smart solution of 'child tagging' to end this problem.

Gandham Chandrudu, Joint Collector of Krishna district, and G Srujana, Sub-Collector of Vijayawada, came out with this simple but realistic solution which is now being effectively used during the ongoing Krishna Pushkaram.

Ever since the 12-day river festival started on August 12, at least 20 children got separated from their parents at different bathing ghats in Vijayawada but, thanks to the 'Child Tagging' initiative, they got reunited in no time.

"The maximum we took was about 30 minutes to reunite a lost child with the parents. All it takes is just a mobile number," Chandrudu said. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, impressed by the new initiative, has lavished praise saying the Krishna Pushkaram is the ‘first child-friendly mela’ in the country.

NCPCR member Roopa Kapoor visited Vijayawada during the river festival and studied how the Child Tagging worked. A tamper-proof wrist band is tied to every child before he--she ventures into a bathing ghat with parents or kin. “Basically the parents' mobile number or any other contact number is written on the tag using indelible ink. It is fed into a special mobile and Internet application and whenever a child is found lost, the parents are contacted using the mobile number," Chandrudu told PTI.

At Durga ghat, the main venue of Krishna Pushkaram in Vijayawada that teems with thousands of pilgrims at any moment, a ten-year-old mute girl Teja from West Godavari district got separated from her parents. Luckily the volunteers on duty at the ghat found her wandering and immediately called her father on the mobile number. "In ten minutes of our call, Teja was reunited with her parents," the Joint Collector said.