Hyderabad: While the Supreme Court has given a direction to prepare a mechanism to trace missing children in the country by roping in the Nation Police Academy and Tata Institute of Social Science, experts suggest that maximum use of new technology like mobile applications, social networking sites, and other Websites can be one way to trace missing kids.

A special force within the police can also be created to deal with the missing cases.

Prof. Lakshmi Lingam, faculty from TISS Hyderabad, who has been working on children’s and women’s issues in Hyderabad, said “Using new technology to give maximum publicity to the identity of a missing kid can be effective. Identification process will also be easy when common people find the kid on the street or at other places,” she said.

Though there are online databases of missing persons in centre, state and city levels, it does not reach the common citizens. Experts say only special efforts to publicise the missing identities can solve this issue.

Meanwhile, TS police officials say they have started to trace missing kids with “Operation Smile”. The Crime Investigation Team has formed around 50 special teams to carry out the operation following the directives from the Union ministry of home affairs. The police is collaborating with various NGOs and child welfare departments.