Haryana Police reunites 17,000 missing persons with their families in 2025

Chandigarh, Jan 22 (PTI) Over the past year, Haryana Police traced and connected more than 17,000 missing persons with their families, including a woman from Maharashtra who was reunited with her family after 25 years.

Durga Devi, who went missing when she was eight years old and grew up in a Bal Bhawan in Karnal, was finally reunited with her family due to the persistent efforts of the Yamunanagar Anti-Human Trafficking Unit.

Based on a faint childhood memory of a temple located between two railway crossings, police traced her family in Bhandara district of Maharashtra. As she recognised the temple during a video call, a wait of 25 long years came to an end as she reunited with her loved ones, the Haryana Police said in a statement on Thursday.

Durga is now married in Haryana.

In another case, thanks to the initiative of Panchkula Anti-Human Trafficking Unit, Amit, who grew up in a children’s home in Ghaziabad after he went missing at the age of seven and had only a few memories of his parents, Jaggu and Neeta, was reunited with his mother after 22 years, it said.

Of the 17,000 missing persons, Haryana Police reunited 13,529 adults with their families over the last year. These included 4,130 men and 9,399 women who had been separated from their homes due to various reasons.

“Giving utmost priority to the safety of children, the police also safely traced and reunited 3,122 minors with their parents, including 1,113 boys and 2,009 girls,” the police statement said.

The police also rehabilitated 184 children who had been forced into begging, and rescued 191 child labourers, freeing them from exploitation.

Director General of Police (DGP) Ajay Singhal has issued key directives to further strengthen efforts to trace missing persons by making the Special Cell of the Haryana Police State Crime Branch more effective.

The cell will prepare a centralised database of missing children and other individuals across the state and ensure their swift tracing through the use of modern technology.

The DGP has also directed that photographs of missing persons should be of high quality, Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) should be made more proactive, and clear accountability of officers involved in this mission must be fixed, the statement said.

He emphasised that the issue of missing persons remains one of the top priorities of the Haryana Government.

Across the state, 22 anti-human trafficking units working under the state crime branch carried out effective action against human trafficking and missing person cases.

In the past year, these units reunited 700 adults, including 277 men and 423 women. It also traced and connected 538 minors – 345 boys and 193 girls – with their families.

A major achievement of this campaign was rescuing children from forced begging and child labour. Under this effort, 1,473 children were safely rescued, while 2,313 child labourers were freed from exploitation and guided towards a better future. PTI SUN OZ OZ