Cyberabad Police rescued 1202 children from child labour, begging and other vulnerable situations during Operation Smile-XII conducted across the commissionerate between January 1 and January 31, 2026, officials said.

The operation was undertaken to trace missing children and rescue minors engaged in begging, rag picking, child labour and other exploitative conditions. Eleven teams were formed division-wise in the Cyberabad Commissionerate, each comprising a sub-inspector, three police constables and one woman police constable, along with personnel from the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit. The teams carried out inspections at industries, companies, shops and other establishments and conducted special drives targeting minor children involved in begging. Information relating to the rescued children was uploaded on the Darpan App.

Of the 1202 children rescued, 1161 were boys and 41 were girls. Among them, 1192 children were found engaged in child labour, five were rescued from begging, four were identified as street children and one case of illegal adoption was detected. State-wise data showed that 352 children belonged to Telangana, while 850 were from other states. Bihar accounted for 227 children, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 138, Andhra Pradesh with 80, Jharkhand with 67, Odisha with 59 and Rajasthan with 58. Karnataka and West Bengal accounted for 49 children each, Maharashtra for 31, Madhya Pradesh for 27, Chhattisgarh for 21, Nepal for 19 and Assam for 15, with smaller numbers from several other states.

After verification, 1179 children were handed over to their parents or guardians, while 23 were sent to shelter homes. Police registered 356 cases under various provisions relating to crimes against children, including the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, and the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016. In 115 missing children cases, photographs were uploaded on the Darpan App to assist identification and reunification.